Maintained Markup Calculator
What survived the markdowns and the shrink.
Calculate maintained markup after markdowns and shrinkage, and the erosion between it and the initial markup you planned.
Maintained markup
41.7%
60.0% planned · 18.3 points lost
Maintained markup is the honest measure of a season: initial markup after every markdown, promotion and unit that walked out unpaid for. Fashion apparel commonly loses 10 to 20 points between the two.
How the Maintained Markup Calculator works
Initial markup is what you planned; maintained markup is what actually happened. The gap between them is the honest measure of a season — it absorbs every markdown taken, every unit that walked out unpaid for, and every promotion run to shift stock that was bought too deep.
Also known as: MMU calculator · maintained margin calculator
What actually survived
Maintained markup is initial markup after reality: markdowns taken, promotions run, and stock that walked out unpaid for. It is calculated against the retail actually realised rather than the ticket price, which is why it is always lower.
The gap between the two — the erosion, in percentage points — is the honest summary of a season. Fashion apparel commonly loses 10 to 20 points, and losing much more usually points at a buy that was too deep or a markdown cadence that started too late.
Shrink enters the same way, reducing realised retail without reducing cost. A two percent shrink rate sounds trivial and takes a full point or more off maintained markup at typical markups.
A worked example
Cost 20, ticket 50, so a 60% initial markup. An average markdown of 30% and shrink of 2% leaves realised retail of 50 × 0.7 × 0.98, which is 34.30. The margin is 14.30, or 41.7% of realised retail.
That is 18 points of erosion from the 60% planned. The season made money, but a third of the planned margin went, and the arithmetic points at where: the markdown line, not the shrink.
Where the answer misleads
An average markdown percentage hides the distribution. A season where most stock sold at full price and a small tail was cleared at 70% has the same average as one where everything sold at 30% off, and they are very different businesses. Look at sell-through at full price alongside this figure.
It also treats markdowns as a cost rather than a tool. Markdowns move stock and generate cash, and a season with zero markdowns is usually one that was bought too cautiously rather than one that was bought well.
Finally, maintained markup is backward-looking. It tells you what happened, not what to do — the value is in comparing it across seasons and categories to find where the buying is actually going wrong.
Not financial advice. Marketplace fees change, and they vary by country, plan and seller status. Every rate here is an editable default, not a quoted price, check the platform's current fee schedule before you price a product against it. This is not tax or business advice.
Frequently asked questions
What is maintained markup?
The margin achieved after markdowns and shrink, as a percentage of the retail actually realised. It is always lower than initial markup, and the size of the gap tells you how well the season was bought.
How is it different from initial markup?
Initial markup uses the ticket price; maintained markup uses what customers actually paid, net of markdowns, and accounts for stock that never sold at all. IMU is a plan, MMU is a result.
What is an acceptable erosion?
It varies by category, but fashion apparel commonly loses 10 to 20 points from IMU to MMU. Losing more than that usually means the buy was too deep, the price was too high, or the markdown cadence started too late.
How do I improve maintained markup?
Buy shallower on risky lines, mark down earlier and less deeply rather than later and more, and fix shrink at source. Raising the initial markup to cover expected markdowns tends to increase the markdowns instead.