How to price
Updated
On this page6
Supplements are priced per serving by customers and per unit by makers, and reconciling those two views is most of the pricing problem.
Cost per serving is the unit
Customers compare cost per serving across brands, not price per tub. A 30-serving tub at $40 and a 60-serving tub at $70 are readily compared and the second wins.
Which means servings per container is a pricing lever as much as a packaging one, and it is why the category drifts toward larger tubs despite the shelf-life reasons not to.
Where the money actually goes
Ingredients are a larger share here than in most craft categories, particularly where actives are involved, and a standardized botanical extract or a well-evidenced active can dominate the formula cost.
Packaging is still substantial: tub, lid, liner, induction seal, scoop, label, outer. And the tub is mostly air by volume, which makes shipping a real line rather than a rounding.
Testing is per formula
This is the cost structure specific to the category. Identity testing, potency assay, blend uniformity work and the records 21 CFR 111 requires are per formula and per batch rather than per unit.
Spread over one product selling steadily for years they are modest. Spread over a launch range of six, most of which will not survive, they are the largest line in the budget.
Which is the argument for launching narrow, and it is the arithmetic most brands do afterwards.
Setting it
Build true cost per unit including ingredients at yield, all packaging, fill labor, and an amortized share of per-formula testing over a realistic lifetime volume.
Then wholesale at roughly twice, retail at roughly twice that, and check the resulting cost per serving against comparable independent brands rather than against the cheapest thing on a marketplace.
And check viability at the wholesale number, because a growing brand sells increasingly at that price.



