How Discounting Impacts Your Profits?

A 10% discount can cut profits by 33% to 70%. A worked $100 example shows profit falling from $20 to $10, plus four smarter ways to run discounts.

Rahi Jain, Subscription LTV Specialist
Jun 8, 2024 · Updated Oct 7, 2026 · 2 min read

Table comparing profit at full price and 10% off: net margin falls from $20 to $10

Key takeaways

A 10% discount can cut a brand’s profits by 33% to 70%.
With $20 profit on every $100 of sales, a 10% discount halves profit to $10 and doubles the units needed for the same profit.
Discount smartly: tie discounts to a minimum purchase to lift AOV, or limit them to selected inventory.

By discounting 10% off, you might be giving half of your profits away.

Or you need to sell twice as much to make up for lost profit.

For most brands, a 10% discount can lower profits by 33% to 70%.

In this example, for $100 in revenue,

Marketing (30%) – $30
COD (COGs + Shipping + Payment) – $30
OpEx (20%) – $20

Net Profit – $20

Now with a 10% discount

Keeping everything the same, the net profit comes down to $10.

To generate profits of $10,000, we need to sell 1,000 units compared to 500 units.

As discounting directly eats up the revenue, keeping all the costs the same, it can seriously impact profits.

The only positive impact is the reduction of marketing costs, which is also nullified by an increase in OpEx.

Also, in this case, marketing costs need to go down by 33% to justify a 10% revenue loss, which doesn’t happen.

I am not against discounting.

Brands can really use discounting to increase their average order value and conversion rate.

The problem is not realizing the impact of it on the bottom line.

The solution is to run smart discounting.

Targeted offers for each customer segment
Discount on minimum purchase to increase AOV
Discount on selected inventory
Running short sales to create urgency

In short, to get all the benefits of discounting without getting burnt.

Most importantly, accounting for discounts and see their impact on the bottom line.

The power of 1%

It works the other way too. A 1% price rise can lift profit by up to 10%, according to pricing expert Hermann Simon.

Alan Miltz applies the same idea to seven levers. Move each one by 1%, or by one day:

Raise price by 1%.
Grow revenue by 1%.
Cut COGS by 1%.
Cut operating costs by 1%.
Collect receivables 1 day sooner.
Hold inventory 1 day less.
Pay suppliers 1 day later.

Each one is small. Done together every quarter, they change your profit and your cash flow.

About the author

Rahi Jain

Rahi Jain is a subscription LTV specialist who helps $1M to $10M DTC brands reduce subscription churn and maximize LTV on Recharge, Skio, Stay AI and Loop.