How to price game top-ups and gift cards and work out your profit

The selling price in a top-up store is your true cost per unit plus a margin you choose, followed by a check that every discount you offer — a loyalty level, a coupon, a special price for one customer — comes out of that margin and not out of your cost. There is no generally correct price for game top-ups and gift cards, because your cost, your source and your currency are yours alone. So this guide suggests no figure at all: it gives you the method, and the decision is yours.

The steps

1. 1 Work out your true cost per unit. It is not only what you paid your source, but that plus the unit's share of the fees for getting money to your source, any exchange difference if you buy in one currency and sell in another, and the fee for receiving money from your customer if their payment method takes one.
2. 2 Choose a margin per denomination, not for the whole shop. Small denominations a customer buys often can carry a different margin from large cards whose price they compare closely. Type the price on the goods screen, one denomination at a time.
3. 3 Work out the worst case. A customer on your highest loyalty level, holding your largest coupon. If nothing is left of the margin in that case, lower the discount or raise the price.
4. 4 Review your prices whenever an input changes: your source's price, the exchange rate you buy at, or a discount you have added.

The formula

• Selling price = true cost per unit + margin
• Profit on an order = what the customer actually paid − true cost per unit × units
• What the customer actually paid = selling price − level discount − coupon discount

On doabletech you type every denomination's price yourself. There is no price the platform writes for you and no automatic "cost plus a percentage". The price on the shelf is the one you typed, and the subscription takes no commission on any sale, so what your customer pays reaches you in full.

Every discount comes out of your margin

Loyalty levels

If you set up a ladder of levels, a customer climbs it on their own through the total of their delivered orders, and each level carries a discount and a cashback to the customer's balance, both set by you. Make sure a level's discount plus its cashback stays below your margin on the cheapest denomination you sell, or selling to your best customers becomes a loss.

Coupons

A coupon applies after the level discount, to what is left, and a coupon's minimum order is measured against that same figure. So "spend this much" means what the customer is actually about to pay, not the shelf price.

Special prices

You can give one named customer, or a whole level, their own price on a particular denomination — the usual arrangement for a small trader who buys from you in bulk. A special price is not combined with the level discount: the customer pays the lower of the two, and then any coupon they hold applies.

Referral rewards

If you switch on a referral programme, the reward is credited to the balance of the customer who brought a new one, on the new customer's first qualifying order, and it also comes out of your money.

Frequently asked questions

Does the platform suggest a price for my goods?

No. doabletech has no default price and no default margin; every price on your shelf was typed by you.

Does the platform take a percentage of each sale?

No. You pay a subscription for the shop, and what your customers pay stays yours in full. The plans are on the pricing section.

How do I sell to a small trader below my shop price?

Give them a special price on the denominations they buy, by name or for a whole level. They alone are charged it, and the shelf price stays as it is for everyone else.

Why not use one margin for everything?

Because customers compare the price of a large card closely and rarely compare a small one, and because transfer fees weigh more on a small denomination. A margin per denomination reflects both.