At first, craft kits feel like easy money — a few supplies, a nice package, a price tag that seems reasonable. Then you look closer. You’ve spent an hour assembling them. You’re short on materials you thought you had plenty of. Packaging costs more than expected. And somehow, after all that, the margin is barely there.
Some craft shop owners learn this the hard way. They price a craft kit and think the math checks out — until they realize how much time and material weren’t factored into the final price.
It’s easy to fall into this trap. Craft kits often appear simple, so they’re priced casually. Yet, between labor, packaging, storage, and wasted materials, those seemingly easy add-ons can actually drain profit instead of building it.
Pricing craft kits correctly means being honest about what they actually cost — not just in supplies, but in time and effort. Once you do, you can price with confidence, protect your profits, and still keep kits affordable for customers.
Here’s how to break down the real costs, build value into your kits, and price them in a way that actually makes sense for your shop.
Craft kits are extremely popular among shoppers, with sales projected to reach over $61 billion in 2034. To meet this demand, craft stores are offering more ready-made kits for projects like holiday crafts, kids’ activities, and jewelry making, but pricing them can be a challenge.
Many owners assume that pricing just over the cost of materials can net a profit, but this doesn’t consider behind-the-scenes costs.
Most underpricing happens when stores fail to:
Account for staff assembly time, including counting, sorting, and packing.
Include packaging costs that make kits gift-ready.
Factor in storage space for finished kits and components.
Absorb waste and shrinkage from damaged or mismatched parts.
To earn a strong return on craft kits, you need to understand the full scope of what it takes to design, build, and promote them.
The first step to pricing a craft kit accurately is knowing its true production cost. You need a clear baseline before deciding on markup or retail price.
How to break that cost down:
Add each physical component: List every item included in the kit, even small pieces pulled from existing inventory.
Estimate labor costs: Measure the time it takes to assemble one kit and apply an appropriate hourly rate (e.g., 15 minutes at $15 per hour = $3.75).
Include packaging supplies: Count boxes, bags, inserts, labels, and any filler used for presentation.
Account for storage and shrinkage: Allow for damaged parts, missing components, and the space used to store finished kits.
That total becomes your nonnegotiable floor — the number every pricing decision has to clear.
For example, a kids’ painting kit may cost $4 in materials, $3 in labor, and $2 in packaging — $9 total — while a holiday ornament kit may run closer to $11. After adding a $2 buffer for storage and shrinkage, actual costs range from $11–$13 per kit.
Once you know your baseline, you can apply a markup that preserves healthy margins. Most small shops simplify pricing by using a consistent markup framework across all their products.
When pricing craft kits:
Using the painting and holiday kit examples, a markup of 2.5 times the cost means charging $27.50 and $32.50. At a three-fold markup, those same kits would cost $33 and $39.
If the price feels too high for your customers, the solution usually isn’t to slash margins. Instead, examine how the kit is put together. Simplifying packaging, trimming unnecessary components, or speeding up assembly can reduce costs without compromising quality. When that isn’t enough, the next step is to strengthen the kit’s perceived value so the price feels justified.
Standard markups help ensure costs are covered, but they don’t reflect perceived value. Customers often make purchases based on what they believe a kit is worth and are willing to pay more when it feels complete, convenient, or gift-ready.
Kits can justify higher prices when they:
For example, adding low-cost upgrades—like better packaging, a printed insert or welcome note, and storage or care instructions—can boost perceived value without changing the kit’s contents.
Jewelry kits sell well, but they’re also some of the easiest to underprice. Small components — such as clasps, beads, and findings — are typically purchased in bulk, which can make per-kit costs easy to underestimate and time-intensive to track.
To price multipiece jewelry bundles:
For example, imagine you build two bracelet kits. The first includes $12 in beads and string. The second includes the same materials, plus pliers, measuring tools, and printed patterns, bringing the total cost to $22.
With a three-fold markup, the first kit is priced at $36, while the complete starter kit is priced at $66. The higher price reflects the added tools and guidance.
You need visibility into costs and sales to price craft kits effectively. Those numbers show which kits earn back their build costs and which need revision.
A craft store (point of sale) POS helps you:
Track SKU-level components: Record which materials and parts are used in each kit, ensuring accurate costs as items are assembled and restocked.
Report on profitability: Compare the selling price to the total build cost to see which offerings justify the time spent assembling them.
Identify bestsellers: Use sales data to pinpoint top-performing kits and develop future offerings around what’s already proven to sell.
With that information in hand, pricing craft kits becomes a repeatable process rather than a trial-and-error exercise.
Effective craft kit pricing means balancing what customers are willing to pay and what your store needs to generate revenue. To achieve this, you need software that provides data-driven insights into costs and sales.
Rain POS helps craft retailers manage kit components, analyze profitability by product, and identify bestsellers worth scaling. With clear reporting and accurate inventory tracking, you can confidently price kits and adjust your offerings without relying solely on intuition.
Use our Build and Price tool to configure a POS setup for your craft store. See how Rain POS can help you earn both customer trust and stronger margins on every kit sold.