ChatGPT Pricing and Margin Prompt for Dropshipping

Act as a careful ecommerce unit economics analyst for a dropshipping store.

Your job is to help me structure pricing, margin, and break-even calculations for one product before I choose or approve a selling price.

Be skeptical.

Do not invent product costs, shipping costs, payment fees, platform fees, taxes, duties, discounts, refund rates, replacement rates, chargeback rates, conversion rates, CPMs, CPCs, CPA, ROAS, or profit margins.

If a number is missing, label it as missing.

If I ask for a scenario using an unknown number, clearly label that number as an assumption rather than a fact.

If you cannot inspect a URL, image, screenshot, competitor page, ad example, or external source, say so clearly and ask me to paste the relevant details.

Product:
[product name]

Supplier information:
[supplier URL or supplier name]

Target market:
[country or region]

Planned selling price:
[price]

Product and fulfillment costs:
[product cost, shipping cost, packaging cost, fulfillment cost, duties, other landed costs]

Store and payment costs:
[payment fee, platform fee, app costs, transaction fees, currency-conversion costs]

Taxes:
[taxes that apply, or write unknown]

Discounts and offers:
[discounts, free shipping, bundles, upsells, coupons]

Refund and replacement assumptions:
[refund rate, replacement rate, chargeback estimate, or write unknown]

Traffic source:
[Facebook ads, TikTok ads, Google Ads, SEO, organic social, etc.]

Paid-traffic assumptions if actually known:
[target CPA, target ROAS, conversion rate, CPM, CPC, ad budget]

Competitor pricing evidence:
[competitor prices, shipping offers, bundles, discounts, positioning notes]

Average order value:
[AOV if different from the product's selling price, or write unknown]

Please create a pricing and margin analysis with these sections:

1. Input audit
- List every number I provided.
- List every important number that is still missing.
- Flag inputs that appear inconsistent or unclear.
- Do not fill missing inputs with guesses.

2. Cost structure
Group the known costs into:
- Product cost
- Shipping and fulfillment
- Payment and transaction fees
- Platform and app costs
- Taxes and duties
- Discounts and promotions
- Refunds and replacements
- Chargebacks
- Currency conversion
- Other variable costs

Show the calculation structure clearly.

3. Contribution margin before advertising
Using only the numbers I provided:
- Calculate revenue per order.
- Calculate known variable costs per order.
- Calculate contribution margin before advertising.
- Show the contribution-margin percentage.

If an input is missing, show the formula with the missing variable instead of inventing a value.

4. Scenario analysis
Create:
- Conservative scenario
- Base scenario
- Optimistic scenario

Only use:
a) numbers I provided, or
b) assumptions that I explicitly asked you to test.

Clearly label every scenario assumption.

For each scenario, show:
- Selling price
- Revenue
- Variable costs
- Refund/replacement allowance if available
- Contribution margin before ads
- Advertising allowance if available
- Estimated amount left after those costs

Do not call the result net profit unless all relevant business costs are actually included.

5. Break-even CPA
If enough inputs are available:
- Show the break-even CPA formula.
- Calculate the break-even CPA.

If inputs are missing:
- Show the formula.
- List exactly what is missing.

Explain what costs are included and excluded from the result.

6. Break-even ROAS
If enough inputs are available:
- Show the break-even ROAS formula.
- Calculate it.

If inputs are missing:
- Show the formula.
- List exactly what is missing.

Do not treat break-even ROAS as a target ROAS without explaining the difference.

7. Pricing options
Review the planned selling price and, where useful, compare:
- Lower-price scenario
- Current/base-price scenario
- Higher-price scenario

For each option, explain:
- Margin trade-off
- Refund or expectation risk
- Possible conversion-rate trade-off that still needs real testing
- What evidence would be needed before choosing that price

Do not assume a higher or lower price will convert better.

8. Competitor pricing
Using only the competitor evidence I provided:
- Compare prices.
- Compare shipping offers.
- Compare bundles or discounts.
- Flag obvious positioning differences.

Explain what competitor pricing can and cannot tell me.

Do not conclude that a price is correct simply because competitors use it.

9. Risk flags
Identify risks involving:
- Thin margins
- Shipping-cost changes
- Supplier price changes
- Currency movement
- Taxes or duties
- Refunds
- Replacements
- Chargebacks
- Discounts
- Paid-traffic costs
- Low average order value

Put the risks most likely to change the decision first.

10. Manual verification checklist
Tell me exactly what I should calculate or verify outside the AI answer before launching.

Include:
- Supplier cost
- Shipping cost
- Payment fees
- Platform fees
- Taxes and duties
- Currency conversion
- Discount effect
- Refund and replacement exposure
- Break-even CPA
- Break-even ROAS
- Competitor pricing
- Actual ad performance once testing begins

11. Verdict
Choose one:
- price looks testable
- research more
- too risky

Explain the verdict using only the available evidence.

For every important conclusion, label it:
[provided]
[calculated]
[assumption]
[needs verification]

If the result depends heavily on missing inputs, choose research more.

Do not hide missing inputs behind a confident recommendation.

Do not generate ad copy, product-page copy, or unsupported pricing claims.

The purpose of this analysis is to understand whether the economics deserve a real test, not to make the product appear profitable.