I am in the final stages of prototype development of a new maternity product I am developing. Direct ecommerce margins are great (over 300%), but I have been told that I need to set a RRP and sell to retail stores (such as mothercare, john lewis etc) at 40% of this. What I cannot get a straight answer on is what is an acceptable margin between my cost of production per unit and the wholesales price. Obviously the bigger the better, but where can I get reliable info on decent margins to aim for (for a startup), and at what level I would need to decide that success would be unlikely?
part 2 : where is the best place to source a mentor when you are in the final stages of concept development?