Going From Square Inch Analysis to Setting the Number of Pages for Your Catalog

Calculating the square inch profitability of an item is straightforward. Follow these steps:

1. item
2. amount of page space for the item (1/4 page; 1/8 page; etc.)
3. cost of the catalog page (printing, postage, creative and list cost of the catalog divided by the number of pages)
4. cost of catalog space devoted to the item
5. sales
6. margin percentage
7. margin
8. catalog cost
9. "profit" or amount available for fixed costs and overhead after subtracting catalog cost and cost of goods sold.
10. "profit" percentage (profit divided by sales)

So the report format that's used is as follows (columns should be in this order): page, item, sales, margin percentage, margin, page allocation, page cost, profit.