How do I enter purchase price and shipping costs?
Last updated: 31 October 2026 · The MargenOptimierer app is in German. Button and menu names are shown exactly as you see them, with the English meaning in brackets.
You enter your costs per unit without VAT on the Produkte (products) page, in the item's row. An amount in the row applies from today. For another day, use Kosten setzen (set costs). An item's first amount also applies to all days before it. Your costs never go to OTTO.
How it works
- Open the Produkte page in the menu.
- In the item's row, click the amount in the Einkauf (purchase price) column or, if there isn't one yet, the dash.
- Type the net amount as it appears on your supplier's invoice, for example 12.40, and press Enter.
- In the same way, enter in the Versand (shipping) and Sonstiges (other) columns what shipping and other costs such as packaging cost you per unit.
- If an amount should apply from another day, tick the item on the left and click Kosten setzen in the bar at the bottom.
- In the window, enter the amount, choose ab Datum (from date) and then the day it applies from. Then click Setzen (set).
Example: A new purchase price from 20 October 2026
On 1 September 2026 you enter 12.40 € as the purchase price for the acacia chair. It's the chair's first amount, so it also applies to all days before. On 20 October 2026 your supplier raises the price, and you enter 14.20 € in the row. The Marge (margin) page calculates with 14.20 € from 20 October 2026 and keeps using 12.40 € for all days before. If you had only noticed the increase later, you would have entered the 14.20 € with ab Datum from 20 October 2026.
Dein erster Betrag gilt auch für alle Tage davor, ein neuer erst ab dem Tag, den du für ihn wählst.
What else matters when you enter costs
A typo
If you mistyped, tick the item, click Kosten setzen and choose Korrektur (correction) in the window. The new amount then replaces the wrong one for the whole time it applied.
When an amount is unusually high
If a new amount is more than 3 times the amount currently in force, MargenOptimierer asks once. If the amount is right, click Trotzdem setzen (set anyway). MargenOptimierer doesn't ask for an item's first amount. 3 times is the default. You change it under Einstellungen (settings) in the Vorgaben (defaults) tab.
You don't enter the OTTO commission
MargenOptimierer fills the OTTO-Provision (OTTO commission) column itself, with the rate OTTO gives for the item. If that rate isn't clear, MargenOptimierer uses the usual rate of the commission group from OTTO's assortment overview. „Standardsatz“ (standard rate) then appears next to it.
Next
- How do I enter costs for many items at once?
- How do I read the margin?