Q. How do I find the profit margin for a particular product?

Companies rarely share information on profit margins for their products and services. However, there are a few ways that you can locate this information:

Industry reports

Search for an industry report relevant to your product, and look for mentions of profit margin, gross margin, or markup in the report.

For a list of databases to search, see the Industry research guide.

Be sure to check Statista (see Statistics tab in the guide linked to above), as it is a useful source of all types of numerical data (like profit margins and markup).

Articles and news

Search business articles to see if an industry insider has provided a figure. Type the name of the product in combination with profit margin. Consider also using the word markup.

• CBCA Complete
• Business Source Complete
• ABI Inform

Financial performance data

Use the Industry Canada's Financial Performance Data to get the gross margin for a particular industry and use that as a benchmark figure. 

To use Financial Performance Data, you will need to know the industry code (or NAICS) for your industry.