Understanding Gross Margin
Gross margin is one of the most fundamental indicators of a company’s financial health. Understanding gross margin can help you price products correctly, manage costs, and gauge your business’s efficiency in delivering goods or services. In simple terms, gross margin tells you how much of your revenue remains after covering the cost of goods sold – it measures the core profitability of your product or service before other expenses. In this article, we’ll break down what gross margin is, how to calculate it, why it’s important, and how it differs from net margin. We’ll also look at gross margin in financial statements, discuss typical gross margin benchmarks across industries, and examine how gross margin contributes to competitive advantage. By the end, you’ll have a solid grasp of gross margin and how to use it to make better business decisions.