Skip to content

    What costs go into each bucket for a D2C startup?

    Same question, your business

    Quick answer

    For D2C, direct costs are product plus fulfilment, overheads are warehousing and operations, sales & marketing is (usually) your biggest bucket, and G&A is the back office.

    The breakdown

    • Direct costs (): the product cost, plus shipping, packaging, payment fees, and returns — everything to make and deliver one order.
    • Overheads: warehousing, fulfilment operations, inventory storage, logistics coordination.
    • Sales & marketing: paid ads, influencer and affiliate spend, discounts and promotions, marketing team and tools. In D2C this is often the largest bucket.
    • G&A: finance, HR, admin, office, accounting and compliance.
    • R&D (if any): product development for new SKUs, formulation, design.

    Our honest take

    In D2C, sales & marketing quietly becomes the biggest line, and it's a variable cost of winning each customer — which is why you track margin after marketing (CM3), not just product margin (CM1). Watch this bucket like a hawk.