What the numbers say
Quantity breaks take a larger share off every unit as the quantity grows: 5% off each for two, 10% for three, 15% for four. Shipping is charged at $9.29, the 1 lb label passed through, so the offer's cost is the discount alone.
One unit keeps $10.41. Four at 15% off keep $13.00, 3.7% of what the customer pays: the four units share one pick-and-pack fee and one parcel, and the label for four weighs in at $17.81.
Against the single, each tier 2 units can lose 43.9%, 3 units can lose 46.0%, 4 units can lose 19.9% of conversion per visitor. Quantity breaks work when they move buyers up a tier, not when they discount the buyers who would have bought four anyway.
The cost structure, and where it comes from
| Price | $100.00, a pair of sneakers. Allbirds, Men's Tree Runner, read 13 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Unit cost | $59.00. From the income statement: revenue $152.5 million, gross profit $62.6 million, a gross margin of 41.0%. Allbirds (Smartbird, Inc.), annual report (Form 10-K) for the year ended 2025-12-31, read 13 October 2026 |
| Pick and pack | $3.20 per order and $0.48 for each extra item. Fulfill.com, 3PL pricing benchmarks (The Fulfillment Advisor 2025 survey of 600+ warehouses), read 23 September 2026 |
| Shipping label | USPS Ground Advantage, commercial, Zone 5, by weight rounded up to the pound: 1 lb $9.29 · 2 lb $10.50 · 3 lb $12.12 · 4 lb $13.89 · 5 lb $14.53. Packed weight is an assumption: 2.5 lb per unit. USPS Notice 123, USPS Ground Advantage Commercial, Zone 5 (effective 4 October 2026), read 13 October 2026 |
| Card fees | 2.9% + $0.30 per order: Shopify Payments' online rate for a standard card on the Basic plan in the United States. Higher plans pay a lower rate, and premium cards a higher one. Shopify's pricing page for the United States, online standard card rates, read 12 October 2026 Rates by plan and country |
| Refund reserve | 19.3%, NRF's estimate of online sales returned in 2025, across all categories. NRF and Happy Returns, 2025 Retail Returns Landscape (15 October 2025), read 23 September 2026 |
| Gift | A pair of socks: unit cost $8.85, retail $15.00. A $15 pair of socks, costed at Allbirds' reported gross margin. |
The offer, as an agent writes it
An agent writes this offer as one document for Offer Suite's API, validated against the offer schema. Below is one option of it: what the buyer gets and the price it promises. Offer Suite checks with a real cart that checkout charges exactly the prices above.
Show one option 4 options · excerpt
{
"key": "qty-2",
"display": {
"title": "2 units, 5% off each"
},
"lines": [
{
"role": "main",
"quantity": 2,
"purchase": {
"type": "one_time"
}
}
],
"pricing": {
"promise": {
"firstChargeCents": 19000,
"renewalChargeCents": null
}
}
}How Offer Suite validates, versions and publishes a document like this one: offer documents.
Questions
Are quantity discounts profitable for footwear brands?
On these costs one unit keeps $10.41 per order, two at 5% off each keep $18.54 and four at 15% off each keep $13.00. The tiers cost money only on buyers who would have bought the same quantity at full price.
How much conversion do quantity breaks need for footwear brands?
Against one unit, per visitor: 2 units can lose 43.9%, 3 units can lose 46.0%, 4 units can lose 19.9%.