{"id":10631,"date":"2024-02-15T01:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T00:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innowerft.com\/?p=10631"},"modified":"2026-08-10T01:32:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T23:32:44","slug":"unit-economics-financial-analysis-at-micro-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innowerft.com\/en\/unit-economics-finanzanalyse-auf-mikroebene\/","title":{"rendered":"What are unit economics, and how do they indicate whether a business model is scalable?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unit economics describe the\u00a0Revenue and costs that can be attributed to a single economic unit within a business model<\/strong>. They show whether a company generally makes or loses money with every additional sale, order or new customer relationship.<\/p>\n

What counts as a \u201eunit\u201c depends on the business model:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Business model<\/strong><\/td>\nPossible unit<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
SaaS companies<\/strong><\/td>\na paying customer relationship or a subscription<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Online shop<\/strong><\/td>\nan order or a product sold<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Marketplace<\/strong><\/td>\na transaction<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Delivery service<\/strong><\/td>\na delivery<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Consultancy firm<\/strong><\/td>\na project or a billable hour<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Production company<\/strong><\/td>\na product that has been manufactured and sold<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

A basic calculation is as follows:<\/p>\n

Contribution margin per unit = revenue per unit \u2013 variable costs per unit<\/strong><\/p>\n

One example:<\/p>\n

A start-up sells a product for 100 euros. The combined cost of manufacturing, packaging, postage and payment processing is 65 euros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Key figure<\/strong><\/td>\nAmount<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Turnover per product<\/td>\n100 \u20ac<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Variable costs<\/td>\n65 \u20ac<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Contribution margin per product<\/td>\n35 \u20ac<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Every product sold therefore generates a contribution margin of 35 euros. This amount can help to cover fixed costs such as staff costs, rent, software or administration.<\/p>\n

In subscription-based business models, customer lifetime value and customer acquisition costs are often taken into account:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Customer Lifetime Value (CLV or LTV):<\/strong>\u00a0expected economic value of a customer relationship<\/li>\n
  • Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC):<\/strong>\u00a0average cost of acquiring a new customer<\/li>\n
  • Churn rate:<\/strong>\u00a0Proportion of customers who cancel their subscription or stop using the service<\/li>\n
  • High Margin:<\/strong>\u00a0Proportion of turnover remaining after deduction of directly attributable costs<\/li>\n
  • Payback period:<\/strong>\u00a0The period it takes to recoup the costs of customer acquisition<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Put simply:<\/p>\n

    Customer Lifetime Value \u2013 Customer Acquisition Costs = economic contribution per customer<\/strong><\/p>\n

    If the costs of acquiring and retaining a customer are higher in the long term than the revenue generated, the unit economics are negative. In this case, rapid growth may actually increase the losses.<\/p>\n

    Positive unit economics help start-ups to:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • to assess the viability of their business model<\/li>\n
    • Optimising prices and cost structures<\/li>\n
    • to identify profitable products or customer segments<\/li>\n
    • Planning marketing and sales expenditure more effectively<\/li>\n
    • to assess the conditions for scaling<\/li>\n
    • To present the financial performance to investors in a clear and transparent manner<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      However, positive unit economics do not automatically mean that the company as a whole is already profitable. Fixed costs relating to product development, administration, staff or infrastructure may still result in losses. They simply indicate, as a starting point, whether each additional unit can, in principle, make a positive contribution.<\/p>\n

      Typical ways of improving unit economics include:<\/p>\n

        \n
      • Adjust prices or pricing models<\/li>\n
      • reduce variable costs<\/li>\n
      • Reducing customer acquisition costs<\/li>\n
      • Increase customer loyalty<\/li>\n
      • Reducing redundancies<\/li>\n
      • generate additional revenue through up-selling or cross-selling<\/li>\n
      • prioritise particularly profitable customer groups<\/li>\n
      • Automating processes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        A common mistake is to consider only turnover and production costs. Discounts, returns, support, payment fees, logistics and ongoing service costs should also be taken into account. Furthermore, all key figures must relate to the same period and the same unit of measurement.<\/p>\n

        innoWerft helps founders to identify the key metrics and figures relevant to their business model, to critically assess cost and revenue assumptions, and to present their unit economics in a clear and understandable way for pricing, growth and discussions with investors.<\/p>\n

        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Unit economics refers to the direct revenues and costs associated with the production and sale of a single unit of a product or service and provides deep insights into profitability at the individual transaction level.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-glossareintrag"],"yoast_head":"\nWas sind Unit Economics und wie zeigen sie, ob ein Gesch\u00e4ftsmodell skalierbar ist? - innoWerft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Unit Economics: Einnahmen und Kosten pro Einheit, bietet Einblicke in die Rentabilit\u00e4t auf Transaktionsebene.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.innowerft.com\/en\/unit-economics-financial-analysis-at-micro-level\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Was sind Unit Economics und wie zeigen sie, ob ein Gesch\u00e4ftsmodell skalierbar ist? 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