Coffee Shop Daily Sales Target Calculator
Work out the daily revenue and cups-per-day your coffee shop needs to cover costs and hit a target profit, from your fixed costs and gross margin.
How it works
Required revenue = (fixed costs + target profit) ÷ gross margin · Daily target = required revenue ÷ open days · Cups/day = daily target ÷ average ticket
Coffee has a high gross margin — the beans, milk and cup in a drink cost only a fraction of the price — so most of each sale flows toward fixed costs and profit. To find the sales you need, add the profit you want to your fixed costs and divide by the gross margin, which grosses the figure up to cover the small variable cost of goods. Spreading that over your open days, then over an average ticket, converts an abstract monthly number into a concrete cups-per-day goal your baristas can see.
Worked example
With $18,000 in monthly fixed costs, a $5,000 profit goal and an 80% gross margin, required revenue is (18,000 + 5,000) ÷ 0.80 = $28,750 a month. Over 26 open days that is about $1,106 a day, or roughly 185 sales at a $6 average ticket.
Frequently asked questions
What gross margin does a coffee shop have?
On the drinks themselves, cost of goods is often only 15–25% of the price, so gross margins of 75–85% are common. Food, retail bags and equipment sales usually carry lower margins, which pulls the blended figure down — use your actual mix.
Why divide by gross margin instead of subtracting cost of goods?
Because the cost of goods scales with sales. Dividing the target (fixed costs plus profit) by the gross margin automatically grosses it up so the resulting revenue covers both the fixed costs and the variable cost of the coffee sold to reach it.
How do I lower the daily target?
Raise the average ticket with pastries, larger sizes or a second item; trim fixed costs like rent and over-staffing; or improve margin by cutting waste. Each of those reduces the number of cups you must sell to hit the same profit.
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Educational estimate, not financial advice.