COGS by sector across European SMBs, 2025 data.
COGS as a percent of net revenue across 1.247 European owner-operator shops on nouz in 2025: cafés 31,4%, bakeries 38,7%, retail 47,3%, jewellery 39,8%, e-commerce 41,2%, salons 8,4% (product only). The benchmark to compare yourself to is your sector median, not the cross-sector average — and the within-sector spread is wider than most operators realise.
COGS as a percent of net revenue across European owner-operator shops on nouz in 2025: cafés 31,4%, bakeries 38,7%, general retail 47,3%, jewellery 39,8%, e-commerce 41,2%, hair and beauty 8,4% (product only — service COGS is staff time, tracked separately). The right benchmark for your shop is your sector median, not the cross-sector number — and the within-sector spread is typically 8-12 points between top and bottom quartile.
Methodology
Anonymised daily P&L data from 1.247 shops on nouz between January 2025 and December 2025. Twelve countries: Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Czechia, Slovenia, Denmark, Switzerland. COGS = direct cost of goods sold (ingredients, finished goods purchased for resale, raw materials), divided by net revenue (after VAT and card fees). Salon "product COGS" covers retail-product sales and the consumables used in services (colour, shampoo). Excluded: shops with fewer than 90 trading days; shops where product COGS data is missing for the majority of revenue entries.
COGS by sector
| Sector | Median COGS % | Top quartile | Bottom quartile | Sample (n) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Café | 31,4% | 27,1% | 37,8% | 423 |
| Bakery | 38,7% | 33,9% | 44,2% | 87 |
| Jewellery | 39,8% | 34,1% | 46,7% | 54 |
| E-commerce | 41,2% | 34,8% | 49,1% | 198 |
| General retail | 47,3% | 41,7% | 54,2% | 298 |
| Salon (product) | 8,4% | 6,1% | 11,9% | 187 |
The cross-sector ranking is unsurprising — service-led businesses run lower product COGS, retail higher, hospitality in the middle. The spread within each sector is the more useful number for an operator trying to benchmark their own shop.
What changed in 2025
Compared to the 2024 dataset (separate study, 891 shops), cross-sector COGS moved up roughly 1,1 points in 2025 — driven mostly by sustained dairy and grain input-price increases through Q2-Q3. The bakery sector took the largest hit (+2,3 points year-on-year) and the e-commerce sector took the smallest (+0,4 points, where finished-goods purchasing absorbs less of the underlying input inflation).
The shops that held their COGS ratio flat year-on-year did one of two things: re-costed recipes quarterly and pushed selective price increases, or consolidated suppliers and used scale to negotiate. Both moves are visible in the daily-P&L data of the shops that pulled them off.
The within-sector spread
A café at 37,8% COGS (bottom quartile) is running 6,4 points above the sector median. On €380.000 of net revenue, that is €24.000 a year — roughly the entire annual EBIT of a top-quartile café. The same gap in retail (Q4 vs. median, 6,9 points) is €26.000 on €380.000 of revenue.
The drivers of within-sector spread are well-documented in the food cost ratios benchmark for cafés and the retail margin curve piece for retail. Same underlying mechanics: supplier consolidation, portion drift, recipe seasonality, daily margin watch.
How to use this benchmark
A benchmark is useful for one thing: telling you which line items deserve attention this quarter. If your COGS sits at or near sector median, the lever to focus on next is almost certainly staff cost or rent, not COGS. If your COGS sits in the bottom quartile, COGS is the lever and the four standard moves apply (consolidate, re-cost, weigh, watch).
The benchmark is not a target. A café running 28% COGS by sacrificing quality on its core product is not winning — it is hollowing out the reason customers come back. The right COGS for your shop is the lowest number that does not compromise the product. The benchmark just tells you where the realistic floor is.
For setup-side mechanics, see how to record COGS per product in nouz. For the broader theory on COGS vs. service-time, see what is COGS, really.
What to do this week
- Compute your 90-day COGS ratio against your sector median.
- If you sit in the bottom quartile of your sector: the highest-leverage move is supplier consolidation. Cut the smallest three.
- If you sit at sector median: re-cost your top five products. Input prices moved in 2025 — your old prices may not reflect current cost.
- If you sit in the top quartile: hold the line. Drift in 6 months is the risk — re-check quarterly.
If you don't yet have COGS tracked at product level in a daily P&L, get started with nouz. By the time you have 90 days of data, your sector ratio is exact and your levers are obvious.
FAQ
What is a good COGS percentage for a small café?
European median is 31,4%. Top quartile sits at 27,1%. Under 30% is healthy; above 35% deserves a closer look at the four standard COGS levers.
Why is salon COGS so low?
Salon COGS only covers product — colour, shampoo, retail items sold to clients. The real cost of a salon service is the stylist's time, which lives in the staff cost line, not COGS. The two together typically total 50-55% of revenue.
Does this benchmark include VAT?
No — COGS in the numerator is post-VAT (the actual cost to the business) and net revenue in the denominator is also post-VAT. The ratio is therefore VAT-neutral.
How is e-commerce COGS calculated when products are dropshipped?
Same way — the cost of goods is the unit cost paid to the supplier, regardless of whether the goods physically touch a warehouse. nouz logs the COGS at the moment of sale based on the product's recorded unit cost.
How does nouz handle COGS?
COGS is captured two ways: as a per-product unit cost set on the products tab (snapshotted at the moment of sale) or as a variable cost entry on the expenses tab (for shops not running SKU-level tracking).