How are unit economics moving over time?

MetricGross margin on device revenue, per unit

Unit% gross margin and USD gross profit per unit

Bar or line of margin dollars per unit by product family. Revenue per unit minus BOM and assembly cost. Compression means component cost rising or pricing power falling. Build per SKU from BOM cost data. Example: $42 GM per unit Q1, $36 Q4 (cost or pricing problem).

BOM

Bill of materials. Itemised component cost to build one unit.

SKU

Stock keeping unit. One distinct sellable variant. Counted at the variant level, not the product level.

GM

Gross margin. Revenue minus COGS, divided by revenue.

Public consumer electronics hardware brands, FY2025 10-K basis, gross profit over revenue. Six-comp median plus wider category reference points from company filings. Includes service revenue where the filer does not separate it. · The comp set is small, so treat the median as a reference point rather than a distribution. Definitions vary in ways that matter: some filers report a blended device plus service margin, warranty accrual sits inside cost of revenue at roughly 1.4% to 1.5% of product sales for consumer electronics (Warranty Week), and tariffs and inventory write-downs are also inside the line. Retail-level margins of 15% to 25% quoted for ecommerce electronics describe a reseller's margin on resale, not a manufacturer's margin on production, and must not be compared with these figures. Gross margin percentage is also the wrong headline on its own, since a flat rate can sit over falling gross profit dollars.

The margin percentage line runs flat and reassuring while the gross profit per unit line underneath it falls, because ASP and unit cost are sliding together and the ratio conceals it.

Margin holds at 43% for three years while gross profit per unit slips from $132 to $116 and total gross profit falls 12% on lower units.

• Put gross profit dollars per unit on the same chart as the percentage. One public comp held roughly 43% margin while gross profit dollars fell 12% over three years, which the percentage line alone never showed.
• Attack returns before price. Online electronics return rates run around 10% and smart-home around 13%, and at a 35% margin a returned $260 device costs roughly $116 fully loaded, more than the contribution of the clean order that replaces it.
• Second-source the top three BOM lines before touching list price, and time it against the component cycle. IDC identifies memory supply tightness as the current cost mover holding device prices up across wearables.
• Pull warranty and service into the unit view. Consumer electronics warranty accrual runs about 1.5% of product sales (Warranty Week), so a quality problem that doubles it removes roughly one and a half points of gross margin before anything else moves.

1. EightxConsumer Electronics Financial Benchmarks 2026 · 2026 · Six public consumer electronics comps, latest 10-K filings pulled from SEC EDGAR Median gross margin across six public consumer electronics comps is 43.4%, ranging from 33.6% to 58.7%, while operating margin over the same set ranges from plus 25.9% to minus 12.8%, so the P&L is decided below the gross margin line. eightx.co ↗
2. EightxConsumer Electronics Brand Unit Economics · 2026 · Six public electronics comps, SEC EDGAR pull A flat gross margin rate can hide a collapsing model: one comp held roughly 43% margin while gross profit dollars fell from $716.5m to $630.5m across three years. Online electronics return rate is around 10%, smart-home around 13%, against about 19.5% for all ecommerce. eightx.co ↗
3. US SEC (Garmin Ltd)Garmin 2025 Annual Report, Form ARS · 2026 · One public navigation and wearables manufacturer, FY2025 Revenue rose 15% to $7.25bn with gross margin of 58.7%, comparable to 2024 despite generationally high tariff structures, and operating margin expanded 60 basis points to 25.9%. sec.gov ↗
4. US SEC (GoPro, Inc.)GoPro Form ARS, fiscal year 2025 · 2026 · One public action camera manufacturer, FY2025 Gross margin of 33.6% in full-year 2025 against 33.8% in 2024 and 32.2% in 2023, with hardware cost of revenue falling 20% as units fell. sec.gov ↗
5. US SEC (GoPro, Inc.)GoPro Form 8-K, Q2 2025 results · 2025 · One public manufacturer, quarterly Gross margin improved to 36.0% from 30.7% year on year, which management attributed to cost reduction and margin initiatives taken the prior year alongside a 32% cut in operating expenses. sec.gov ↗
6. SeriesOpsGross Margin for Hardware Startups: What's Actually Good at Seed Stage? · 2026 · Reference set of public hardware companies by category Category reference points: enterprise networking around 65%, navigation and wearables around 58%, connected audio in the mid 40s, Apple hardware around 37%, PCs in the low 20s, action cameras in the mid 30s. seriesops.com ↗
7. Warranty WeekU.S. Electronics Warranty Report · 2026 · 334 US-based electronics manufacturers reporting 2003 to 2025 US consumer electronics manufacturers ran an average warranty accrual rate of 1.50% of product sales in 2025, a cost that sits inside cost of revenue and therefore inside gross margin per unit. warrantyweek.com ↗
8. Northstar Financial AdvisoryE-Commerce Profit Margins by Category: 2026 Industry Benchmarks · 2025 · Ecommerce category benchmark set Consumer electronics gross margins at the ecommerce reseller level run 15% to 25%, against 50% to 70% for beauty and 40% to 60% for apparel, with Amazon seller net margins compressing to 5% to 15% after fees. nstarfinance.com ↗