Tools / Line Review Cost Calculator

How much will your line review actually cost?

Q: How much capital should I have on hand before pitching a national retailer?

As a working rule, plan to have 1.25 times the high-end estimate from this calculator available before you take the pitch meeting. The high-end accounts for retailer-specific surprises, the 25 percent buffer covers chargebacks, demand-planning errors, and pack engineering rework that almost always shows up in months 4 through 9 of a new program.

A funded-concession estimator for brands trying to land Walmart, AutoZone, O'Reilly, Advance, or Costco. Punch in your numbers, get a directional range. Built from public retailer documentation and twenty years on the manufacturer side of the table.

Your program

Inputs · update live

Year-1 funded concessions

Directional · ±25%

Slotting fees—
Free-fill (seed inventory)—
MDF — marketing development funds—
TPR co-pay—
ACES/PIES setup & year-1 maintenance—
EDI VAN (annual)—
Pack engineering (one-time)—

Year-1 funded concessions — total

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Capital you should have ready

High-end estimate × 1.25 buffer

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Numbers above are operator-grade ranges, not quotes. Your actual cost will depend on category prominence, the buyer's relationship history with the supplier you're displacing, and the negotiation leverage you bring to the line review.

Methodology

What's behind the numbers.

The model uses public retailer documentation, trade-press benchmarks, and operator-side experience across Walmart, AutoZone, O'Reilly, Advance, and Costco. Every line is a range, not a point estimate, because real programs vary widely on category prominence and negotiation leverage. Below is the formula stack so you can sanity-check it against your own data.

Line	Low estimate	High estimate
Slotting fees	SKUs × per-SKU low ($0–$3K)	SKUs × per-SKU high ($3K–$15K)
Free-fill	Y1 units × (low weeks/52) × wholesale	Y1 units × (high weeks/52) × wholesale
MDF	2% × Y1 wholesale revenue	5% × Y1 wholesale revenue
TPR co-pay	1.5% × Y1 wholesale revenue	5% × Y1 wholesale revenue
ACES/PIES	max($15K, SKUs × $1,500)	max($30K, SKUs × $3,000)
EDI VAN (annual)	$5,000	$15,000
Pack engineering (one-time)	$20K (≤5 SKUs) / $40K (6+)	$50K (≤5 SKUs) / $100K (6+)

For context on the underlying mechanics, see our post on the true cost of slotting, MDF, and TPR and the manufacturer's complete guide to selling to US automotive retail. Costco doesn't take cash slotting or free-fill in the traditional sense — they extract value through cost negotiation, which the model can't represent in the same currency.

Want Rick to walk you through this for your specific program?

Drop your details and we'll come back inside one business day with retailer-specific notes for your category — including what we'd actually push on with the buyer, where we'd draw the line on slotting, and what reset window to target.

Got it — thanks. We'll come back inside one business day. Check your inbox (and spam, just in case) from info@autoskus.com.

Frequently asked

Questions about the calculator.

How accurate is this calculator?

Directionally accurate within roughly 25 percent for most realistic programs. The model uses public retailer documentation, trade-press benchmarks, and operator-side experience across Walmart, AutoZone, O'Reilly, Advance, and Costco. It is not a substitute for a category-specific quote from your actual buyer — that conversation always reveals retailer-specific asks the public benchmarks miss.

What are slotting fees?

Slotting fees are a one-time cost a retailer charges a vendor to add a new SKU to the planogram. They cover the labor of resetting the shelf, updating the item master, and the opportunity cost of the SKU being displaced. Typical range in automotive retail is $0 to $15,000 per SKU per chain — Walmart famously avoids cash slotting in favor of free-fill, AutoZone and O'Reilly are mid-range, Advance Auto Parts is similar, and Costco doesn't take slotting at all.

What is free-fill?

Free-fill is the inventory a vendor ships at no charge to seed the retailer's shelves at launch. Walmart commonly takes 4 to 6 weeks of free-fill in lieu of cash slotting. AutoZone, O'Reilly, and Advance typically take 1 to 2 weeks. The cost is the wholesale value of those units multiplied by the number of stores in scope — for a national Walmart launch on a high-velocity SKU, free-fill can easily be the largest single line in the year-one budget.

What's the difference between MDF and TPR?

MDF (Marketing Development Funds) is the percentage of wholesale revenue a vendor commits to retailer-side marketing — circular ads, in-store displays, digital placements. Typical range is 2 to 5 percent of wholesale revenue. TPR (Temporary Price Reduction) is a vendor co-pay on promotional pricing — when a SKU goes on sale, the vendor funds part of the markdown. Typical TPR co-pay runs 5 to 15 percent of TPR-funded volume.

How much capital should I have ready?

Plan to have 1.25 times the high-end estimate from this calculator available before you take the pitch meeting. The high-end accounts for retailer-specific surprises; the 25 percent buffer covers chargebacks, demand-planning errors, and pack engineering rework that almost always show up in months 4 through 9 of a new program.

What if I'm a pre-revenue brand or an offshore factory?

The model still works for orientation. The funded concessions don't change because of who's writing the check. What changes is whether you can carry it. Most pre-revenue brands and offshore factories don't have the capital structure to absorb a year-one program of this size — which is the case for staging through a category partner who can structure the program so the capital exposure is shared.

Read the full manufacturer's guide →