Read the guide
For the full economics reasoning behind these fields, see live commerce metrics in Malaysia and what a live selling session costs in Malaysia. Every term used above — session GMV, watch-to-buy rate, contribution margin — is defined in the live commerce glossary. Modelling a mega-sale session specifically? Discount depth and viewer competition both compress differently around 9.9/11.11/12.12 — see the mega-sale calendar for lead-time guidance and seller playbooks before you commit budget to a specific date.
Why GMV alone is the wrong number
Session GMV is the figure every platform dashboard leads with, and it's also the number that says the least about whether a session actually made money once returns, platform commission, host fee, production cost and paid amplification are counted. Contribution margin per session — returns-adjusted GMV multiplied by gross margin, minus every real session cost — is the number that tells you whether to book the next session, which is exactly why we report against it rather than GMV on every managed engagement.
What this calculator doesn't capture
This isolates session-level unit economics specifically — it doesn't account for fixed overheads outside the listed session costs, audience-building value that compounds across multiple sessions before it shows up in any single session's numbers, or category-level fee variation within a platform (rate cards vary by product category, and the presets above are platform-wide mid-band figures, not your specific category's exact rate). Treat the output as a directional planning figure for a single session, not a full profit-and-loss statement. For the influencer/host rate side specifically, see the KOL rate calculator, which already covers livestream as a content type, and the live host rate index for what a host actually costs. For the run-of-show side — timing and product-block structure before the session — see the live session planner.