Businesses hope for at least a 17% earnings but most almost hover around 7-10%.
At the Auto Parts Store I worked at We used a 33% Minimum Markup for Everything. Yes that made Us higher prices that the other local stores in town but... We had that Part IN STOCK. Ready to get the Customers Car back on the road to get them to work the next day or week.
Our competitors could ORDER the same part for a lower price but it took several days to get the part to the Customer.
They wanted it on Saturday so they could have the car repaired for work on Monday. We offered that by having the parts in stock. For the competition to get the part that was wanted on Saturday IF it got ordered on Monday morning and shipped the same day the soonest it was available to the customer was Tuesday via FedEx or UPS Overnight Shipping (and someone paid the freight, be it the store or customer) so the customer could end up paying the shipping as well. So the part they could have had on Saturday from Us ended up costing the customer the SAME.
There were many that would do that. There were many that didn’t.
I worked for the store (Privately Owned) for 18+ years. When I started they had just the one store. When I left there were 5 Stores. Have no clue what’s going on now.