A percentage is a part per hundred. A 15% discount on 200 removes 30 and leaves 170. Two consecutive discounts multiply: 10% then 20% leaves 72% of the original price, rather than 70%.
Margin uses selling revenue as its denominator. A product sold for 200 with cost 150 has a margin of 25%. Markup uses cost as its denominator, so the same product has a markup of 33.33%. Neither calculation includes taxes or costs you did not enter.
A change from a 10% rate to a 15% rate is 5 percentage points. Relative to the original rate, the percentage increase is 50%. Always label the denominator and the unit of the result.
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