Raising prices on your handmade items

[HC_Charlie]

It has been many years since I raised any of my retail prices on my handmade items. With my raw material costs increasing steadily over the years, I'd really like to increase my prices even just a little bit to help offset those expenses. I've read posts from other makers about how after they reluctantly raised prices, they didn't receive any negative feedback, and in a few instances actually saw their orders increase.

Has anyone else considered raising prices, or recently did a price increase? How did your customers react and did you notice any change (good or bad) in your order rate? And if you wholesale, how did you handle those price increases?

[maxpete]

My wife's business @Euflora recently did some price increases for their products both for retail and wholesale, but I don't believe they got pushback for it. I think for the most part, we're used to things costing more now and it's just part of business and reality to keep up with other costs. 

What about you? @Davidmac, @dabblrscre8ions, and @MacrameByAmelia

[HC_Charlie]

@maxpetejust wanted to say I checked out @Euflora and love their concept of the moss framed artwork. Like a tiny vertical garden, very Zen and calming. What a great gift idea 🎁

[maxpete]

Thanks so much, Charlie! I'll tell Celeste, I am sure she will be happy to hear this!

[GeekInStitches]

I can really only answer questions with examples.   

I've been raising prices for a few different reasons over the last 2 years.

The initial reason is different.  It's taken me time to feel my art is valuable enough.  I have accrued skill over the years,  but I'm still learning to adequately value my art, time, skill and supplies.

Not everyone can make art.   It takes supplies.  For me that means a sewing machine & maintenance, tools,  paint, needles, thread on and on. Few people have all of these things.   

The raw 7oz canvas I buy from Blick Art has gone from around $2.75/ yard about 6-7 years ago to $5.75 right now.  I buy 20-30 yards at a time just to get a bulk discount rate.  That's a big upfront cost.

I built a page on my Square site a couple of years ago that I use as a sort of educational tool.  (https://shop.geekinstitches.com/behind-the-artwork)

I have sold more artwork since I raised prices.   I've been told that if something is too cheap, some people won't even give it a second look.   I've mostly been left to think there's some truth in it.

I've also come to see some hard facts.   If I can't both pay for those supplies and all of the associated costs- like festival booth fees, hotels, a business is going out of business.   That doesn't even include room for growth, because growth also takes money.

As an example, back in March, I was out of pocket over $800 between a single festival fee, hotel and mileage. 

I hope some of examples are a little help  🙂

[HC_Charlie]

thanks for the details @GeekInStitches , your examples make me more confident in going forward with some reasonable price increases. I agree that there is something to that people may think that if something is inexpensive, that it's too cheap. Also for something that is a giftable item, i think people want to feel/say they spend a certain dollar amount towards a gift, and if it isn't a larger sum of money, they feel it isn't worth gifting to someone.

I definitely agree that small businesses, and especially artists, need to factor in all of those overhead expenses like sewing machines, hardware, supplies, and costs to exhibit.

[mamac]

I'm a stained glass artist and my primary sales are at an art market in my small town here in Oregon. Granted it's a famous art market and after six years I think I'm doing pretty well. However, the price of my supplies, glass, lead, solder, copper, chemicals has steadily gone up. My customers, bless their tiny hearts, always want to know how long it takes me to make one of my pieces. If I put a monetary value, an hourly rate to what I was making on one of my pieces, I would probably just sit down and cry.

That brings me to my point, I steadily raise my prices of my pieces to reflect the price increases of the supplies I use. I'm a retired graphics designer, so I don't have to live off of my business, but my art IS worth something. I never, ever, ever, bargain a piece down from the original price, and believe me I get a lot of people who try to get me to do that. If I lived in an area such as San Francisco my work would sell for 4x as much.

This is handmade, someone could buy Chinese stained glass for half the cost on Wayfair and hang in their window and sit back and love it. Be my guest. But if you want art you have to pay for it. We are not factories, we are artisans. You pay for us, not just the materials.

And for 98% of my customers they keep coming back time and again. And the ones who may not buy another big piece they come back just to tell me how much they love their stained glass window.

[GeekInStitches]

I know that feeling so well about being asked how long it takes.  One of my biggest tricks is that I never work on 1 thing at a time.   I gain efficiencies by cutting things for multiple work or tracing works and letters to iron onto fabric.

This all boils down to me never being able to answer the question!   I kind of gauge it, but what I really want to tell them- it doesn't matter how long it takes- this is ART!   It's skill and precision and years of dedication to the craft. 

I realize that not every person makes things - like your stained glass.   I was talking to a wood worker a couple of years ago and she made and finished 1 piece at a time.   That's a totally foreign concept to me! 🙂

I've always secretly wanted to tell a person why don't they just go down to Walmart and buy one there.  lol.   

I'm about to retire from my full time IT job on May 31st.  I'm going to make it a goal to come up with a better respectful answer to how long does it take.   I will have plenty of hammock time to mull that over this year 🙂 

[HC_Charlie]

@GeekInStitches @mamac I heard an interesting/funny reply once to the question "how long did it take you to make that????". The answer was "all of my life!!" As artists we gain experience with every project we work on, and hone lifelong skills. This experience cannot be discounted, so an answer (at least in my case) that a small ornament can be "made" by me in 5 minutes, it's taken me many many years of trial and error, and experience to be able to create something so quickly and of high quality. But if someone off the street with no experience tried to copy it, it would take weeks, if they could even get to the same quality level.

My favorite comments are always something along the lines of "I could make that!!" LOL

[tranguyen]

Speaking purely from a customer's point of view, there is a general understanding that the cost of doing business has steadibly gone up — not just supplies and materials but other expensenses like shipping, etc. So folks will not be surprised when they see price increased and will expected that, in a way. 

One things I've observed is at least within the food & bev scenes, businesses will often post a statement on their social media or website, giving a general breakdown of the reasons behind the price increase (without giving away actual business data, of course!). Having that transparency definitely helps customers have a better understanding as well!

Hope all goes well with your price changes ❤️

[TCSlaguna]

We do not make products, but we do offer a variety of services. We were just discussing yesterday about increasing the prices of a couple of our services. While at first I was a little hesitant, we decided that the price increase should be coupled with enhancing the service and communicating the value to customers better. It's hard to gauge people's reactions to price changes. Obviously you can run the numbers, but I feel like economic conditions in the last 4 years have been so all over the place that it's hard to take things "ceteris paribus." I try to watch customers' actions in the store and how much are interested, look at the price and change their mind. But this requires my team to communicate this to me when I am not there. 

[HC_Charlie]

I think it's a great idea to also increase the overall value of your products/services @TCSlaguna in conjunction with price increases. And communication and open dialog with customers is also important.

[Minion]

I'm at this point here by the end of the year I feel like I may have to raise prices.  I think I've only ever raised the prices of a Bedliner once in 8 years.  The majority of increases comes with my undercoating services.  With the increase though, comes a difference in what is covered and how many years of "free" touch ups comes with it etc.

Like anyone, I try to avoid the price increase as long as I can, but it will always be inevitable with rising costs. So far this year, I have actually gotten rid of a small commission that I give to local dealerships sales department for bringing in new vehicles. Next it will be cost comparison on certain things like gloves, tape, plastic etc. to find cheaper without completely kill off quality.  The final one will be a price increase if needed.

[VanKalkerFarms]

It is amazing what spending a day or 2 doing some online and local shopping can save you on supplies.  So many restaurants just order from like GFS and they are no wear near the cheapest option, just the easiest.  At our bakeries we go thru boxes and boxes of gloves a day, such a wasteful thing but that is food service, and going to https://www.webstaurantstore.com/ vs gfs etc can save hundreds a month.  that adds up over months and years over multiple locations.

[Minion]

I used that CIP calculator just to see.  And crazy how I never really looked at it like that way before.  How dumb of a business owner I am.  My products pricing hasn't increased at over the last 4 years.  I actually switched from buying direct from my Bedliner company, to a warehouse (that I also use to purchased automotive parts and accessories for customers from) for a cheaper price.   

But yeah lets say I was charging $500, for a Bedliner, that calculator suggest I should be charging $607 and change now.   It makes sense given the cost of living, even though my priodcut didn't increase.  I never really looked at it that way. 

Ohhhh  **bleep** gloves...I go through them enough.  I found a good happy medium Vinyl Synmax glove.  I get them from Amazon fro about $27-$29 for a case of 10.  When Covid hit.  That price was about 90 dollars. I refused to buy them at that price for what they are and how much I go through them. That was straight price gouging **bleep** robbery.

[VanKalkerFarms]

I thought I understood inflation and your dollar isn't worth as much, but my business math teacher in high school was really good and really changed my views on money and investments and really helped my knowledge on business etc.  anyway he explained it to me like that and that is why either prices go up, the cost of goods goes down by scale or efficiency, the qty in the package goes down (shrinkflation), or the quality gets lowered with a cheaper product in order to maintain the same profits OR you just aren't making as much.  Sadly I know multiple businesses that say they are doing great but have been plus or minus like 50k of a million in income for the last 10 years.  Being at or around the same income level for 10 years means you are not making the same in the end of buying power with your dollars.

Sadly they don't offer that course anymore but still make kids take Pre-calc when learning about money, and interest (loan interest and investment interest), income and mortgages, debt, new car payments being a grand not being something to brag about, etc is all stuff kids NEED to learn, but it gets cut.

[Lovewell]

@HC_Charlie Whenever we have had to raise prices we communicate that to our customers and post signs for a couple weeks just giving people the heads up. Our community is so amazing and has never given us grief about it. Sure there are a couple that grumble but then we have so many people understand and see that we are still less expensive than like Starbucks for much of our stuff and love supporting us. It can be scary raising prices but necessary. The coffee shop that was in our second location before us hadn't raised their prices since they opened and they were the same prices as the shop before them. So they hadn't changed since 2015. That's just not sustainable with how expensive cost of goods is now!

You have got this! And people will continue to support you for the amazing products you make!

[HC_Charlie]

@Lovewellthank you for your reply and support! I hope (and really believe) that our customers will understand and also continue to support us. 🙂

[Bronze_Palms]

We did a price increase and it was taken really well by clients! I hear that if clients are not complaining about prices, you're not charging enough. 

[VanKalkerFarms]

We raise prices pretty much on an alternating 2 year cycle.  sometimes 1 if need be.  We do roughly 1/2 of the items we offer each year.  It may be that we get to an item and decide it is fine, but in general just to keep up with inflation and input costs they will forever be going up.

If you are selling a $100 item today for the same price you were 6 years ago you are just straight up getting robbed as just inflation (no other input costs etc) that should be being sold for $126.  Now you may say that is crazy, but it is just economic facts and in effect you are getting $74 in today's money for that $100 in 2018 money item.

I 100% used to be the person that was super scared to raise prices, but for the last 10 years or so I have been the guy at the front of the pack saying this needs to go up.

We have increased in sales every year for as long as I have been involved and then owned the business.  raising prices might scare off a percent of people, but as long as you keep them smaller adjustments like $22 to $24 etc that isn't absurd and no one should be like they are robbing us with these extreme price jumps.

If at least some aren't actually complaining about your prices, then it is time to adjust your prices.  


Give the Bureau of Labor statistics inflation calculator a try and it'll likely surprise you haw much value the dollar loosed over a period of time. https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

[DLRosenberg]

Sooooo...

Here's my advice.

Handmade is a different thing entirely. You're pouring your SOUL literally into your product. I do believe with educating you customers they will be receptive. People don't buy what you do but why you do it (Simon Sinek).

We've had virality with our Blind Date with a Book Product. It isn't exactly homemade but requires a TON of labor: we gift wrap each book and then stuff the folds with fun add-on items, we then wrap with twine and seal with wax. 

We raised prices from $24-28 and we were worried- especially since the $28 is above the value of the book received. customers didn't even blink- they get it. It takes a lot of "human capital" to create the experience of the product.