Have you made any pricing changes recently and how do you communicate this to your customers?

[tranguyen]

Hi Seller Community ❤️

Between gearing up for the busiest shopping period of the year and challenging economic climate, we're hoping you can share:

Have you made any pricing changes recently and how do you communicate this to your customers?

We look forward to reading and learning more from your replies!

[Stacelyn24]

If we do any price increases for the year we'll start in October.  Right before holiday season.  People will be accustomed to spending and will be used to the new price increase going into the new year...unlike if you try to raise them in the start of the new year.  Now you have to deal with customers who have over spent during the holiday or those who always make the new year's resolution to save money.  When we do an increase we send out the information through email marketing, let those know who come into the salon about the price increase with cute printouts, and occasionally we may go live on social media.  Our clients are understanding because we communicate why the increase and we increase enough that we usually do not have to do another increase for a few years 🙂

[JUYBoutique20]

Any price increase I do happen at the beginning of the season.  So, when we begin to put out our "winter" inventory prices reflect the increase.  I haven't had to explain my pricing to anyone.  

[Sierra]

I change prices as necessary (inflation sucks!), but I don't make a point of notifying my customers. Do grocery stores notify me that they're raising prices? Nope, I see the price on the shelf when I go to buy something. What about the gas station on the corner? Nope, I see the price on their sign and decide if I want to pull in there or look for cheaper gas. What about other stores? I see the price on the tag and decide if I can afford it. Did I say inflation sucks? 😉

[OwensMarket]

we have a small grocery with a deli and we change our retail as needed. Sometimes this happens every week because the supplier has gone up and this has now changed the retail suggestion on the invoice. I have a few items in the store that if I replace when we sell out then my current retail is only 2 cents over the price to replace the item. 

The sad thing is it is all about supply and demand and with workers refusing to work because of wanting higher pay companies to have to pass that expense along to the consumer.  As Small business owners, we too are the consumers of the supply companies. 

[Michael_L]

Sorta - we are trying to be subtle by changing what's included in a package rather than increase the price.  It's been a bit tricky because inflation has gone up much more than our prices and our income so something has to give eventually

[Candlestore]

I adjust prices as I order new Items, Price goes up for it changes for my customers.  I do not just raise prices at one time of the year, I do it as my supplies go up and pass that to my customers.  Some people have come in and ask will you take this for that item, which they are basically asking for 50% off so I double the price of my advertised price and say I thought you wanted to haggle.   Then they go well you can not charge more then what the sign says, and I say that is why the sign says the PRICE.   This is not Facebook Market Place or Ebay where you can ask for a lower price.  I also point out that if they go on ETSY or Amazon most handmade candles are sold for about a Dollar an ounce, and ours are less than that.   I gave up with people trying to think we are a flea market or an auction site etc, I even told a few that I am Offended by them offering less than that price for our products.   

People have also come in and said I remember these being $7.99, like in the 70's and my reply is  and Gas was .50 cents a gallon, now its 4.00 a gallon or over 8 times more, so an $8 candle times 8 would be $64, so your getting it for $20,  maybe I am too low or your already getting a Discount.   That usually puts things in perspective for them.

[DinaLRosenberg]

The same as Keith- as we order and put out new inventory the price is reflected.... every item we carry is priced in a way that makes sense and reflects the price the market will tolerate.

[rtfulk]

We haven't done any price increases for the holiday season, we import ourselves so we have been lucky with no wholesale price increases.

[SharonK]

I just raised my prices on some (but not all) of my services. All of my costs have gone up and I have been holding back for as long as possible but had to bite the bullet. Better to do it now before the holidays instead of the new year when it can be a bit slower. Plus the holiday rush can give you a bump up to cushion the down times later. I don't put it out in my newsletter, if clients ask about pricing at the time of service I can tell them I had to make some increases. Everyone understands.

[Ashyrose]

Good morning, I hope that all is well. I communicated with my clients via our social media pages.

[Bronze_Palms]

I raised my prices about 8 months ago and shared about it on instagram. I didnt make a big deal of it, clients book online and have transparent prices right when they book. Everyone knows the prices of things have gone up so I dont think it is much of a surprise.

[doc_choc]

Our prices went up in June, no ifs, no buts, no choice as our raw materials went up 25 to 30%. To be honest price increase communication was not necessary. Inflation, energy prices, cost of living and poor political decsion making are hot daily topics, making the unavoidable easier to implement. 

[ReverendMike]

I have two distinct types of customers -- individuals and resellers. For individuals, I update the pricing on the shelf as my supplier's raise mine and that's it -- no fanfare or special emails.

For resellers, I send out a notice with the new prices when I'm restocking their shelves. We set the retail prices for all our resellers (its actually more like consignment than wholesale.) I have my delivery guy make sure the reseller knows the price has changed and that they need to update their POS system. I try to time these price increases, when I can, (after all, who's lowering their prices these days) to take effect after major holidays where our products sell particularly well or my accounts are extra busy. That way, the price increase doesn't happen when my resellers are distracted.

[alexandriak]

I've raised some prices and dropped others. We just do it and say nothing. 

[QuokkaCoffee]

As our food distributors have increased pricing throughout the year we've made small adjustments to our display fridge offerings.

I've kept our coffee prices static for as long as possible but in late October I did a 13% increase to our base price (i.e. modifiers like alternative dairy and syrups remain the same). I knew there would be a little pushback, none from our most stalwart regulars, and gave the team scripts to work off of in case new customers got aggressive. 

There's a thoughtful letter with my signature posted by the door so people who want to understand why can do so.

I can breathe a little easier now. 🙂

[lawnbrook]

We tend to re-evaluate pricing whenever we  make significant changes. In the restaurant, seasonal menu changes are the point. In the cellar door, it's new vintages in wine.

On occasions where we need to do this out of cycle, it's very easy to justify. Western Australia is a very remote location and everyone is acutely aware of the impact that fuel price is having on everything.

We gauge ourselves on 'the surrounding market' and can generally find a price point that represents a win-win. As a craft producer of wine/spirits we are lucking that currently people are still prepared to pay a little extra for a boutique product.

[PartyManiaMD]

I'm so envious of companies that can change once or twice a year. We're pretty much changing prices on a daily basis whenever new inventory comes up as our cogs increase. I stick to my margins and increase prices based on our costs to ensure that when we discount we're still at the very least getting back what we paid for the product.

I do take any extremely old product and throw it at $1 but unfortunately very few of our customers care about a sale. I'm doing $20 worth of bonus loyalty points for purchases over $100 for the Holidays (for a total of $30 back to spend in our store) and it's amazing how many people don't really care even though they're spending $100+.

We price everything as it comes in and restock as it's sold out so every individual item is priced which is a lot of labor but beats making sure the shelf labels are the right price.

I'm all for being competitive but people expecting dollar store pricing in a extremely HCOL area that has no dollar stores or walmarts for a reason are being a bit ridiculous. Nothing we carry is available at the dollar store or walmart, yes they'll carry plates and napkins but they'll be terrible quality and you get what you pay for.

I'm hyper focused on beating amazon on pricing and it's honestly not that hard outside of some outliers, most of the time their shipping costs mean their base prices with free shipping is more expensive.

[VanKalkerFarms]

In our farm market business, our main prices stayed the same mostly with the items we grew, but we would change prices on items we purchased like potatoes that we didn't grow based on the price at purchase.  We would assess our own grown products every winter.

In our garden center, we asses pricing every winter for what next spring's pricing will be based on projected energy costs, labor, wholesale input costs, etc.  As a trend, we raise prices on half our items every year and rotate to the other half next year so that there is never an across-the-board every SKU is more. 

At our bakeries, we access pricing roughly 2 times a year unless we see something that dramatically changes its wholesale cost to us (which nowadays is so many items).  We try to only raise prices once a year, but if an item gets to o far out of line we can do a couple of items here or there as we need to.

In either case, we never call out a change to a price, simply change the sign. If someone says something you can acknowledge it has changed but I don't see a reason to tell people either with signs or in person that hey, this stuff costs more than it used to.  Even if you explain our wholesale cost went up $2.00 and we only went up $1 the majority of customers won't care.

[Minion]

I have been fortunate to not have to do many increases while in business.  My material that I use generally has been pretty consistent. and I haven't had to change pricing much.  Shipping however has been the biggest problematic this year as it has gone up,.  So in order to counter that, I just purchased more in bulk to constitute the higher shipping charge.  Usually I don't need to explain to my customers the price changes as if it were to happen I do at the beginning of the year (unless for some reason their is a drastic price change).  The automotive dealerships I deal with are the only ones that I will update on a regular basis of any price changes, other than that It's just a matter of updating my website. 

[JK_Fiber_Art]

As most of our items are original designs and handmade in our Studio Gallery, it's a challenge to determine a fair price.  If you make your items by hand, how do you determine the cost - what is your time worth ??   Do your customers understand that they can't make what you make and respect your skill set ?

Sadly we cannot bill like a plumber or electrician by the hour - for example, it takes an average of 3 hours to make one unique fabric pin - we only charge $40 each which is truly a bargain.  If based on what I pay a plumber or electrician for the same amount of time, that unique handmade fabric pin would cost over $400 - don't think anyone would pay that.

People think nothing of going to a coffee shop and end up with a bill that's half the cost of one of my items however, some of these same folks think they are being overcharged for one of my items.  The coffee is good but, the experience is short whereas my unique items will last a lifetime.   So how do you put that into perspective?   There's really not a good solution other than putting a number out there and see what happens. 

jk