Christmas Pricing

[angel85]

Hey all, not visited for ages, but please don't hold that against me.

Was hoping to gauge a response in regards to the issue of pricing, in particular around the Christmas period. How do you guys (many of which I see sell some lovely pieces online) price your items? Do you find promotions such as discounts work or simply work to devalue an item. At what kind of prices range do you tend to stay within? I'll be taking my jewellery to some shows, my sites still a pipeline dream which I am determines to fulfill in the new year. Do you increase prices at Christmas? Perhaps look to increase personal margins or is that not the way to go?

Your opinions and feedback would be much appreciated.

[Boo]

I don't increase prices, once set on a per piece basis, for any reason.

I make the piece, I price it (based on the material prices that I used for it), I put a sticker on it and that's the price I sell it at in all venues.

I think customers would get pretty teed off to see a piece they'd been interested in, suddenly increase in price. We'd hate it as customers, so shouldn't do it to ours.

I've just made some earrings like a previously popular design, but I've made them from heavier gauge silver and finished them better than earlier models, so have increased the prices for those reasons. But it's a better product; the raw materials cost more and I spent more time on them. But I bet I get asked about it at some time - they do notice.

[Gemma]

I agree- its quite annoying as a customer to see prices go up on identical pieces but it is fine to up your prices if the materials are better quality than they were previously.

[Boo]

Prices will gradually gravitate upwards over time on newly made pieces, they're bound to, the cost of very little actually falls. If I make the same piece now that I last made a year ago, I think a modest price increase is acceptable.

But putting prices up on already made items to cash in on a particular season, is something different entirely. I think my customers would find that pretty unacceptable.

[amazingbabe]

Boo i was just wondering how do you actually price your jewellery and do you add an hourly rate for yourself ???

[Boo]

Yes, I combine the materials cost with an hourly rate (which includes overheads) and the direct costs of selling it - I've worked out a flat average to cover costs of selling (PayPal fees, postage, craft fair insurance, web site costs etc.) regardless of where I sell it - each venue has its own inherent cost implications and they work out pretty similar.

Pricing can be as simple or as complicated as you want - and it depends on what you want to achieve - for example, if you want to sell wholesale to shops who will sell retail at the same price as you - that needs to be factored in. I've not gone that route, I don't choose to at the moment - so I'm selling at a little above what really should be my wholesale prices.

I have a spreadsheet that has a series of formula in - from the simplest CYA price to a fully worked out formula including overheads etc. I just type in the materials cost and a time taken and it gives me a range of final prices - and I pitch the final price somewhere towards the lower ones. So I know that my prices should be higher.

This site has a nice easy formula - see the right hand column:
Land of Odds - Pricing and Selling Your Jewelry

This spreadsheet of Chris Parry's is much more thorough - I used it to establish my hourly rate and some other base figures I use in the simpler calcs:
Chris Parry -Bespoke Jewellery: Free Spreadsheet for pricing your work.

[Dano]

i'm curious as to how one would adapt your hourly rate when you're just starting out and things take you blimmin' ages to do? cause otherwise the better quality your stuff is the cheaper it is and that's kinda.. not exactly what you'd expect