Advice on pricing a craft product

[onlineo]

Thank you! It's so generous of you to say such supportive words ... I was feeling quite glum tbh about the whole thing but this has certainly cheered me up On the plus side, my Etsy shop is now live. But I have yet to tweak it quite a bit (HUGE learning curve ) . Once I do that, I might add that to my signature here as well so you guys can give me feedback. But thank you so much, you really made my day :D:D

 

---------- Post added 03-01-2016 at 14:56 ----------

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for your kind responses and ideas. No, i had never thought about looking there .... I will do now!

 

My friend suggested perhaps I should approach nursery schools and see if they might be interested .. but i do not think a personalized/customized quiet book has any relevance there. Am I wrong? Besides, the thought of approaching schools and pitching them something is also hugely uncomfortable to me. (Although one lady who sells cosmetics actually got away with dropping fliers in children's nursery trays at my daughter's school ... so I'm wondering if that is a realistic option at all... )

 

 

Hi Mimi.

 

If this product takes you 30-40 hours to make and you sell it for £50-£200, you will happily make a handful, maybe 10 books but after weeks working full time hours only to make £1000 total you will give up and never make any more. The key is to setting a high enough price so that the hours you put into designing, making and selling the books makes you enough money to live on (this is presuming you need the income and want to make a business out of this). Possibly £1500 is too cheap in hindsight.

 

It will take you a while to get your first paying customer and possibly your price will be too high for 99% of most people. I would think a Facebook or Twitter competition with the prize a bespoke book worth £xxxx. Only people who post a link to the competition on their profile get entered. It is a good way of promoting your books to people who like your product although there is no saying any of them can afford one, and you can always offer a runners up prize of 10% off to everyone who doesn't win or a free upgrade to a more premium version.

 

I would suggest watching the The Millionaire's Gift Guide on the BBC iPlayer

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06vkbwn/the-millionaires-gift-guide

You want to partner with the party planners that spend £100,000 on a child's party. Your book could be a great party gift bag idea, or the prize in a posh pass the parcel or they might be able to put you in contact with parents who would love to buy your books. If you strive for excellence you will attract the people willing to pay for it. I think they paid £10,000 for the party cake.

[Mimi83]

Hi Mimi.

 

If this product takes you 30-40 hours to make and you sell it for £50-£200, you will happily make a handful, maybe 10 books but after weeks working full time hours only to make £1000 total you will give up and never make any more. The key is to setting a high enough price so that the hours you put into designing, making and selling the books makes you enough money to live on (this is presuming you need the income and want to make a business out of this). Possibly £1500 is too cheap in hindsight.

 

It will take you a while to get your first paying customer and possibly your price will be too high for 99% of most people. I would think a Facebook or Twitter competition with the prize a bespoke book worth £xxxx. Only people who post a link to the competition on their profile get entered. It is a good way of promoting your books to people who like your product although there is no saying any of them can afford one, and you can always offer a runners up prize of 10% off to everyone who doesn't win or a free upgrade to a more premium version.

 

I would suggest watching the The Millionaire's Gift Guide on the BBC iPlayer

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06vkbwn/the-millionaires-gift-guide

You want to partner with the party planners that spend £100,000 on a child's party. Your book could be a great party gift bag idea, or the prize in a posh pass the parcel or they might be able to put you in contact with parents who would love to buy your books. If you strive for excellence you will attract the people willing to pay for it. I think they paid £10,000 for the party cake.

 

Thanks once again for your insightful comments. You have hit the nail on the head when it comes to my ideal business plan. I think I should start work on developing an über high quality product for the high end market and explore marketing options like you say. Meanwhile though, should i go live with my cheaper Etsy shop anyway just to get word/a few sales out?

Also if you don't mind, would it be ok if i PM'ed you for advice ??

Thanks!

[onlineo]

Hi Mimi. By all means pm me. Personally I would focus on getting the product and the build process correct for the uber high end whilst trying to make contacts with people who deal with your future clients. The harm in the etsy shop is that it will take a lot of time and effort to do. if you can streamline your process so that you are making a living wage from it then keep going, if not then don't do it. Starting 1 business is hard, starting 2 is very hard.

[Chez2]

Hi Mimi. By all means pm me. Personally I would focus on getting the product and the build process correct for the uber high end whilst trying to make contacts with people who deal with your future clients. The harm in the etsy shop is that it will take a lot of time and effort to do. if you can streamline your process so that you are making a living wage from it then keep going, if not then don't do it. Starting 1 business is hard, starting 2 is very hard.

 

I understood the OP to meant they were going to sell the same product on Etsy and to high end outlets. If they don't spend ages with individual listings on Esty is not dissimilar to other on line selling platforms. As long as they don't devalue the product by selling too cheap on Etsy I don't see the problem.

[Mimi83]

Thank you once again for your kind responses.

 

I will never place my final product on Etsy: I think the market is not appropriate. There is a certain going rate for this kind of products on Etsy and I think already my products are hugely devalued there. Basically there is huge price competition from sellers in Malaysia, Europe, Russia. I am just posting products there which are relatively quicker to create but good quality still. No sales yet I guess it's a learning curve. If Etsy doesn't work out in, say 3 months, I might leave.

 

I have already started drafting the high end product but I am having trouble with determining my market entry mode: how will i approach those party planners once the work is done? Should i make smaller samples of my work to post out to them? Should i pre-book an appointment and physically visit them to show the product? Do they entertain B2B clients like this? Any insights on the final marketing will be very helpful.

 

Thank you once again for your wonderful insights, you're all stars!

[Chez2]

Thank you once again for your kind responses.

 

I will never place my final product on Etsy: I think the market is not appropriate. There is a certain going rate for this kind of products on Etsy and I think already my products are hugely devalued there. Basically there is huge price competition from sellers in Malaysia, Europe, Russia. I am just posting products there which are relatively quicker to create but good quality still. No sales yet I guess it's a learning curve. If Etsy doesn't work out in, say 3 months, I might leave.

 

I have already started drafting the high end product but I am having trouble with determining my market entry mode: how will i approach those party planners once the work is done? Should i make smaller samples of my work to post out to them? Should i pre-book an appointment and physically visit them to show the product? Do they entertain B2B clients like this? Any insights on the final marketing will be very helpful.

 

Thank you once again for your wonderful insights, you're all stars!

 

Fair enough, its your business. I wish you well but I think you are making some big mistakes judging from the above posts. I guess you haven't see that people are paying almost £100 on etsy just to have initials embroidered on the cover of a normal (empty) scrap book or photo album.

[Mimi83]

Fair enough, its your business. I wish you well but I think you are making some big mistakes judging from the above posts. I guess you haven't see that people are paying almost £100 on etsy just to have initials embroidered on the cover of a normal (empty) scrap book or photo album.

 

Thanks for your insight, Chez2. My mistakes are precisely why I started this post in the first place because this is all new to me. Do you reckon I should work harder on the Etsy shop then? As for price competition, just to give you an idea, an excellent product which I would personally foresee being priced at more than £500 for its quality and workmanship is only around £140 from Ukraine. How do I beat that? I am working alone and despite referring to all sorts of 'time saving' crafting techniques could never speed up production to reduce my price to that level. If I did, I would probably be paying myself less than £2 per hour.

[Leather4Less]

Don't get too focused on pricing as there will always be who will be happy to pay a higher price for a product that they believe is superior.

 

If it is a product for children / infants, then a clear message that it is made in England, by hand, very safe, environmentally friendly materials, recycled where appropriate etc immediately increases the expected price.

 

Getting in the right market connects you with people who look at the product first and then the price rather than vice versa.

 

Etsy is good from my limited experience with them, but there are others aswell. As for online advertising, I have had the best results from Facebook, you can target the audience you need to connect with, add videos etc.

 

Good luck with it

[Mimi83]

Thank you for your insights. What you say makes a lot of sense. Perhaps I need to tweak my business plan : start small with local gift/craft shops to get some market experience ... and then take it up from there.

 

P.S. This is harder/ more complicated than I thought ...

 

 

 

Don't get too focused on pricing as there will always be who will be happy to pay a higher price for a product that they believe is superior.

 

If it is a product for children / infants, then a clear message that it is made in England, by hand, very safe, environmentally friendly materials, recycled where appropriate etc immediately increases the expected price.

 

Getting in the right market connects you with people who look at the product first and then the price rather than vice versa.

 

Etsy is good from my limited experience with them, but there are others aswell. As for online advertising, I have had the best results from Facebook, you can target the audience you need to connect with, add videos etc.

 

Good luck with it

[sophiec1979]

On the plus side, my Etsy shop is now live.

 

Are you a member of the Sheffield Sellers on Etsy team?

 

Loads of people to ask for advice there...and the Etsy seller handbook is stuffed full of advice too

 

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