My conversion rate and number of sales has dropped significantly since I raised prices a couple of days ago. People got used to me only charging $1.50 to $3.60 more than I was spending to fulfill the order on stim toys and stim jewelry. I made more money from the $4 shipping than the item sold on almost every order.
On the other side, I’d have to sell 12 Ultimate Gear Fidget Spinners to equal the profit I made off one sale of that item with the raised prices.
@ashleyspencer It's too early to call it a bad move. Your existing customers and word-of-mouth connections to them, who likely highlighted your low costs, may be reluctant, but a new cohort who thinks your prices reflect good quality may arrive. Hang in there.
@alan Most of my products are still super cheap. Chew necklaces went from $10.95 to $12.95. Spinner rings went from $13.95 to $19.95 and $24.95. My top selling stim toy went from $13.95 to $14.95 to now $19.95. Oddly enough, I’ve only sold the luxury stuff since Tuesday night. Despite everything still being very low cost.
@ashleyspencer Pricing is weird. Back when I was doing product development, I got asked to submit a proposal for a job. I didn't really want the job but didn't want to tick my prospect off, so I sent in a proposal costed at double my normal rate. The response: "you were the most expensive but had the best proposal so we want to go with you". From then on I kept my rates up and wound up winning more jobs than when I was offering the exact same thing for less.
@samantha I do. Puerto Rico I lose money on every single order from there because it costs more to buy and ship than they pay in shipping. My average loss is $10 on Puerto Rico orders. Some countries in the EU are really expensive to ship to and if I didn’t charge shipping I’d lose money on every order there. Canada I charge $4 CAD and Canada orders cost so much to ship that the $2 USD they spend on shipping doesn’t cover all of it. Those orders eat into my profits.
@samantha Can I get your opinion on something? I’ve been thinking of doing this for a while, but until now my margins were way too low. My idea is changing the UK and EU to free shipping over €45 and £45. With the way the conversions work, it would be enough of a margin to not have to charge the $4 shipping. Getting free shipping adds to the experience when buying higher-priced items, at least here it does. What are your thoughts on that as someone in the EU?
@ashleyspencer
Short version: I'm positive about that both as a customer and (ignoring the exact cost for you details) for the store selling well.
The longer version:
Something like that is common at least in Ireland though the cut-offs vary somewhat. I don't know exactly how common it is in other EU countries, but I can say that a number of shops which cover north western Europe (including UK), which I have run into, also has this.
@ashleyspencer
The area of ~50EUR isn't uncommon (though e.g. both 20E and 100E are common too both from experience and a quick check).
Personally I do think shipping cost make a ilogcally large difference for deciding to order or not, so from a shop point of view I think free shipping over X, is generally a win (if economkially feasabile).
E.g. the default ~9E as a semi random example from one European store I use does cause me to batch more and at times perhaps end up not ordering.
@ashleyspencer
Your 4E is for me mentally small enough that I'm not put off by ordering, but with ~45E free delivery, I would probably end up going over that when buying if it's an option.
PS. I found some examples to verify my memory, but I'm not sure how useful it is, so didn't include for now (I can send them if it's useful).
@blue@samantha I went and did free shipping for everyone over an order minimum in their local currency. Shopify calculates currency conversions so I was able to set new prices. Scheduled an email to announce all of it and offered 10% off their next order. Order minimums will be a lot easier to reach now.
I’m sure if people knew the reason everything raised was because the rock-bottom prices were hurting my ability to pay my bills, they’d understand.
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