bulk pricing

[Former_Member]

I just received an inquiry about an order for 80 note cards. I've often struggled with what's fair to both customer and me about a bulk price. Does anybody have any suggestion as to what an honest discount should be? I've done it before, but always have come out on the short end! Please help. Is there a formula? I sell my cards in packs of 10 with envelopes.

Thanks
Susan

[GirlpowerKnits]

Bulk pricing (wholesale) is generally 40-50% off.

You could do 25-30% if it is under your "wholesale" minimum order....

[Former_Member]

I set a bottom dollar, that covers my costs and a time and I am not going under that. No matter how many they order. Not making 4 million of my items at a loss.....just not doing it.
Turn down a deal just yesterday...guy wanted 100's ...at less then I could make them for let alone my time. Said he was thinking of them as more of a "production item" Told him I wasnt a manufacturing plant but an artist.

[GirlpowerKnits]

Good Breanna!
I just got an order for 600 flower lapel pins. He wanted me to go lower price wise due to the amount, I said no, and described all my costs.... He understood, I think.

[Former_Member]

I've received orders for 9 - 12 of things (coasters and curling iron coasters when I made them), and I threw in free shipping. People seemed pleased with that offer.

[FiestaKidsBoutique]

I had that problem when I was making/selling baby booties in my shop, lots and lots of wholesale inquiries and orders but they want at least 50% off or even more than that.
My booties are 100% made by hand, NOT mass produced, I don´t use a sewing machine in the process, so I could not offer that much of a discount but did take 30-40% off when purchasing over 24 pairs, and most of them really understood why, once they saw the booties in person =o)

I did get my costs covered and a it more, but the actual hand labor is the one I sacrificed, and those are a lot of hours of detailed labor, so the advantage I got from selling wholesale back then, was that I got my money upfront and not had to wait for 36 pairs to sell them one by one; but maybe that can be solved with good marketing strategy or advertising.

I wish you the very best, lots of progress on 2013 for you!!

[ScrapendipityDesigns]

I do package pricing on my patterns, I actually have listings for them. I give a % off depending on how many they buy. If someone bought 80 cards as individual listings, that would cost you $16 is Etsy listing fees (and $24 if they were individual sales using Paypal since they charge $.30 per transaction), so maybe start there when considering a discount. If you set up a custom listing for the 80 cards together, he is saving you $16 - $40 vs. selling 80 cards to 80 people. Then maybe throw in free shipping as well. Remember he is giving you a guaranteed sale of 80 cards, vs. waiting for 80 people to buy your cards. He may not be looking for wholesale on them, just a discount of some kind for buying so many. Don't assume he wants wholesale prices!! :) I often ask for discounts if I am buying a lot of something, but I am never expecting wholesale prices.

Good luck!
Rachel

[Former_Member]

I set my wholesale pricing in the first place to cover labor, materials, profit, and overhead and my retail is often (but not always) twice that, so if I were to sell something in really large bulk it would be no less than my wholesale price.

However, buying 10 of my linens, for example, wouldn't be wholesale to me so I wouldn't take the price that low. For my set of 5 plain towels, the discount comes out to 7.5% discount. For 10, I might do a 15% discount but I wouldn't take it down to wholesale.

Anyhow, that's how I have it organized. Interested to see what others do!

[Former_Member]

This is a huge reason to price your items higher. People generally expect 40-50% off for wholesale orders (if you do them) and if your prices are already too low, you won't be able to offer that discount.

Your price is all going to depend on your current mark up. If I were you, I'd really look at your pricing formula to figure out how much of a discount you could afford but still make a profit (not just get paid back for your materials, time, and fees).

Generally, the formula for pricing that I've been trying to stick to is (time + materials + overhead + 10% profit) x2. I also take Etsy and Paypal fees into consideration and I always figure my material costs at full price. So, technically, I'm already only selling at wholesale prices. However, I do have the wiggle room to offer discounts like free shipping or a small % off. I would probably give 10-20% off for bulk orders but that would be the absolute best I could do.

You have to decide what you can afford and stick to your guns. Good luck to you and keep us posted!

[Former_Member]

Thanks for all the great advice. It never occurred to me that this might be a wholesaler. I design my cards, print, cut and fold my cards by hand, so I guess I would have to sacrifice labor costs.

All the best to you all in 2013!

[Former_Member]

You should never sacrifice your labor costs. You would be accepting the sale at a huge loss.

[Former_Member]

I once had a someone ask, "How much would it be for 100 of these?" She was referring to my engraved log candle holders. I cut each one, drill each one, sand each one, dremel each one and top coat each one - it is more work than it looks.

Anyway, I told her how much they were and she wanted me to go 50% off because of the amount. I am at the stage where if I am going to put that much work into something, I would like to get paid for my hard work. Not just barely break even.

I was also asked how much a $25 item would be is she bought 45 of them. I called a friend who said, 'Tell her it is $25 X 45....end of story."

In reality, I will give a bit (maybe a dollar or two per item) and I will group them so the shipping is much cheaper, but other than that, my time is worth a lot to me and so should yours. I don't understand why people who spend all their time working very hard to make something should have to barely break even by giving a discount just because more of the same items were ordered. If 50 customers bought one each, it would be a lot of time to make and no discount would be offered. If one customer ordered 50, same amount of time and effort, we feel we must give a big discount - I don't get that at all.

Don't sell yourself short. You are worth more than that. :)

[Former_Member]

The problem with wholesale pricing, is you need to be priced correctly before hand to account for that. If you're underpricing in general, then you can't do wholesale! Take that into consideration from now on, so you can price for wholesale!

[PiecesOfMePaperCraft]

I just finished my first large order this week (it was not a wholesale order). While I was making the order I realized that multiplying the cost of one by the quantity needed doesn't earn me enough money. The labor is still the same - just multiplied! There's no way I can charge more so I have to either raise the price of a single item and take myself out of the competitive market or suck it up and take a hit on large orders. I gave a small discount on this particular order but I won't do that again. I realized halfway through that I sold myself short. I'm not complaining because I'm extremely happy that I got the order. If anything, it was a learning experience!

[SageNThymeDesigns]

People often expect a discount for a larger order. The most I usually offer is 10-15% off, unless it's a wholesale order and there are only certain items that I can/will offer for wholesale (and have priced accordingly). Make sure your pricing is correct and then think about what you can offer without losing yourself in the transaction.

Honestly, every single time I've had someone ask for a bulk discount through Etsy I've ended up with a bad feeling and it turned out to be a bad situation.

Trust your gut feeling before agreeing to anything!!