Raising Prices to Cover Heartsy Deal

[StrikingKittens]

Hi All

I've just joined the team in hopes you can help me with my Heartsy questions. :)

Firstly, I was considering applying for a Heartsy deal, so last night I crunched my numbers. The result was, that I would be unable to sustain a profit on most of my items if I did a 52% Heartsy deal. I would have to up my prices for a lot of my items.

How do people feel about raising prices before applying for Heartsy? Is it a big no no, or maybe unfair to buyers?

How much profit should you expect after having a Heartsy deal? I was thinking $10 for my clothing items and $5 for my jewellery items. Am I expecting too much?

Thanks

Jade

[Former_Member]

Raising prices for a deal is a big no-no. If you decide that your prices need changing, permanently, regardless of whether you do heartsy or not, that's okay to do. Raising them to do heartsy and then lowering them later is no good and will get people mad at you.

I know it varies from seller to seller, but you can expect to make very little or lose money in general when doing heartsy. It's a promo. You may make a little bit of money, lose some, etc. Some sellers bring in a fair amount when people spend extra over their voucher amount. Some sellers also make money when they have an item with more labor than materials cost; if the materials are cheap and they can afford the time, they do okay.

[StrikingKittens]

Thanks for your answer, Distinction.

If I was marking them up, they would stay up for sure. I'm not going to make my prices go up and down - that's just extremely uncool.

I already don't charge for my labour, so if I lose money, I'm really losing money.

[Former_Member]

Raising them after you already submit, and work out a deal is a big no-regardless if you keep it at that price from now on.

[StrikingKittens]

Thanks Gee!

I would raise them before submitting, definately.

Did anyone have to raise their prices before they applied?

[Former_Member]

Did anyone have to raise their prices before they applied?
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I have seen quite a few, and a lot of people got mad. LOL

I bought from one person and paid only $25 for her item within moments of her going live, and when I went to browse her shop again after about 12 hours(to get something for my sister) she actually upped it to $32!! And another item in her shop went from $10 to $14.50. I was shocked at her ignorance, and nerve. LOL I contacted Nathan right away about it and he told her to put her price back to what it was when her shop went live.

[Former_Member]

Hi there, sounds like you are under priced. Here's a good read.

http://www.ohmyhandmade.com/2011/contributors/underselling-why-discomfort-is-a-terrible-pricing-stra...

[italiacraft]

Work out your prices before applying. I can see you are in Australia. You can make adjustments for currency fluctuations as needed.

[ShopDeatsGifts]

Yep, work out your prices before you submit your application. So, when and if you are accepted, you can then negotiate a voucher deal that you can actually sustain. I knew going in that I could only offer a certain discount percentage and was able to negotiate that with Heartsy. My profit is in percentages and not in dollar amounts.

[StrikingKittens]

Thanks, Cubits, I'll have a read. I know I'm probably underpriced, but even at the prices I am at, I still get people saying they can't afford it.

I did raise some of my prices recently. Not all of my items would need higher prices, but a larger proportion would.

Bugphobia - I'm worried that people would view it badly, but I wouldn't raise my prices during the Heartsy deal. Definately shows the seller in a negative light. Those sellers must not have done the maths before the deal.

bumble, percentage of profit is a good idea. I add precentages when I do my pricing. I realised that I'd been doing it wrong for ages, and was undercutting myself, which is why I had to raise prices the first time. :/

[Former_Member]

This just happened to me! A seller for whom I had a voucher raised her prices mid-deal. It was only a little bit, I called her on it and she gave me the old price, but still it was very annoying to look at what I had in my cart and see the messages from etsy saying the price had changed since I added them to the cart.

[StrikingKittens]

No no no, during the deal??! That's just wrong. Also, against most countries trading laws I believe.

[tanyabond]

why not offer a really small voucher amount - like 6 for 13 or so and do a VIP only? Most of your items are way over 13 so anyone using the voucher would have to spend over the amount and the discount would be only $7 (in the numbers I gave).

[StrikingKittens]

I didn't realise you could do that tanyabond, thanks.

I've sort of decided, that as long as I get a profit, I'll be happy. My main goal for doing Heartsy was to clear some stock, unclutter my house so I can make some new stuff and re-clutter it. :)