Could someone give me some advice on pricing?

[PriceEmUp]

I sell handmade hats, I started doing it as a hobby when my daughter was born but my family convinced me to create a page and sell them and so far it’s been pretty good!

I usually use synthetic wool due to it being vegan friendly and it’s obviously a cheaper alternative, however I had offered to source and make a hat from 100% wool when they enquired.

Said customer was happy with her purchase and has now asked if I would do a trade deal, she wants a bulk of 12 hats in real wool in various sizes.

I’ve worked out how much wool is going to cost roughly, plus what I charge for my hats. This works out at £242.

Is this a mental amount of money for £12 handmade hats? I can offer a 10% discount for buying bulk which brings it down to £217.80.

Even a 15% discount makes it all £193.60.

For reference if I weren’t charging for the extra 100% wool the hats would have came to a total of £192 anyway so the 15% would practically mean I wouldn’t charge for the wool..

Can someone share their opinion - does this seem absolutely crazy to ask for?

I’m 24, I’ve never done anything like this so I’m looking for honest opinions on whether you would tell me where to stick it if I quoted you that amount.

Thanks!

Not crazy, just tell her how much (£217.80) then its up to her whether she accepts or not.

Don't sell yourself short.

Definitely don't sell yourself short. Charge more than that! Don't under value your work.

Well if she has bought one then she knows how much to expect them to be then do a bulk discount if you want. I agree with the others but also understand your worry, I am the same!

Thanks everyone.
I sent details and offered the 10% discount making the total £217.80 and customer was happy with that.

I’m really chuffed, never in a million years would I think I’d make sales to this extent.. I honestly thought it would be a friend and family affair then die down!

Best get my knitting fingers on! 🤓

It would be really interesting to know how much she sells them for.

Depending on the hat, I think you may have priced low. I couldn’t buy a handmade wool anything round here for £18 so I’d assume she’s making a good markup.

Yeah I too think you underpriced yourself.
However I can fully understand why you did.
Well done though 👍🏻

@HollowTalk I wondered the same. The market she wants to take them to isn’t too far from where I live. I’m tempted to take a trip and find out! Might give me a better idea of what I could be charging.

I think you'll find you're undercharging. Are you knitting by hand or with a machine?

@HollowTalk all by hand :)

You're under charging if you want to make this a business. I'm a jewellery designer maker and I mainly sell to retail and they sell it on.

For pricing, you've got (not an exhaustive list):
Materials
Labour per hour
% of overheads (insurance, tools etc)
Profit

That gives you your wholesale price. Then you times that by between 2 or 3 to get your retail price.

Check out the indie retail academy on facebook. There is loads of pricing help on there (just use the search posts function).

Someone I worked with knitted jumpers etc for sale - she found she worked much, much faster with a knitting machine. Would that be better for you?

@WhereverIGoddamnLike - I would love for it to take off as a business - however I live in a very small rural part of the world I’m just not sure how well I can do! I’m going to slowly build and see what happens. For now it’s a lovely bit of spare money to take my daughter out while I’m out of a job and studying uni from home.

@HollowTalk they don’t take me an awful lot of time, I knit with a loom ring instead of needles so a hat could take 2-3 hours at most to make.. not including distractions such as DD and needing many cups of tea a day

They sound great. Are they packaged up well, too? I've just had something off Etsy and it was packaged so nicely - I think it makes such a difference.

Thanks for covid19, you've got a couple years to slowly build up before retail will return to "normal". If you tried pitching retailers now, you'll get mostly knock backs so it's a good idea to start like you are now, build up a catalogue of popular items and sets, find the price points which work, get good photos taken etc. Use the retail down turn to your advantage by preparing for when they'll be buying again.

I think Etsy would be better or Not on the High Street, than retail, wouldn't it? She'd keep far more of the profits that way. I agree to focus on great photos and lots of designs. Could there be different designs based on time of year so that you attract a wider market?

Make sure you put a label in them with your contact info on so if she resells the buyer know who made them

@HollowTalk

Notonthehighstreet is similar to pitching retailers. Its curated; you cant just created an account and sell. You need to submit your products and they decide whether or not they want to stock you, you pay a fee to join and then they take quite a high percentage so similar to having wholesale and retail prices.

Etsy is a good start, but it is difficult to get noticed and it is flooded with tat as well so it's a bit if an art time learn how to title and tag your work. People can do really well on etsy if they work at it though so it is the first step.

Sorry, didn't realise that about Not on the High Street.

This was going to be another question, I didn’t know whether to make little business cards to send with them or to put a label inside it with information on?

@HollowTalk this is how they’re packaged at the moment then put into postage bags.. I ordered some postal boxes to put them in nicely so they don’t get squished but they came no bigger than a dvd so no good! I’m going to order some 9” pizza boxes so I can place them nicely in there with the pretty tissue and thank you sticker, then perhaps put a business card inside with a ‘care for me’ card with the washing information from the yarn inside.

I wouldn't bother with the "thank you" stickers. Have stickers made up with your brand name and use those instead.

Have you factored all the packaging into your prices too? I think it sounds like you're underselling yourself. There's no point doing it if you're not making a decent profit. I wouldn't be surprised if she's reselling around £35. Have a look on etsy and see how much similar things are selling for.

@WhereverIGoddamnLike I’ve looked into those stickers! Think I will invest soon as they’ll look much better.

@ShesMadeATwatOfMePam I put a picture in a group and asked how much people would spend on them and took the slightly higher than average suggestion. I’ve tried a craft calculator but the price came out ridiculous!

I’m profiting, which I’m happy with. But if this grown into something a bit bigger I’ll probably need to up the prices for sure.

@WhereverIGoddamnLike

Check out the indie retail academy on facebook. There is loads of pricing help on there (just use the search posts function).

Thanks for this suggestion!! And the tips on here. I'm new to selling on Etsy and not getting much traction yet and feeling discouraged. price your hats sounds brilliant! The packaging looks great too. Are you on Instagram or anything?