Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Debrief: Finding The Right Price Meet-Up

[UPDATE] Jetzt findet ihr hier dieses Artikel auf Deutsch.

Last night 9 Munich Etsians had the first of (hopefully) many meet-ups where we gathered together to talk business! Using the Fragebogen put together by MissusD we had a fruitful and open discussion about pricing our work.

Some of our key takeaways:
  • When determining your hourly rate, you need to not only factor in your hourly rate but also your costs such as insurance, marketing time, space rental, and taxes (Gewerbe, Einkommen, Mehrwert, usw.)
  • Ignore what other people are charging on Etsy (or any other marketplace) and determine your price based on value and your costs

  • Factors such as methods of payment may impact what people are willing to pay. For example, if you are selling your products at a fair, and only accept cash people may not be as willing to pay for an item that costs over €100, whereas if you accept EC cards, people are not limited to the amount of cash they have in their wallets

  • We need to think about pricing on value, and educating customers not only about the costs of handmade, but the stories behind our products and the fact that many of our items are OOAK (one of a kind) or unique in ways that mass-produced items aren't. As one participant said: "People don't have to be rich to purchase something, they just have to fall in love with it"

  • Sometimes items can be priced to cheaply, and raising the price can actually increase sales. At least two of the group participants had this experience


It was very hard to separate the discussion from other aspects of being a small business, especially marketing. We realized we definitely need more meet-ups soon around topics such as blogging, Google, social media, time management, productivity and basic business best practices. A lot of these themes are being tackled at the Hello Etsy conference in September, but we'd like to get a jump on them ahead of time!

7 comments:

  1. I love the collective concensus and comments on pricing. One thing I notice over and over is that while some things online are WAY overpriced, other things, many many MANY things, are underpriced. I think one should consider the fact that if it is an OOAK item, or if there is the likelihood that it approaches 'art', or 'high craft', the value is substantially more than if an item is made from mass-produced elements and simply glued together. I have seen things I would covet selling for peanuts, and things one could find at Walmart going for the price of a very expensive bottle of real champagne. The relationship is lost.

    I wish I lived closer so I could take part in these meetings...

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  2. Thanks Eleanor for setting up the meeting and creating the space for making such a discussion to happen in the first place!

    It was good to see different perspectives and approaches and it helps me clarify some of my thoughts on issues such as marketing being not just a factor of pricing but also an avenue for people to appreciate the value of a unique handmade product.

    Handmade products, if not art or "kunst" is still something that comes from creativity and we need to highlight that and include those who appreciate our work to understand the story of our work.

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  3. Hallo ihr Lieben,

    ich finde es sehr schade, dass ihr die Beiträge hier nicht alle (auch) auf deutsch schreibt. Geht es nicht um das Germam Street Team?

    Ich bin zwar in Englisch relativ gut unterwegs, es fällt aber schwerer als schnell etwas auf deutsch zu lesen. Vor allem vor dem Hintergrund zur Einführung der deutschen Plattform wäre es sehr hilfreich, hier einen Anlaufpunkt zu haben.

    Vielen Dank für das Teilen der Ergebnisse und ich freue mich auf weitere Erfahrungen (-:

    LG
    Sabine

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  4. Hi Sabine,
    Ich verstehe, leider ist meine schriftliche Deutsche Katastrophisch! Auf jeden fall, diesem Blog post wird von Etsy übersetzt und auf die Etsy.de blog innerhalb die nächste paar tage gepostet...sorry, ich stimme zu dass es nicht ideale die infos hier auf Englisch zu posten.

    Allerdings, Wir sind ein sehr gemischtes, internationales gruppe von verkäufer in Deutschland und wir versuchen ein mischung von Englisch und Deutsch posts auf die Blog zu haben.

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  5. Sabine, ich verstehe Dich, und werde es versuchen auch in zukunftigen Posten aufs Deutsch zu screiben. Leider ist mein schrichtlichen Deutsch nicht das beste, aber ich werde mein beste geben.

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  6. It was nice to meet and we really had a fruitful discussion. Big thank you for putting all the effort in to Kathleen and Matt Kirsch and Eleanor.

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  7. Guten Morgen (-:

    Ich freue mich sehr, dass ihr meinen Wunsch so positiv aufgenommen habt. Danke schön.

    And don't care about a crazy translation. I also read the English input to improve my partly insufficient English (-;

    LG
    Sabine

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