Leaving yourself some wiggle room
I’m often asked by jewellery designers, selling for the first time or transitioning from a retail operation to wholesaling to boutiques for the first time, how they should price their pieces. It’s easy to calculate the cost of your time and components. It’s slightly more difficult to figure out the marketing cost and perceived value of your work, but it’s do-able. One point that people always get stumped on though, is leaving themselves room to negotiate.
Room to Manoeuvre
Like climbing a mountain, it’s easier for prices to go down than it is to go up. When you offer a discount, either for multiple purchases or rewarding a friendly client, everyone is happy. It’s wise when pricing your jewellery to leave yourself some room to manoeuvre. I’ll write about price negotiation in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
In summary, your chosen price range should cover and provide a markup for the cost of your time and components, should somewhat match how much people are willing to pay for it, and should leave you a bit of room for a discount to increase sales. If your price can’t cover your costs without damaging its saleability, then some investigation needs to be done. Are your designs not marketable or are you marketing to the wrong clientele, and can the design or other factors be tweaked? With experience, all of these answers will become clear and you’ll find your pricing strategy sweet spot!
