Pricing Your Etsy Items

Yesterday I posted a simple tweet:

"Sales slow? Try this: Pick 5 items in your etsy shop, raise the prices by 20% or more, renew them and then Tweet and Facebook the items."

I got so many replies that I thought I would better explain myself. One reader said she had started a 50% off sale to generate some income but it wasn't working. She wanted to know why she should raise her prices.

When people are searching for handmade items they expect to spend more for them. Yes, perhaps, they can order something similar from China for a fraction of the cost. People today are trying to get away from spending their money of cheap mass produced items. So, they are searching for handmade items.

Every time I raise prices on items in my shop I experience a bump in sales. That means I was probably underpricing myself to begin with! Anytime you have a sale of over 25% - 30% without a reason, such as a holiday or celebration, people see that as desperate and are not likely to take you up on the sale.

I wrote an eBook about How To Price Your Handmade Items that really spells out the how and why of pricing. It is only $3.50 but is a wealth of knowledge. In the eBook I go into detail on how your pricing is regarded by your customers. You should also look at you competition and see how similar items are priced. When I say competitive, I mean people who are selling the same type of items you have. And I mean selling, not just listing the same type of items. Your competition is the one who is outselling you with the same product type.

I hope that clears things up a bit. Let me know what you think. Leave a comment or send me an email: MarketMyShop@gmail.com

Pricing Handmade Items For Etsy

So, you have worked really hard to make an item and you are ready to put it up on Etsy. When it comes time to put a price on it you suddenly go blank! This is a common problem for many Etsy Sellers. In fact it is a problem for many crafters in general. How do you put a value on something that you made from scratch?

There are as many pricing formulas as there are breeds of dogs. Okay, I made that up, but there are a lot of different pricing formulas. I want to share my favorite and what seems to be the most accurate one. First add up all the cost of the finished product.

Material Cost + Labor + Overhead = Cost of finished product
Cost of finished product X 2 = Wholesale Price
Wholesale Price X 2 = Retail Price

Material Cost is just that, the cost of all materials.
Labor is the amount of time you spent creating the item.
Overhead is the cost percentage of rent/mortgage, electric, use of machinery, etc. that was used in the creation of the item.

Generally to figure wholesale you would double the Cost of the finished product. To figure retail you would double the Wholesale price of the item.

Now there are a lot of variables in this. I go into a lot more detail in my eBook on Pricing Hand Made Items For Etsy which is currently on sale for just $3.50. There I talk about how yo figure your material cost, labor and overhead. I also talk about how to lower your retail without sacrificing your time and energy.

I would like to hear your experiences in pricing your handmade items. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email to MarketMyShop@gmail.com