pugdog
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Jun 9, 2005, 8:40 AM
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New pricing policy on bead strands being phased in.
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We've gotten a lot of feedback over the past few years, and especially the past few months as a whole host of other local designers and wholesale customers have joined us. Our volume has gone up, and our purchasing power has increased proportionally, so we've been offering specials as we get them. But, another issue has come up in the general every day pricing of strands.
The issue is how we price strands. Most of our strands are hand selected from larger batches, and people who use our strands start to appreciate that as they try mail order on their own. And, trips to NY start to get expensive :)
While we were growing, it was OK to sit and price each set of beads individually. But as our volume grows, especially on the lower end (under $15, and even under $25), it gets confusing for people to figure out what their discounts are before they get to the register.
When strands come in, we look at what we got, and what we paid, and figure an "average" price over the batch. If the strands are all about the same (or in the lower end price class) we give them all the same price. If they are varied, the way stones like Malachite, Rhodonite, or fancy jaspers can be, we grade them differently so the first person to see them doesn't get the "best" strand at a lowball price, and people who come late to the party see lower grade strands at the "average" price (without ever seeing the "good" strands). Sometimes, batches like that can come in with an average price of $18, but we grade one strand at $30, and several strands at $12 because of overall quality.
In addition, we get strands that have different discount levels. Sometimes we buy strands (and the white/green moss agate sometimes called "tree agate" is a great example) and one time they come in at $10 a strand, other times they come in at $14 and other times we can get them at a price too low to quote <G>. I'm not sure why the major variations (especially in that) but some of the minor variations have to do with batch sizes, conversion rates, and simply what the miners or distributors think they can get.
We try to keep an average price across similar materials (especially at the lower end, under about $15). That means some strands may have a potential discountability of up to 40 or 50% while others may only have a 20% discountability.
It makes it hard for people to figure their discounts as they are picking strands, since one $14 strand may end up as only $10, while another would be $12, and still others might go as low as $8. (We are talking quantity purchases, of course, not one or two strands at retail).
Cash sales over $20 always get a little discount, and sales over $40 always get a reasonable discount on the strands. But it's not been something YOU could figure out before you got to the register.
Gemstones (and even glass strands) are commodities, like stocks, orange juice, and pork bellies (to reference a popular movie). The prices fluctuate based on market conditions, phases of the moon, and now the Euro and falling dollar. The Euro has held steady for most glass/crystal coming in from Europe, and the Yen has been outpacing the dollar for Japanese seed beads, and such. All this affects the prices of a strand. It makes for some *very* complicated pricing, and discount schedules since two similar strands could have prices that were quite varied, depending on the market conditions they were purchased in.
Strands over $30 or $40 are largely unaffected by minor market fluctuations, but strands under $10 are much more greatly affected. The bulk of our strands are in the $10-$25 range, so are moderately affected.
To combat this we've been thinking of several different ways of pricing.
Those of you who purchase mutliple strands, know how discounts apply. Since we have a large base of "Make and Take" customers, most items are priced at retail, for "onesie" type buying, and discounts on total orders are applied at the register. For loose beads, that won't change much with the pricing schedules.
But, for bead strands, we are considering (and we'd *LIKE* your feedback via email, this forum, or talk to us in the shop --- that carries the most weight) the following format.
1) Price everything (all strands) at full/fair retail. That means most sticker prices will go up slightly.
2) Give a 10% discount on all stranded items, all the time. That more than covers the slight increases.
3) Give price breaks on quantities of strands at 3, 5 and 10 (and for some other materials different levels)
4) Move the pricing from trying to figure a dollar and cents price per strand, to "price groups" (like the old record stores). That absorbs minor price differences between strands ($12.50, $12.75, $12.99) and gives it back in the discount schedules. It will save us time, and hopefully work out to increase volume, which means continually lower costs. A $13 strand that is now priced at $14, with a 10% discount, actually works out LESS, to $12.60, and other discounts like Beader Bonus Bucks will still apply).
5) the biggest discounts and potential breaks are in the $12 and under groups, that will be "red" coded, and given an A, B, C, D designation on how they can be discounted.
The *COLOR* of the tag would indicate the type of discount that strand would have.
Example:
White means a price break of 20% at 3 and 25% at 5 strands.
Yellow means a price break of 20% at 3 and 25% at 5 strands, and 30% at 10 strands.
Blue means no standard price price breaks, except the 10% off (and volume discounts)
Green means 20% off 2 or more, 30% off 5 or more.
Orange would be 10% off 1, 20% off 2 30% off 3
This part is the part that is *not* well planned out at this point. While we are aware of the basic PRICE groups we have, the "discount groups" are not quite as obvious to us. We don't want it too complicated, but want to be able to reflect which strands have less "room" to negotiate, which strands have more room.
Example: I get in a great deal on Garnet. Rather than pricing them in the $18 or $20 categories, and offering price breaks, I feel I can offer them at $14 to everyone -- but no further discounts above that. So, they would be $14-BLUE for the standard 10% retail, 20-30% wholesale discount.
Example2: I get in a large lot of hematite beads/pendent-strands. Normally, they'd be $12, with price breaks (3 or more $10 each, 5 or more $8 each). I feel I'd rather just let them go so they get marked RED-D for $8, and standard 10% discount or wholesale discount would apply.NOTE: We are *considering* this, to make it easier for people to figure out what discounts they could get on multiple strand purchases, rather than asking about each strand.
So, if you get 10 blue strands, and 10 white strands, you'd get 20% off the total of the blue strands (no matter what their actual cost) and 30% off the white strands.
You'd also get your "Beader Bonus Bucks" for your actual dollars spent, and potentially other discounts based on total dollar value of your order.
But, you'd know ahead of time, that getting one extra white strand would give you at least another 10% off your order.
Unlike most mail order, we don't care WHAT the strands are (like our by-the-gram bali sterling), it's TOTAL amount that matters. You can pick one of 10 different strands, or 10 of one strand. From our point of view, it's all the same.
I know this sounds a tad complicated, but *please* come by the store, talk with us, ESPECIALLY if you buy bulk strands. As our volume grows, we can offer better prices to EVERYONE, but especially to bulk customers.
If you want to add beads to your own STORE, please talk with us! We supply several local shops, and can do the same for you. You can come in, pick what your customers may want, give it a try, and if it doesn't work, exchange it for the items that are selling in your shop to YOUR CUSTOMERS. Can *any* Mail Order company offer that??? You can also try out crystals, spheres, rocks by the bag, or metaphysical stones. We also offer pendents in a variety of materials, if you want low cost necklaces.
Regular Wholesale Customers Take Note: I will finally be opening the "PUGDOG'S Private Stock" area, and those of you who purchase from me regularly know what that is. I take a lot of teasing about it, but I have squirrelled away a *lot* of above-grade materials, or unique strands and items, that are extra special for some reason. I had hopes of designing my own stuff, but that has never materialized, and with some new things I've taken on, it probably never will. I'm not going to stop 'cherry picking' from wherever I find it, *BUT* the difference is I will be making these above grade items available to our wholesale and VIB customers. There are still a few things I won't part with, but about 80% or more of my "collection" will be made available as we rearrange the shop (again). I've always offered "that special something" to people who were looking for it, if I had it, but it was an ask-first situation. "PUGDOG'S Private Stock" will be a browsable area of the shop, as a perk for our regular customers for shopping locally in Pittsburgh, and with us, rather than mail order.
The discussion for this message is HERE
Thanks for your input!
PUGDOG's Rock & Bead Shop
Pittsburgh, PA 15217
(This post was edited by pugdog on Jun 9, 2005, 8:46 AM)
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