Discuss the process of getting your t-shirt line into brick and mortar stores and selling offline. Topics include industry tradeshows, events, line sheets, sales reps and other retailing tips and advice.
Or do you even have one? Same people sell at 2x their cost, some 10x. How did you guys / gals go about determining yours? I know this varies widely based on market demographics / targeting, but it's interesting to see.
First, you have to determine how much it's going to cost in material & labor for each item. Then, it's probably just gauging your competitors and your demographic.
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We basically decided based on the average prices other shirt stores well selling at. We knew we couldn't make a profit competing with the cheapest stores, and we didn't have the brand recognition or fancy full-sized designs to charge alongside the more expensive stores, so we took the middle ground.
Back in the dark ages I had a business class in college. On the first day we were told to charge the highest possible price we could get. While that sounds mean and a way to rip off your customers it is what every business should do. Now later on in the class we were told about pricing to keep competition from stealing our market share, but this should get the point across.
Size up your customer and charge the appropriate price to close the deal and keep them from shopping your price around. That would be a fair and justified price.
Back in the dark ages I had a business class in college. On the first day we were told to charge the highest possible price we could get. While that sounds mean and a way to rip off your customers it is what every business should do. Now later on in the class we were told about pricing to keep competition from stealing our market share, but this should get the point across.
Size up your customer and charge the appropriate price to close the deal and keep them from shopping your price around. That would be a fair and justified price.
Haha, well times have definitely changed since "the dark ages". Though I would agree with your bottom statement.
I know some small businesses with use a multiplier, in which they have calculated various costs etc., to determine the final retail price. I'd like to keep all of my items around the same profit margins, so I might use this technique as well. Though it has to be pretty well thought out, as you don't want to break out of your pricing segment of course.
Apple Computer - Premium price, loyal following, high profit margins on hardware, PC vendors, low profit margin on hardware, depend on volume
Software Industry - Borland introduces $99 pricing for software packages that cost $900 up to that point. Result? WordPerfect goes out of business. ParcPlace charges $10,000 per seat for Object oriented development software. Java comes out for free with a similar product. Result? Java is a standard and Parc is out of business.
Auto Industry - Toyota Motor Sales keeps taking market share while raising prices each year. US automakers loosing share even though they offer huge discounts.
So here I have 2 examples of premium pricing and one of discount pricing that affect the market. From these examples perception is king. Why do people pay more for Apple hardware and software? Why do people buy Toyotas? Why didn't people keep buying WordPerfect? The answers to these will help in your pricing.
So back to tshirts and related items. You may have situations where someone needs something yesterday. If no one else will fill the order then you can charge more. Why? Because they want the product and are willing to pay for the short notice especially if you are the only game in town.
Where else can you charge more? Smaller orders. Some shops have minimum orders. If you can go below that minimum yourself then you can set a price a little higher and stick with it.
If you want to have a formula to price your products that is fine, we do it also. We also charge more for rush orders and difficult to fill orders because we can.
For T-shirts I think design is what sells the product. T-shirts are all basically similar Ok for sure there are differently qualities of garments but it's what you put on them that sells them. What sells Ipods? there are many similar players that function as well but people buy Ipods for the design. The same reasoning applies to T-Shirts I would rather pay $34 for Obey than $10 for a similar garment with a graphic that sucks, thats a $24premium for the graphic. To get the premium price go for excellence in design everytime.
I wasn't necessarily disagreeing with you. You should always price your products or services at the highest price that the market will bear / support, that makes sense.
I might have skipped over the "...that you can get" part, hence while I disagreed at first.
I had a few agendas I wanted to fill when it came to pricing. The first is that being a guy who wears a 4X I get tired of having to pay six or seven dollars more for the same basic shirt, so I wanted to put a stop to that nonsense. The second was that since I would be selling at conventions, face to face with the public, I wanted a customer to be able to hand me a $20 bill and get change back, that way they feel like they’re getting a deal. The third is that I checked out my main completion and what they sell for and then I wanted to undercut them. Put these three factors together and I sell each and every shirt for $17 no matter the style of the shirt, the size of the shirt, or how much I paid for the shirt. The only time I adjust prices is when I sell wholesale because I know they’re going to price according to the industry standard I am avoiding (in other words I’ll sell a 4X for more than an XL when it comes to wholesale).
The first is that being a guy who wears a 4X I get tired of having to pay six or seven dollars more for the same basic shirt, so I wanted to put a stop to that nonsense.
What I don't understand is when people keep raising the price the higher the plus-sized shirt. When I buy shirts wholesale I get 2XL, 3XL (and 4XL, 5XL if I wanted to order them) all for the same price, yet I see some sites charge +$2 for 2XL and then more (say +$4) for a 3XL.
When I buy shirts wholesale I get 2XL, 3XL (and 4XL, 5XL if I wanted to order them) all for the same price
Some wholesalers/manufacturers charge more for 2xl and 3xl and 4xl and 5xl. It takes up more fabric/dye, so I'm sure they are just passing on the costs.
I like the idea of knowing your market and pricing them all at a flat $17. I normally by 2xl, and it's nice to see sites that don't upcharge for them (even though I do myself on my sites )
Some wholesalers/manufacturers charge more for 2xl and 3xl and 4xl and 5xl. It takes up more fabric/dye, so I'm sure they are just passing on the costs.
I think Twinge's point is that most wholesalers charge more for 2xl and up, but it is often either a flat fee (i.e. $2 more for all plus sizes) or at least not much difference (+$1.50 +$1.75 +$2.00, etc.). Yet it's extremely common for a retailer to charge +$2 for 2xl, +$3 for 3xl, +$4 for 4xl, etc. They're not just passing on the cost, they're making extra profit on plus sizes.
The reason is pretty simple: because they can. It reinforces the notion that plus sizes cost them more, and the general public doesn't normally know what the wholesale price is. It's probably also a risk offset: it's harder to sell a 4XL, so they raise the price to make it more worth their while.
I had a few agendas I wanted to fill when it came to pricing. The first is that being a guy who wears a 4X I get tired of having to pay six or seven dollars more for the same basic shirt, so I wanted to put a stop to that nonsense.
While I wouldn't go so far as to call it nonsense, as a fat guy I have the same philosophy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PvN Captain
Put these three factors together and I sell each and every shirt for $17
Sounds like a good rationale.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PvN Captain
The only time I adjust prices is when I sell wholesale because I know they’re going to price according to the industry standard I am avoiding (in other words I’ll sell a 4X for more than an XL when it comes to wholesale).
That and it becomes more necessary. If you're charging $17 for a shirt you can take the one or two dollar hit as a service to larger customers. If you're selling wholesale you need the profit margins to be pretty tight or you're not going to make a sale, so you need to more accurately price based on cost.
How did you develop your "pricing formula"? 
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