# Pricing Soaps



## ohsoap (Jan 15, 2009)

I have a line of shaving bars, that I'm finally ready to sell.  This will be my first weekend.  All my other soaps are square cut, we sell them for 5.25

My shaving bars are round, to make them stand out.  I'm not sure what the price margin is for specialty bars.

I'm wondering if I keep them the same price or charge more since there is more put into them.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.


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## Lindy (Jan 15, 2009)

If the weight is comparable then you can either charge the soap or perhaps a bit more.  You will need to promote them as a "Specialty" or "Spa" bar to justify the difference in price....IMHO

Cheers
Lindy


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## Tabitha (Jan 15, 2009)

Pricing for handmade items is pretty standard.

Cost of supplies + overhead (including labor) X 4 = retail

Cost of supplies + overhead (including labor) X 2 = wholesale

You can adjust it to suit your market, but that is the industry standard.

If your specialty bars have added special ingredients, your cost of supplies goes up so that pushes your price up, or if it takes longer to cut your circles, you cost of overhead goes up, otherwise I would charge the same, or maybe add .50cents *just because* to make them stand out.


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## ohsoap (Jan 19, 2009)

Thanks for the advice, I'll have to recalculate our costs and go from there.

***our show on the weekend sucked anyway, we got 3 sales all day.  They failed to let us know that the majority of people they were expecting were coming after vendor hours, HOW LAME!" ***


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## 7053joanne (Jan 19, 2009)

I have a spreadsheet that will help you calculate the cost of the bar.  If you want it pm me your addy and I will send it over.


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## misty (Jan 19, 2009)

Tabitha, may I ask how the calculation for retail = x4 and the calculation for wholesale = x2. What does that refer to.  I don't sell my soaps yet so am still trying to understand the business aspect of all this. Appreciate any help, thanks.

misty


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## Tabitha (Jan 19, 2009)

If it cost me $1.00 to make a bar of soap I would sell it in my shop, to you for $1.00 x4 = $4.00 per bar (retail).

If you owned a shop & wanted to buy 50 bars of soap, I would sell them to you for $1.00 x 2 = $2.00 per bar (wholesale). 

Standard wholesale is 50% off retail.

When a shop owner or buyer puchases product they intend to resell,the standard mark-up on resell items is 2x.

If they have to pay shipping they also need to take that into account and add a bit to cover that expense.

The shop owner or buyer buys the soap from me for $2.00 x2 and sell it for $4.00, that way other shops sell my soap for the same price I/my shop sell it for & it is all balanced.

You can do the backwards math too. If you walk into a dress shop & see a dress marked $50.00, you can guess the boutique bought it for $25.00, you can also guess it cost the maker $12.50 in materials to make.


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## misty (Jan 20, 2009)

Tabitha, thanks very much....you explained it well. That certainly gives me a better understanding of how pricing works.


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## IanT (Jan 20, 2009)

yeah tab.... i think we are going to have to change your member title cause i just nominated you to my economic advisor....

you must accept 8)


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