Should I rebatch most of the soaps I made into smaller bars so they ship for cheaper?

[aab1]

I recently started selling soaps after making some as gifts and for my own use for a few years.

So far sales have been dissapointing but I think it's because I'm in Canada and shipping fees are very high ($8-12 to ship one soap). However, with Canada Post, if your package is under 20mm thick it changes to a significantly cheaper price range even at the same weight (up to 500 grams), so I found molds that make bars that are 19mm thick and I'll be able to ship those for as little as $1.35 instead of $12 which I think will dramatically help sales.

So far I've chopped up larger cinnamon nutmeg soaps and did confetti soaps with an orange scented and colored base to make small orange spice soaps that ship for cheap. I've also chopped up large orange colored and scented bars and will make confetti soap with those too.

Now I'm wondering if I should chop up most of my larger bars to convert them into the new small bars that ship for cheap.

Should I keep the larger soaps even though they are selling very slowly or convert most of them into smaller bars that will sell better?

Thanks

 

[Marilyna]

Can you just cut them in half?

 

[aab1]

They're salt soaps so they don't cut cleanly at all, plus they aren't shapes that would really work cut in half anyway.

Thanks

 

[dagmar88]

I'm not sure it's the size. There are a lot of people selling handmade soap, many of them with really professional and inviting websites.
Your shop just doesn't stand out to me. Why would "I" buy your soaps over the ones of Mystic Water or Naples Soap?
Also, are you on etsy, a blog, facebook, twitter and pinterest?

 

[Obsidian]

So they need to be thinner? Could you use a planer or fine cheese grater to shave off enough to get them to the thickness you need? If the planed side was rough afterwards, you could use water to smooth it back out. That would be easier then having to chop up all your pretty soaps.

Before you decide what to do, I would wait and see if sales actually pick up with the smaller bars. I also agree that your site is a little plain and could use a bit more pizzazz. Maybe a picture on the header of the ocean and some salts or something. It wouldn't keep me from buying your soaps though, its easy to navigate and find what you want.

 

[Trinity]

Before I started making soap I had never even heard of a salt bar. Now that I have made some I love them but maybe one of the problems is that allot of people don't understand the value of a salt bar so maybe you could explain that on your site. Just an idea

 

[aab1]

I'm not sure it's the size. There are a lot of people selling handmade soap, many of them with really professional and inviting websites.
Your shop just doesn't stand out to me. Why would "I" buy your soaps over the ones of Mystic Water or Naples Soap?
Also, are you on etsy, a blog, facebook, twitter and pinterest?

I think it's the size because I noticed tons of people adding soaps to their carts when I did my first promotion (I have a few other businesses with about 10,000 customers combined and emailed each one about my new soap website) and abandoning the cart when they see the shipping cost.

I know my website is plain but that's just to start, once I start getting more sales I'll pay someone to do a professional design.

I am also on Etsy and eBay and so far got no sales from Etsy and just a few on eBay.

I definitely agree about waiting to see how my first small bars sell before chopping up more. I think planing them would be more trouble than chopping them since I'd have to plane almost half of them off, I'd end up with tons of shavings I'd have to rebatch anyway, and I'm not sure if I could even plane them properly since they are salt soaps. I find making confetti soap pretty simple, I just fill my molds with the chopped up soap chunks, weight them, and subtract that weight from the batch size I'd normally make to fill those molds, and simply add in the chopped bits with the sea salt at trace.

I'll also try making improvements to my website myself in the meantime but I'm not too good with web design (obviously).

About explaining the value of salt soaps, I do have a brief description at the top of the website, is there anything you would recommend I should add?

Thanks

 

[CrafterAl]

Here's a thought.

Offer a discount for buying more than one bar.

If you offer a special price for 10 bars, then you might sell more bars in fewer transactions and the shipping could become less of a factor. With that volume, who knows, maybe you could ship for free!

Find a box that will just fit with whatever volume you decide on.

With marketing you always have to test, of course.

My experience has been that nearly everybody will buy more bars if given a chance and a special price.

Now granted, that is mostly going to be people who already know you. But it seems that might be the case, for at least some of your sales.

Don't sell smaller bars; sell more bars!

Don't cut the price; better explain the benefits!

 

[savonierre]

I cannot sell a salt bar online to save my soul. I am in Canada and do sell 1/2 thickness regular CP soap bars so they fit through the "slot" of doom. I can sell salt bars in person at markets etc, people usually don't know what they are.. I just listed the 1/2 inch bars today so haven't sold any yet..

 

[aab1]

lol @ "slot of doom"

I could offer free shipping on orders over $50 to US and Canada but that would cut my profit margin by more than half,but I'll try it.

My first new small bars will be cured in just over a week and I'm anxious to see hw they sell, but considering they will ship or $1.50 instead of $12 it has to make a huge difference.

Thanks

 

[aab1]

I decided to chop up all my spice scented soaps to make them into smaller ones, so far I made orange spice and gingerbread soaps by reusing the chopped up spice soaps.

I still have a few pounds of the chopped spice soaps left, I'll probably make more orange spice and gingerbread ones and I was thinking of making a balsam fir soap batch with some of the chopped spiced soaps inside as a Christmas soap.

I'll see how the new smaller soaps sell before I decide on shopping any of my other soaps.

It's torture having to wait for my new smaller soaps to cure before I can see how well they will sell.

 

[OliveOil2]

If you consider your time involved it may be better to save some of the larger bars as gifts, it is all part of the learning curve in a new venture. I have to say that i really dislike making rebatched soap, you may not mind it, but for myself I would put my energy into creating new smaller soaps. I do feel that is a Hugh difference in shipping cost.

 

[aab1]

I will definitely save some of the larger bars for gifts, friends/family, those that don't mind the higher shipping and for myself, so I'm definitely not chopping them all up. I had made about 300 larger bars just in case they would sell a lot considering I emailed nearly 10,000 of my customers about them that's why it's no so easy to get rid of that many. So far I chopped about 25 of them and only the spice and orange scented ones.

I actually like making rebatched soap (just to be clear, I don't melt the soaps I chop up, I leave them in whole chunks which I mix into the batter of a new batch to make "confetti soap" so really the only added time is chopping the soap with is just a few minutes). I also like the different colored patterns the chunks create in the rebatched soaps.

Based on how the small VS. large soaps sell once the small ones are done I'll decide if I want to chop up more of the larger ones or not.