Teach Soap

I was a vendor at a craft fair recently which was pretty small, maybe 20-25 vendors. They put me very close to another soap vendor whose prices were lower than mine. Although most of my soap bars outweighed hers by an ounce or more, I didn't think people would look at that comparison, they would just look at getting a bar of soap for a certain price. Otherwise, I believe our soap was very similar in quality.

I debated over keeping my price the same, or lowering it. Lowering the price meant much less profit for me, and with the size of the fair I was already skeptical that I would even make my booth fee back. But I was afraid that with our booths being in plain sight of each other, almost right next to each other, that no one would buy from me if they could get it cheaper.

So although I felt like a jerk doing it, I felt to be competitive my prices had to come down, so I lowered them to the same price as the other vendor.

Have you encountered that situation? What would you do?

I don't lower my prices because someone else is lower then me. If a customer buys from me, then they will expect that same low price every time. I would have signs stating the weight of your bars and any benefits of the oils you use and why they are better then anyone elses.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I think people do look at comparisons. I could be totally wrong, but I'm thinking maybe the people at craft fairs, or people that buy homemade soap in the first place, are the type of people who care about what they are using on their bodies, people who look at ingredients and check labels, etc. Again, I could be totally wrong, but I know that for me a love of all things homemade, and taking notice of the makeup of products I use come hand in hand. If I noticed someone's soap was cheaper/pricier than someone else's, I would want to know why. I would wonder if the more expensive soap was better quality, or if the less expensive was lower quality. Besides, I wouldn't just buy a soap based on price; I would look at color, fragrance, oils, weight, ingredients, etc. Also, people won't always just buy a cheaper bar of soap simply because it is cheaper. In fact, when faced with the option of a cheaper vs. a pricier soap, people will sometimes intentionally buy the pricier BECAUSE it is pricier, and thus (they assume) a better quality. Of course, that's not always the case. It's all marketing, but that's a whole 'nother deal... Anyway, if your soap is priced fairly and according to its value and customers agree on its worth, I would stick with the price you put on it. You might want to go and check the competition's wares as well, to see why they are pricing the soap how they are pricing it.

Still, I'm not in your place and situation, (and I never have been in it) so I can't tell you what to do.

But since you're asking for opinion, I would say next time you're in such a situation, keep your soap at the initial price you put on it and watch customer traffic between your soap stall vs. the cheaper one. Customers are the ones, after all, who have the final say on what customers are going to like.

I thank you both for your input, I really struggled on what to do. I didn't want my day to be a waste, and I also had a helper that I had to pay. The show was about an hour drive, when I got there it seemed to be a somewhat socioeconomically depressed area. The weather was very cold that day as well, so I thought given those two factors, it might be a difficult selling day without having to compete with lower prices. I guess in that moment cutting my losses seemed the more prudent thing to do.

I don't know how the other vendor made much profit because their soap packaging is much more expensive than mine. We talked a little bit and compared notes. The other vendor said labor isn't included in their prices, so that is one reason for the lower cost. They had been selling about as long as I have, which isn't long.

I think a lesson to also take away is to always know my market/where I'm selling. I was enthusiastic to sign up for as many shows as possible to get my name out there, but if it's going to cost me money to go to these smaller festivals, it's not worth it.

I also need to work on some signs that tell the benefit of my soaps in fewer words than what I have now. Mine are a bit wordy, and I noticed people glanced at them but no one read the whole thing.

Exactly what Irena & TopHat said. I would never lower my prices just because someone else's is lower. If someone saw you do this, they may think that you have no confidence in your product and that you don't know it's worth. I've seen vendors do this when there were customers around and you can tell the customers are confused, most of those vendors got very little sales.
Also, the more fairs/markets you do, the more this is going to happen. I'm almost always put next to someone who makes a similar product and rarely is ours the same price, sometimes I'm the lower one & sometimes I'm the higher one. Confidence in your product & selling is a lot of times more important at craft shows than price, because people are there to spend money on good quality handmade products. Unless you're at a flea market, then it's usually cheaper the better.

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Genny

Ditto what the other ladies said.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

If you still felt to boost interest and some sales you needed to lower the price you could have offered a "fragrance of the day" sale or even a bonus... buy 5 get one free. That leaves your prices the same.. so that if someone now comes back to you for more soap you do not need to rematch that price or explain why it now costs more. Of course this also means having the supplies.... poster board, markers etc, in order to post the sale. I also agree with keeping signs simple... usually at markets you only have say 15-30 seconds for someone to read a sign and they will move on. How did you do at this sale... did you make some profit?

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

Thanks for all the tips everyone. I guess I will learn as I go, but what you have said here makes a lot of sense.

I think in comparison with other vendors I did better or about the same, but overall not as well as I had expected to do. I made double my booth fee, but I wouldn't call it profit in the grand scheme of things given the distance I traveled and work I put in. Some vendors that I talked to didn't even make their booth fees back. I think the cold weather made a lot of people leave early, and the event was not organized for optimal flow in the crafts area. For me at least it was good practice setting up with new display shelves and it was definitely a learning experience so I did get some good things from it!