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I charge $7.00/bar and have absolutely no problem getting it. I am looking at increasing that price next year to $7.25/bar.
My prices per oz are on par with Lush's when it comes to scrubs and lotions, etc.
 
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This is good to know as I'm at a stage where I need to find out how to get pricing per bar.
 
Considering how much time, work, and creativity goes into this I wouldn't take less than $7 (once I master this, I'm still learning). If you're making master level soaps $7 is reasonable no matter where the person lives. There is a TON of inflation in the world right now. It is mostly being seen in raw materials (and stock markets lol) rather than wages. The fact wages are stagnant is a problem when trying to sell high end soaps made of said raw materials, but I'd just hang on to it and use it yourself if you can't get the right price. Otherwise you're working for near minimum wage. Short of that you have to somehow reduce inputs, but I'm sure everyone is doing that to their best ability already. I don't see how you can sell soap for $5 and make good profit in this climate unless you can get huge volume. Then razor thin margins can be acceptable.
 
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You must take a look at your own market. If you are in a lower income level you need to price your product to sell. If you wanted to make it to use yourself then you wouldn't be selling. Unfortunately not all areas will accept $7 for a bar of soap. I know my area the max I can get and stay in business is $6. But I make it up with high priced lotions and body butters so find the balance. Know your COGS and work from there.
 
You must take a look at your own market. If you are in a lower income level you need to price your product to sell. If you wanted to make it to use yourself then you wouldn't be selling. Unfortunately not all areas will accept $7 for a bar of soap. I know my area the max I can get and stay in business is $6. But I make it up with high priced lotions and body butters so find the balance. Know your COGS and work from there.

Right on the money and a great work around in your product line to offset the markets lower soap price per bar threshold.
 
Not all soap is created equal. Some soap I have seen costs under $1 to make and they sell over $10. That is a huge profit margin. Although most of the lower costing soaps I see go for $4.50 - $6.50 range. Some soaps cost around $3 to make and sell for $6, that's too low. So you can't just put all soap under the same category. If you make soap that costs $1 to make, $5.50-$7.50 seems just fine. The higher the price the higher you need to go, especially if you want to retail/wholesale.

Say the bar costs $2.50 to make/package, and you sell it for $6.50. That would be decent if you could move enough inventory and make enough at one time. But if you are smaller scale and tried to sell wholesale/retail -- you would only be making around $0.75 per bar. If you are not moving a TON of inventory that's rough. If your bar only costs you $0.75 to make you would be making $2.50 per bar, much better. If your bar costs $2.50 to make and you sell it for $7, that would only be $1.00 profit. At $2.50 per bar you would need to sell at $10 per bar to make the the same $2.50 that the $0.75 bar made at $6.50 retail.

The basic idea is wholesale/retail will buy it from you at half price from what I have seen.
 
I did a TINY (10-15 vendors) farmers market last year. My soaps are 6.50 a 7-8 ounce bar, so below the average of 1.25-1.50 an ounce for handmade soap, This farmers market is in a working class and immigrant neighborhood, the markets big advertising was they they took EBT/SNAP (what used to be foodstamps.) and a large portion of the shoppers used foodstamps. I sold about 4-6 bars a day, a couple of salves and that is about it. I should say, just for clarity that I love food stamps. No judgment about working class or immigrant people. I am one.

Now I've joined a collective of artists in a store in a hipster neighborhood, totally different customers, and my soap sells like wildfire. I am raising my prices, not based on this store, but over all because I need too. The new soap prices are going to be 8.00 a bar for 7 ounces and 6.00 dollars a bar for spa bars that are 3 -4 ounces. All the stores I currently sell at, my markets and the online store will have the price increase.

I've only changed two things. One is that this is my JOB. It is how I feed my kids, how I cloth me. How I make a living. Two I've changed where I sell my soap.
 
I can tell you Just Beachy that So Cal is not a great place to be selling soap at the moment. My price point at outdoor markets is $6.00 for 5.5-6 oz bars. Salt bars are higher as are my facial bars and neem bars. If they want the $10.00 pearl soap they do not question the price. If I do seasonal craft fairs my bars go up to $7.00 per bar and it usually works. My weekly market now has a vendor selling soap for $4.00 per bar and she only gets the stray customer that does not know I am at the other end of the market. I spent my time building my reputation. I buy all supplies in bulk, oils and lye I will call so I avoid the high shipping costs. Granted I am not trying to make a living at this, I would go back to work if that was the case. We are retired, cannot travel due to elderly parents, I love making soap and this pays my gas, groceries, supplies. Plus we enjoy going to the markets and meeting new people. So Cal is saturated with soapmakers and it is even hard to find new markets and if you do the markets are not doing well themselves.
 
Considering how much time, work, and creativity goes into this I wouldn't take less than $7 (once I master this, I'm still learning). If you're making master level soaps $7 is reasonable no matter where the person lives. There is a TON of inflation in the world right now. It is mostly being seen in raw materials (and stock markets lol) rather than wages. The fact wages are stagnant is a problem when trying to sell high end soaps made of said raw materials, but I'd just hang on to it and use it yourself if you can't get the right price. Otherwise you're working for near minimum wage. Short of that you have to somehow reduce inputs, but I'm sure everyone is doing that to their best ability already. I don't see how you can sell soap for $5 and make good profit in this climate unless you can get huge volume. Then razor thin margins can be acceptable.

You would not sell a single bar here for more than $6, and then only if you were at the one Christmas market run by the local Junior League. And then only because the JL gets a portion of everything sold.
 
You would not sell a single bar here for more than $6.

If that were true I'd just use them myself and not sell. I refuse to work that hard (and soap is hard to make well, plan, etc) for anything near minimum wage. A carpenter, a plumber, a cobbler, a blacksmith, a tailor, etc all charge high wages. A soapmaker is a trade, and too many are willing to discount their labor and/or not factor in all inputs. Does anyone in Louisina buy online from Lush? I am sure some do, and those bars are $7+ and use worse ingredients than ours. Our bars are better than theirs, so think what the price should be...
 
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I can tell you Just Beachy that So Cal is not a great place to be selling soap at the moment. My price point at outdoor markets is $6.00 for 5.5-6 oz bars. Salt bars are higher as are my facial bars and neem bars. If they want the $10.00 pearl soap they do not question the price. If I do seasonal craft fairs my bars go up to $7.00 per bar and it usually works. My weekly market now has a vendor selling soap for $4.00 per bar and she only gets the stray customer that does not know I am at the other end of the market. I spent my time building my reputation. I buy all supplies in bulk, oils and lye I will call so I avoid the high shipping costs. Granted I am not trying to make a living at this, I would go back to work if that was the case. We are retired, cannot travel due to elderly parents, I love making soap and this pays my gas, groceries, supplies. Plus we enjoy going to the markets and meeting new people. So Cal is saturated with soapmakers and it is even hard to find new markets and if you do the markets are not doing well themselves.

And that just speaks volumes to what I'm saying about demographics and the markets dictating the price of the product. You will always sell soaps to the people you built a relationship with, and your margins should remain decent.

But add in the saturation of the market and now it becomes even more of an issue. Back 15 years ago when I was selling soap, I was a novelty. The couple of little fairs I did, I was the only one selling homemade soap. People would call me and ask if I was "that guy that makes his own soaps" haha. Now, the market is inundated with people selling soap. And the prices are therefore going to be effected.

New customers, not counting the reputation customers, aren't going to care if you had to spend 3 dollars to make that bar of soap. If your trying to sell yours for 12 bucks and there are 15 other sellers that are selling for 7, you're going to lose sales. Same situation as the ones who say I have to sell it for 7 dollars and it's worth it. Sure it is, but the general public rarely spends money because they think something is worth it. They want something that fits their budget.

Example is Vizio TV's. It's actually a decent tv, but certainly not as good as a Sony. Yet they have stolen a giant chunk of business out of the higher end TV markets, by offering a good product at a good deal less than the high end products.

It's a totally different market than it was 20 years ago and the demographic economics really makes talking about the sales price of a bar of soap unrealistic and confusing. Margins would be somewhat more universal, yet with so many people buying their supplies from the same suppliers, the margins are going to vary as well across the US. I can't speak for that land across the sea's, because I haven't kept up with their economy.

But here's something to think about. If we used the 4X's cost as a price marker, that would mean a bar that costs $2 to make should retail at $8. That's a profit margin that would make any business a fortune. :p As an contrast, take the projected profit margin of a new home. We used to set our prices based upon achieving a 12% profit, and were happy when the final margin stayed above 9%. Can you imagine what a home would cost if they priced it at 4X cost, just because they thought it was worth it? There would be a lot less houses sold.
 
If that were true I'd just use them myself and not sell. I refuse to work that hard (and soap is hard to make well, plan, etc) for anything near minimum wage. A carpenter, a plumber, a cobbler, a blacksmith, a tailor, etc all charge high wages. A soapmaker is a trade, and too many are willing to discount their labor and/or not factor in all inputs. Does anyone in Louisina buy online from Lush? I am sure some do, and those bars are $7+ and use worse ingredients than ours. Our bars are better than theirs, so think what the price should be...

Your tying to put logic behind the ideals of market demographics and economics. That never works. :razz: People will pay a plumber whatever it takes to get their toilet to stop overflowing into their bathroom. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about their desire for a great bar of soap.

Lush sells because of marketing. Pure and simple.
 
Considering how much time, work, and creativity goes into this I wouldn't take less than $7 (once I master this, I'm still learning). If you're making master level soaps $7 is reasonable no matter where the person lives. There is a TON of inflation in the world right now. It is mostly being seen in raw materials (and stock markets lol) rather than wages. The fact wages are stagnant is a problem when trying to sell high end soaps made of said raw materials, but I'd just hang on to it and use it yourself if you can't get the right price. Otherwise you're working for near minimum wage. Short of that you have to somehow reduce inputs, but I'm sure everyone is doing that to their best ability already. I don't see how you can sell soap for $5 and make good profit in this climate unless you can get huge volume. Then razor thin margins can be acceptable.
Do not know where in CA you are located but I can tell you in most farmer markets here $7 does not work well. I do a special of 4 for $20 and I sell a lot of soap that way. I still make money and my bars are not small. I would much rather sell four for twenty than one at seven. I recently figured out that I have made over 2k bars of soap this year and I am not overstocked at the moment, so I have sold a lot of soap even in this sucky market. My other trick is a punch card, buy x amount of bars get a free regular bar. Specialty and salt bars are excluded. You simply have to learn what will work in your particular market
 
Do not know where in CA you are located but I can tell you in most farmer markets here $7 does not work well. I do a special of 4 for $20 and I sell a lot of soap that way. I still make money and my bars are not small. I would much rather sell four for twenty than one at seven. I recently figured out that I have made over 2k bars of soap this year and I am not overstocked at the moment, so I have sold a lot of soap even in this sucky market. My other trick is a punch card, buy x amount of bars get a free regular bar. Specialty and salt bars are excluded. You simply have to learn what will work in your particular market

^^^^^ This is marketing! Mixed in to a medium trace with experience.
 
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about their desire for a great bar of soap.

Then part of marketing should be having a sign or brochure showing the benefits of a good bar of soap. I think ignorance is a problem with potential soap consumers. They think "Why pay $6 when i can get zest for 50 cents?". Well if you have a sign up educating them, then they know and can make the informed decision. Most people will choose quality over money, unless they are extremely poor. My GF and I cook a lot. We could have gotten a chef knife from Walmart for $20. But instead we bought a Wusthoff for $100. Why? Because we want quality. Many people do. With soap it just requires the added step of informing them first.

There is no reason soap should sell for under $7 a bar in any market. This is why a company like Lush sells at one price (usually $7-10) across every state and county. If your soap is selling for less than that you're doing something wrong, imo, and it's probably marketing or selling yourself short. High quality soap is a valuable commodity, and it's our job to make that known. Yes, you might make a profit at $5, but profit isn't everything. You want large margins. A soaper selling at $5 and saying, "I made a profit" might feel good, but they then have to bank on many variables like raw materials remaining the same, the groceries and other items they buy with the profit remaining the same price, etc. There is a lot of inflation in items we need. I just think it is unwise to sell even at 100% profit. You need a buffer of at least another 50% just to factor in all the other economic variables (gas costs, inflation, currency fluctuations, macro-econ, etc).

I don't sell soaps because I'm not a master soap maker yet. But if I get to that point and sell, I will not charge under $7, but probably higher. If they don't sell, I'll keep them for myself. I'd also have a completely different marketing campaign than what I see from the average soap maker. The only time I can see selling soap for $5 is if you're not a very good soap maker and the product is so so. At that point take any profit you can.

It's actually a bit annoying to see people sell so low because it results in an undercutting that just drags down the market for all.
 
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Then part of marketing should be having a sign or brochure showing the benefits of a good bar of soap. I think ignorance is a problem with potential soap consumers. They think "Why pay $6 when i can get zest for 50 cents?". Well if you have a sign up educating them, then they know and can make the informed decision. Most people will choose quality over money, unless they are extremely poor. My GF and I cook a lot. We could have gotten a chef knife from Walmart for $20. But instead we bought a Wusthoff for $100. Why? Because we want quality. Many people do. With soap it just requires the added step of informing them first.

There is no reason soap should sell for under $7 a bar in any market. This is why a company like Lush sells at one price (usually $7-10) across every state and county. If your soap is selling for less than that you're doing something wrong, imo, and it's probably marketing or selling yourself short. High quality soap is a valuable commodity, and it's our job to make that known. Yes, you might make a profit at $5, but profit isn't everything. You want large margins. A soaper selling at $5 and saying, "I made a profit" might feel good, but they then have to bank on many variables like raw materials remaining the same, the groceries and other items they buy with the profit remaining the same price, etc. There is a lot of inflation in items we need. I just think it is unwise to sell even at 100% profit. You need a buffer of at least another 50% just to factor in all the other economic variables (gas costs, inflation, currency fluctuations, macro-econ, etc).

I don't sell soaps because I'm not a master soap maker yet. But if I get to that point and sell, I will not charge under $7, but probably higher. If they don't sell, I'll keep them for myself. I'd also have a completely different marketing campaign than what I see from the average soap maker. The only time I can see selling soap for $5 is if you're not a very good soap maker and the product is so so. At that point take any profit you can.

It's actually a bit annoying to see people sell so low because it results in an undercutting that just drags down the market for all.

Unfortunately, everything sold in the US speaks against your thoughts. If most people would choose quality over money, we'd all be driving Mercedes and Kia would be out of business. No one would be buying a sirloin, when they can certainly see the quality of that prime ribeye on the counter.

If the desire for high margins would magically make it so, then no one in the US would be able to afford a place to live, food to eat or clothes to wear. Wal-Mart would be out of business tomorrow, instead of being one of the largest retailers in the US. And believe it or not, being "too poor" has little to do with it. Some of the richest people in the world are actually tight wads, that probably soap down with a good bar of Ivory.

Lush sells at an overpriced rate, because they have marketed themselves into a position of being thought of as a status symbol. Why do people buy a 140 dollar David Donahue dress shirt, when that 30 dollar shirt at Target serves the same purpose? Because a portion of the public has been "marketed" into a thought pattern of , status means everything. But they are far from the majority of the buying public.

So you have two options.
Find a way to market your product, your soap, to the public with the intention of making it a status statement. Hope you have some really deep pockets to afford the type of marketing budget this will require. Build it into the name recognition of Lush. Then with a better product than theirs, you can give them a run for their money.

Or....Build a business with a profit margin that you can accept, while still be able to move your product on a consistent and profitable basis. And the easiest way to determine this margin, is through market research. What is the market willing to bear.

I guess you have a third option as well. You could, as you stated, just decide not to sell your soap and keep it for your own use. That's certainly an option.

Educating people is never a bad thing, but it won't over ride the general principles of economics. Sure you can educate them about the benefits of home made soap as opposed to zest, but you're not the only one selling that "better" soap. If they can buy homemade soap from 50 other vendors at 5 or 6 bucks a bar, then you're going to be hard pressed to get one of them over to your shop to grab a bar at 7 or 8 bucks. And your assumption that those bars are lesser quality is erroneous at best. I've already seen a couple of people on these forums that sell for less than you would project. From reading their posts, you can easily discern that they are very knowledgeable about their art. I'd bet money they produce very high quality bars.

I can respect your enthusiasm and spirit, but I'll repeat a saying that a very knowledgeable and prolific marketing genius that I had the pleasure of being around for a while once told me. "The market is a fickle *****, and she suffers for no one."

Can anyone tell I love (loved) marketing almost as much as I love making soap. LOL.
 
There isn't any replacement for actually selling your soap at a farmers market, or craft fair, the actual experience of watching the customer's reactions, and how they react to the price point is a true education. Theory is great, and yet not always true when put into practice.
It is great to value what you make, and use quality ingredients, but at the end of the day you can only sell at the price people are willing to pay.
I think Carolyn has some great marketing ideas, and you do get to know what the people that are buying from you want.
I agree with Maya, selling at a higher price is dependent on finding the right customers.However there is a great deal of competition for that particular group of customers, and where I live there are far fewer that can afford great soap of any kind.
 
There isn't any replacement for actually selling your soap at a farmers market, or craft fair, the actual experience of watching the customer's reactions, and how they react to the price point is a true education. Theory is great, and yet not always true when put into practice.
It is great to value what you make, and use quality ingredients, but at the end of the day you can only sell at the price people are willing to pay.
I think Carolyn has some great marketing ideas, and you do get to know what the people that are buying from you want.
I agree with Maya, selling at a higher price is dependent on finding the right customers.However there is a great deal of competition for that particular group of customers, and where I live there are far fewer that can afford great soap of any kind.

Well put and speaks directly to the reality of this discussion. Marketing guys can sit around and devise clever ways to attract your attention. Smiling baby's, scantily clad ladies dancing around without a care in the world. In the end though, all the marketing in the world won't do you much good if your price point isn't in line with your competition. Or beyond your target markets financial comfort zone.
 
Unfortunately, everything sold in the US speaks against your thoughts. If most people would choose quality over money, we'd all be driving Mercedes and Kia would be out of business. No one would be buying a sirloin, when they can certainly see the quality of that prime ribeye on the counter.

If the desire for high margins would magically make it so, then no one in the US would be able to afford a place to live, food to eat or clothes to wear. Wal-Mart would be out of business tomorrow, instead of being one of the largest retailers in the US. And believe it or not, being "too poor" has little to do with it. Some of the richest people in the world are actually tight wads, that probably soap down with a good bar of Ivory.

I think many consumers are uniformed. They'll see a cheap item and buy it over the more expensive one, but then they fail to track how quickly the cheap one breaks and they have to replace it. Over time, the cheap item usually winds up costing them more. This is why I always go quality. People with low income can buy good cars, btw, if they purchase used. That is a better long term buy than a new Kia.

Get this: I bought a new canopener from Wal Mart several years back. After maybe 6 months of use it was all rusted out and bolts came off. It was a disaster. They take it back and give me another. Same thing happens after an even shorter period of time. I get fed up, go on Ebay, and buy a new canopener from 1960. It was still in the box! I've had it 2.5 years with zero issues. It works like new still. Paid $28 for it. About $8 more than the WalMart one, but already 2x the use, and will get much much more, if not own this until I die.

Anyway, back to soap. I think educating buyers on why zest or even Lush are poor products goes a long way in making a sale. Not in a fear mongering way, but just in a health conscious way. Everyone cares about health. Not everyone has fear.
 
I think many consumers are uniformed. They'll see a cheap item and buy it over the more expensive one, but then they fail to track how quickly the cheap one breaks and they have to replace it. Over time, the cheap item usually winds up costing them more. This is why I always go quality. People with low income can buy good cars, btw, if they purchase used. That is a better long term buy than a new Kia.

Get this: I bought a new canopener from Wal Mart several years back. After maybe 6 months of use it was all rusted out and bolts came off. It was a disaster. They take it back and give me another. Same thing happens after an even shorter period of time. I get fed up, go on Ebay, and buy a new canopener from 1960. It was still in the box! I've had it 2.5 years with zero issues. It works like new still. Paid $28 for it. About $8 more than the WalMart one, but already 2x the use, and will get much much more, if not own this until I die.

Anyway, back to soap. I think educating buyers on why zest or even Lush are poor products goes a long way in making a sale. Not in a fear mongering way, but just in a health conscious way. Everyone cares about health. Not everyone has fear.

Nothing wrong in any of those statements. But it doesn't address the problems of competing against the other home made soapers who are doing the same thing. Making the same soap that's better than store bought soap. And selling for less than you are.

Again, educating the public isn't a bad thing. But it's my opinion that you first look at being able to compete within your market. Develop marketing that makes you stand out against your peers. Staying with the car analogy, Mercedes doesn't direct it's marketing to the Kia demographics. They're wise enough to know that, even if they can educate those buyers about the quality issues of their product, their time and money is better spent marketing to their targeted demographics. And standing out among their main competition. Other quality car manufacturers.
 

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