selling samples

[bodhi]

Carryover from the last thread:

How big are your samples and how much do you sell them for?

 

[100%Natural]

Mine are between 1 and 1.5 oz each and I sell them for $2.00 each or 6 for $10.00. Because they are 1/4 of my full size bars I actually make more money from the samples than my regular bars. I sell my regular bars for $6.

They have been a great success and are making money. Woot woot!

 

[outlawsoaps]

Carryover from the last thread:

How big are your samples and how much do you sell them for?

I just started doing it after people who loosely may be resellers started asking me to send them free samples ("Can I get some since I'm in the industry?"). I charge $7 for 4, 1 oz samples, plus shipping.

I make less money on samples, but since I'm pretty confident they'll result in more business down the line, I feel ok about that. Right now, I'm having an inventory issue, so I only am offering a limited number of sample packs, and only for one category.

When I first started, I allowed people to "subscribe" to our testers (with the understanding they may not be getting the best soaps ever and that they'd be expected to give feedback). This helped me manage the costs of testing, and it also gets me some pretty good feedback. I have ten subscribers and I couldn't handle any more. They paid $35 for a year subscription.

 

[Kleine Teufel]

How did your subscription work? Like, did they have to pay for shipping or just the subscription? And how often did you send out?
I never thought about selling samples. Interesting.

 

[outlawsoaps]

They didn't have to pay for shipping... the $35/year basically was to cover the shipping over the course of the year. I send them out about monthly, including 4 - 6 test samples per time. Sometimes I'm actually needing feedback on the soaps ("Should we carry orange ginger?") and sometimes I just want to send little presents.

 

[bodhi]

When I first started, I allowed people to "subscribe" to our testers (with the understanding they may not be getting the best soaps ever and that they'd be expected to give feedback). This helped me manage the costs of testing, and it also gets me some pretty good feedback. I have ten subscribers and I couldn't handle any more. They paid $35 for a year subscription.

nice idea!

 

[Kleine Teufel]

How big were your test samples? Sorry for playing 20 questions, but I like this idea!

 

[MaitriBB]

I just started doing it after people who loosely may be resellers started asking me to send them free samples ("Can I get some since I'm in the industry?"). I charge $7 for 4, 1 oz samples, plus shipping.

I make less money on samples, but since I'm pretty confident they'll result in more business down the line, I feel ok about that. Right now, I'm having an inventory issue, so I only am offering a limited number of sample packs, and only for one category.

When I first started, I allowed people to "subscribe" to our testers (with the understanding they may not be getting the best soaps ever and that they'd be expected to give feedback). This helped me manage the costs of testing, and it also gets me some pretty good feedback. I have ten subscribers and I couldn't handle any more. They paid $35 for a year subscription.

I am so stealing this

 

[outlawsoaps]

I am so stealing this

Do it! I even made a google form for them to submit their feedback to:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHYtR2ctX29tUUxsMlNMVF9vSkltVVE6MQ#gid=0

I did ultimately abandon that because it seemed like overkill for the side notes of 10 people (and for the soaps that we have for sale, I'd rather they just leave reviews on the site), but if you opt for an expanded program, it is not a bad idea... you might want to go with surveymonkey or something less wordy than google docs though. Just from my experience.