I feel so defeated

Lucky Dog Hot Sauce said:
All good points.

I tend to just do what feels right. Offering. Fair price & reasonable shipping costs feels right to me. Inflating the bottle price feels dishonest. Maybe I'm overthinking it but that's how it feels.

Maybe I'll change that some day but when
I shop for things I like to see what I'm paying on a per bottle basis.
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You have a good attitude about it, but the only way it would be scammy would be if you said it was Free Shipping and the price was higher in that bundle than putting those 3 bottles in the cart individually. You can't have two different prices, free is free, so that would mean inflating all your prices to be able to do that. But that is common. Free shipping is still free, meaning, you are not paying additional for it. People like that. You would not be insulting anyone's intelligence. :)

grantmichaels said:
It's about "number places" ...
 
$1 is one slot ...
 
.99 is two slots
 
1.99 is three slot.
 
The biggest benefits are when the small change in price drops a slot, or better two ...
 
The dollar menu works because what people see in their mind is:
 
1
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Good point as well. ;)
 
I'm cheap when it comes to paying shipping. I just bought 3 bottles of hot sauce and the shipping was $1 and change less than the cost of the product. If the hot sauce would have been the normal price and the shipping was still $10 and change I probably would not have made the purchase. I know this is not the fault of the vendor, Maybe changes could be made in product packaging to take advantage of flat rate shipping alternatives ?
 
someguy said:
I'm cheap when it comes to paying shipping. I just bought 3 bottles of hot sauce and the shipping was $1 and change less than the cost of the product. If the hot sauce would have been the normal price and the shipping was still $10 and change I probably would not have made the purchase. I know this is not the fault of the vendor, Maybe changes could be made in product packaging to take advantage of flat rate shipping alternatives ?
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that is good, however that would require different sauce chemistry as well as I dont believe plastic can be hot packed
 
Shipping rates is a killer for most of my products.  We're kind of off topic here, but this may benefit Pex also, so I'll go ahead.
 
I can fit 3 5oz woozies in a SFRB for $5.95(I think?)  at $6,99 each (yea, I know...should be $7...:lol:..) that makes each bottle about $9 each.  Most artisan hot sauce customers don't have a problem with $9 per bottle, they know it's small batch or small company. 
 
The problem I face is I only have 1 real popular sauce in a 5 oz size.  All the rest of my sauces are in 10oz woozies and 12 oz sauce bottles.  One bottle of BBQ sauce weighs 19 ounces....without packaging!  It can't go first class.  It won't fit into the SFRB, priority shipping on that one bottle of BBQ would be about $8....more than the price of the sauce.  The only way for customers to get a reasonable shipping rate is to buy several items and it goes into a MFRB.
 
The one item that does work for "shipping included" is the Pure Evil.  The tins are light enough to go first class, I can work the $3.60 into the price, it's still at a good price point, and it makes it easy for the customers.   
 
 
Some sites really tick me off with shipping.  I needed to order some special retro-style light bulbs.  Found them on a site for $3.99...and the site had a flat rate of $11 for shipping and handling!  I KNOW for a fact they weighed less than my Pure Evil tins, should of been about $3.  Ended up buying from a site that was $6.95 each, shipping included.   
 
salsalady said:
Shipping rates is a killer for most of my products.  We're kind of off topic here, but this may benefit Pex also, so I'll go ahead.
 
I can fit 3 5oz woozies in a SFRB for $5.95(I think?)  at $6,99 each (yea, I know...should be $7... :lol:..) that makes each bottle about $9 each.  Most artisan hot sauce customers don't have a problem with $9 per bottle, they know it's small batch or small company. 
 
The problem I face is I only have 1 real popular sauce in a 5 oz size.  All the rest of my sauces are in 10oz woozies and 12 oz sauce bottles.  One bottle of BBQ sauce weighs 19 ounces....without packaging!  It can't go first class.  It won't fit into the SFRB, priority shipping on that one bottle of BBQ would be about $8....more than the price of the sauce.  The only way for customers to get a reasonable shipping rate is to buy several items and it goes into a MFRB.
 
The one item that does work for "shipping included" is the Pure Evil.  The tins are light enough to go first class, I can work the $3.60 into the price, it's still at a good price point, and it makes it easy for the customers.   
 
 
Some sites really tick me off with shipping.  I needed to order some special retro-style light bulbs.  Found them on a site for $3.99...and the site had a flat rate of $11 for shipping and handling!  I KNOW for a fact they weighed less than my Pure Evil tins, should of been about $3.  Ended up buying from a site that was $6.95 each, shipping included.   
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I absolutely dispise that 13 ounce limit, TONS of people purchase a single sauce, however as everyone is saying, 1 pound to west coast from PA is ~6.32 last time i checked. I know more people would buy the stuff if that 13 ounce limit wasnt there, as you said.
 
:cheers:

It's an interesting discussion & when I eventually raise my prices (it will have to happen at some point) it might make more sense.

For now I've received numerous compliments from customers on my straightforward pricing, bulk discounts and fair shipping prices.

Any change creates upheaval, even with the best of intentions. But at some point I may try it out.

Oh, and the term y'all are looking for is "charm pricing" (at least according to my marketing teacher) - I don't know if it works or not...
 
Lucky Dog Hot Sauce said:
:cheers:

It's an interesting discussion & when I eventually raise my prices (it will have to happen at some point) it might make more sense.

For now I've received numerous compliments from customers on my straightforward pricing, bulk discounts and fair shipping prices.

Any change creates upheaval, even with the best of intentions. But at some point I may try it out.

Oh, and the term y'all are looking for is "charm pricing" (at least according to my marketing teacher) - I don't know if it works or not...
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charm pricing. like... "ay gurl, you gunna love deez prices gurl. yeahhhh"
 
couple thoughts:
 
I'm bootstrapping Dee Roo, and shipping is something that I agonize over.  The hot sauce boxes advertised here have worked pretty well since I bought them on their last sale - so far 12 sent with only 1 damaged in transit.  The boxes hold 3 bottles of sauce, with a bit of room for sampler packs of powder or pods/etc and cost $6.10 to ship in a padded flat rate USPS envelope.  At that price I can send 3 packs of sauce for $20 and still make acceptable profit margins, even with freebies included.  The problem is if someone orders 1 bottle; pretty much my only other option is a SFRB and that costs $5.95...
 
So a potential customer coming in could pay $9-11.95 for ONE bottle of sauce OR $20 for THREE bottles of sauce.  For someone looking just to try out a give my products a shot it's a tough price point.  Even if I cut the price of one bottle to cost and charge shipping you're looking at about 8 bucks.  Sauce on the shelf at the grocery store is $3-5, and many people balk at that kind of pricing.  
 
I'm never going to compete on price with major market hot sauce and I don't want to.  But initial and continued feedback shows shipping costs to be an issue.  Most people just don't know how much shipping should or does cost.  I'd imagine this is because of amazon and other 'free shipping' standards.  
 
RE: potential marketing ideas -
 
a) Ya it's wise to get out there.  If you want to avoid farmers markets try seeing about partnering with local events - bbq cookoffs, local chapters of jaycees or moose lodge - nearly all of that is free and helps drive interest and exposure to your local customer base.  
 
b) Would like to see a couple more 4-7 heat range sauces in your lineup.  only a couple options down low and many options up high.  the smallest segment of the market plays up there in the stratosphere, whereas the majority in the middle pays the bills.
 
c) the honey is just as good as the sauces, but the honey has a mass market appeal something like several orders of magnitude more than hot sauce.  you can pay lotsa bills with honey.  make your sauce just as you are but don't neglect the wide angle lens that is honey.
 
Love your presence here, your hot sauce and your honey G.  Keep pushing.  :) 
 
Dr.Pepper said:
I was just talking about this and here it pops up right here on THP. Now this is a place that will definitely get some of my money real soon.
 
 
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I noticed that also and was thinking the same thing. One thing that drives me nuts about buying online is when you go to check out you have to input all your info to get a shipping cost. Not all sites are like that , but there plenty that are. I hate going through all the trouble of finding what I want and putting in my personal info just to find out the shipping is outrageous. I then leave that site pissed off and didn't order anything I wanted. 
 
To all vendors who sites don't let you calculate shipping before I type in all my info PLEASE CHANGE IT. Thank you.
 
someguy said:
I noticed that also and was thinking the same thing. One thing that drives me nuts about buying online is when you go to check out you have to input all your info to get a shipping cost. Not all sites are like that , but there plenty that are. I hate going through all the trouble of finding what I want and putting in my personal info just to find out the shipping is outrageous. I then leave that site pissed off and didn't order anything I wanted. 
 
To all vendors who sites don't let you calculate shipping before I type in all my info PLEASE CHANGE IT. Thank you.
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Yup, this.
 
UX #fail.
 
Do you have any sweet and mildly hot steak sauces?  If not, try making one.  Dang we have nothing decent in my part of town.  Parrot Bay is the only one and blech....
 
Hot Mama Bearz said:
Do you have any sweet and mildly hot steak sauces?  If not, try making one.  Dang we have nothing decent in my part of town.  Parrot Bay is the only one and blech....
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the closest thing i make to that is revengeBBQ
 
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