Pricing Help - Your Opinion (retail business, sales, profit, pay)

[canyontothesky]

I'm about to start selling my photography prints online (first on Etsy, in case you know of it and you know the kind of market I'm aiming at), and then later to flea markets, fairs, expos, shops, maybe even galleries, etc.

I'm having a hard time deciding on the price of an 8x10 print. All three price points are well above the minimum profit margin I set. My two main competitors are priced at $35 (the most successful competitor by far) and $30 (gainining popularity) for 8x10s.

I'm considering:

$26

$28

$30

Pick one price and say why. Pretend you are a buyer, which number speaks to you most as a price that you would pay (obviously quality and subject matters, too, but in principle.) Don't compare the three values, just take them individually.

Thank you!

[MaryREI]

Hard to say, depends on each photograph. Being a Sales/Marketing professional price some slightly less that your competitor and some slightly higher than your competitor. You may sell more of the lower priced ones, and that will show you how price sensitive the market currently is to pricing of a non-necessary item. Best of Luck.

[SSWM]

I'd go for the 28 dollar price. It's not cheap, but it's not over 30 either. It's a nice price point.

[wilvan]

You know anybody with a computer and printer can easily print out any 8x10 pic from the internet... why buy it? I think to sell a print to the public it has to be larger than 8x10, something they can't easily produce themselves.

[harry chickpea]

Here are three numbers:
12 42 65
Pick one.

What you are attempting to do is get to the last stage of price-point setting from a consensus, and based on competition pricing. That makes no sense.

I'll give you a hint. I worked in an industry where price increases were a regular occurrence. Each time the price increased, the number of buyers went down. I could actually see the percentage drops within a short period of time. The balance then had to be - how many buyers can we afford to lose and still come out ahead profitwise? That is the essence of consumer-driven sales.

Exclusive sales operate on a slightly different principle. The buyer is buying not only the product, but the aura of the product. An expensive handbag is still a handbag. $25 worth of oil paints on a canvas is still $25 worth of oil paints unless it has a signature.

How do you make the break between Consumer and Exclusive sales? That is the real question you need to ask. If your pictures of horses come from your years of experience as a horse breeder and classical artist, then you set your own price. If your pictures (equally as good) are based on your years of experience cleaning stables and using a cellphone camera, you get to charge much less.

[Rapture]

I use to run a retail business and one of the products we sold were local photographers 8x10 prints for $30. They were very popular but they were also matted. They were pictures of the local beaches, lighthouses and local historical settings, so I'm sure that all had something to do with why they were popular. I don't know what your photos are and who would be interested in them.