After the (mini-back to school #2) sale, I will put putting my new toner on the website, and will be changing the regular pricing of Balance Toner.
When I first offered Balance (when I opened my business earlier this year in Feb), it was in an amber glass mister. I had to switch the bottles after a month or so since a couple people reported leakage. So I switched to plastic, with the option of an empty blue glass mister. I changed the prices then since blue glass costs a little more than amber. At the same time, the vendor I was buying the lavender hydrosol stopped carrying it (so I had to buy it from a different vendor which charges more than my original vendor did), my ylang ylang vendor stopped carrying it (it is a rare ingredient, so I started to buy it from other vendors too, which also cost more). In addition I also forgot to incorporate a few costs when figuring out the prices.
I didn’t want to raise prices that drastically (in March) so I absorbed some of the increases in costs but could not absorb them all. It was very confusing figuring out the prices, here’s what I did to figure out the prices in March:
Plastic cost less than glass, but the option with the plastic I kept the price the same as the original amber glass price ($4.25 and $15.00), to cover the rise in the cost of ingredients, and some of the costs I forgot to calculate in the price.
For the cost of the blue glass option: I priced this option only 50-70 cents more than the plastic option. Blue glass misters do not cost 50-70 cents, they cost somewhere between $1.25-1.50 each, depending on the size and also shipping (I currently buy only a single case at a time so do not get the same deals as companies buying in large amounts. This price includes the cost of shipping the bottle to me). The additional 50-70 cents only reflects the cost of the plastic bottle, plus the amount the blue glass cost over the amber glass (so the majority of the cost of the glass bottle is in the base price, and only part of the cost is reflected in the additional costs). The blue glass option does not include the costs in the rise in ingredients, since I absorbed that cost.
I am going to put my new toner on the site (after the sale), and have (properly) figured out the costs of my new toner. I thought that customers would be confused if they saw the cost of the blue glass option was $1.25-1.50 more than the plastic option (which is the true cost of a blue glass mister) for my new toner, and (appears to be) only 50-70 cents more for Balance.
So I have figured out the costs for Balance again so Balance will undergo a price change. Within the last few weeks, I have found a new source of lavender hydrosol, so the cost (though not as low as the original source of lavender) is lower than my current source, so I have considered that too. So I have calculated the price properly for Balance. The cost for the plastic option will go a little down (yay! 🙂 ), and the price of the blue glass option will be $1.25 to 1.50 more than the plastic only option. I am making this change in price so the pricing will not be as confusing as it was, and so the prices of Balance and my new toner are calculated the same way. Please note, although it may look like I have increased prices for blue glass mister, I have not increased prices for the blue glass mister option. I have always charged only the wholesale cost (what I paid) for the bottle in pricing (which is about $1.25 or 1.50–which includes how much it cost to ship it to me. I am not sure if I added shipping to the cost of the bottle in March but I have added it now): the cost of glass was just split before between the base price and part of the additional 50-70 cent.
I really hope this post makes sense since pricing was confusing for Balance but I have fixed it. I am sorry for all the changes/revisions in pricing for Balance; thank you to all my customers for your understanding of this new business owner (I am still learning the ropes of business in many ways!)
**please see post below for the properties of Balance (and also Karite soap)
