Price Increases are always dicey but in a recession they can be catastrophic, so why are we doing it now? The truth is, we would do just about anything NOT to raise our prices. We know how difficult this year has been economically for everyone and we hate to exacerbate the problem. We have been holding out, watching our margins shrink, as silver prices increased dramatically. At this point, we have to make a modest price adjustment in order to stay economically viable. Prices will go up approximately 8% on Monday, November 23rd at 8:30 am. Prices on the website are always current. We have no control over the silver market, which seems to be on steroids. In my next post I will explore the forces causing silver to inflate, but today, I just want to apologize for the terrible timing of our price increase.
For those of you who have been tracking silver prices, our increase will come as no surprise. We tried to wait until at least a chunk of your holiday purchases were complete. We wanted to push to the end of the year but our replacement costs are just too high at this point to ignore. Our current pricing only covered us to silver at $14 per ounce. Raising our prices approximately 8% will only partially cover our increased costs. We know how hard it is out there and we are doing our best to keep the pipeline full of gorgeous, irresistible new designs. Hopefully, the worst of the recession is behind us!
Silver has been on the rise and is currently between $16-$18 an ounce.
It’s tough out there! How do you feel about lower-cost alternatives, like lead-free pewter or brass? How to they work as jewelry on the skin?
What are some ways to help educate the customer on rising prices (I have increased my own pricing as a result)?
thx
peggy
Comment by Handmade Jewelry by Peggy Li — November 17, 2009 @ 2:43 pm
I think it is inevitable that some people will be forced by higher prices to consider alternate materials. However, there will also be people who are priced out of gold and will now consider silver or gold plated silver as an alternative. I just did a new blog entry with some historical context on silver pricing. There is a link to a 600 year pricing chart that is very enlightening.
Comment by nina — November 19, 2009 @ 10:23 am
Nina,
great point about the folks priced out of gold moving to similar alternatives. On that note, have you considered doing additional gold finishes? I’d like to see something between your current shiny and matte — the shiny is too shiny, but matte doesn’t read like 14k gold, it’s more ethnic/exotic in vibe.
thanks!
peggy
Comment by Handmade Jewelry by Peggy Li — November 25, 2009 @ 1:27 am
At the moment we don’t have any other finishes in the pipeline. It took years to perfect the satin finish and get a consistent result. Plating is more of an art than a science. That being said, I will see if there are any new developments in plating technology that might give us new options.
Comment by nina — December 4, 2009 @ 11:28 am
Thank you Nina — I’ve seen some samples of green gold, rose gold plate that looked quite nice as well.
peggy
Comment by Handmade Jewelry by Peggy Li — December 8, 2009 @ 6:10 pm