It’s been 3 years since I’ve been back to Toronto to visit my mom and I finally made it back today. This morning I went to a small cafe for breakfast when I noticed that their price has not changed at all since I’ve left.
Honestly, I’m shocked and impressed that they’ve been able to sustain throughout these years without raising their prices – ingredients have gone up, freight has gone up, labor has gone up, yet they kept prices the same. It’s a small cafe filled with customers that they’ve served for the last 40 years, ran by a group of older folks that I’m going to assume may be afraid of changes – even when it’s at a cost of their profitability.
So it inspired me to write today’s memo: it’s okay to raise your prices.
I’ve been operating eCommerce brands for almost 9 years now, and have my supply-chain and logistics company Saucehaus for the last 4. Through my clients, I’ve seen prices on raw materials, labor costs, assembly costs, and freight costs raise in rates never seen before. I’ll try not to sound like a broken record because it’s obvious – inflation is here, and we have to adapt or risk dying.
I get it. We’re all afraid of the backlash of raising prices. The reality is that as a business owner, you have to put your business’ interest first, and if it means upsetting a few people to save the jobs in your company, so be it.
There are a number of ways we can raise prices and ruffle as little feather as possible, so here are a few ways to do that in your brand.