Candy Price Increase Follow-Up: Now What? (Part-2)

By now, there should be an overall awareness that prices are on the rise. We can blame it on inflation, gas prices, economic woes, or any other of the numerous options at our disposal. Unfortunately, it's a way of life in this business. But let's not sulk about it. Instead we’ll discover solutions together.

If somehow you haven't taken notice of the hikes or adjusted your pricing, I encourage you to do so... today! Raising prices is never a desirable option; it’s the dirty secret that people in business simply don’t speak of. But the key is to take an aggressive approach and be ahead of the curve. When I say aggressive, I don’t mean go overboard and radically impose major price increases. Instead, be as organized as possible with special consideration taken to easing your customers into the changes.

With inflation on the rise and the price of gas and raw materials fluctuating daily, prices aren’t about to go back down anytime soon. It’s time now to begin the aggressive approach by incorporating frequent price increases at smaller percentages. You’ll find the transition will go more smoothly if, rather than increasing pricing by 20% to your customers in a single day, you take a strategic approach with 5% increases weekly over the course of a month to get to that final number. When all the other store owners increased by 20% overnight, you’ll still be 15% less expensive (even if just for a week) then all the other game in town. Sure, you will catch up to the total price in a relatively short period of time, but the transition for your customer will be less dramatic. Customers are more willing to accept smaller-sized, incremental price increases than they are to swallow the entire jump all at once.

We’ll revisit this topic again in an upcoming blog. Happy selling!