Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Pricing Your Products

After you decide which products or services you're most interested in selling, it's time to price your merchandise. Having delved into the results of your research, you probably have a good idea of which items have the best chance of selling. However, no matter how trendy or in demand your products are, setting the wrong prices might leave you with inventory that doesn't sell. In this section, we take a look at some pricing strategies and considerations to make sure that you move the merchandise directly into your buyers' hands.

When you're tagging your merchandise, the following factors are the most probable price influencers, or factors that affect your sticker price:

• Demand: Whether customers are seeking out your product because it either meets a need or is thought to be a desirable or trendy item.
• Competition: Not only who, but also how many, competitors you have, and what prices they have established for the same or similar products you're selling.
• Market position: How you want your business to be perceived by customers in the marketplace. For example, an upscale store with high-end products might influence pricing strategies in one direction while a larger, warehouse-type of image might warrant a more competitive pricing strategy.
• Cost: How much you pay (your expense) to create or purchase the product before reselling it to your customer.
• Profitability: ...