How to determine MSRP or wholesale prices for your work?

[boardbutproductive]

Hi all!  This summer I sold my work (for the first time!) at a local farmers market, and did quite well.  A local tea shop recently reached out and is interested in stocking my mugs in their store!  That's amazing, and I'm super excited.  However, I'm unsure of how to handle the pricing.  At the farmers market, I sold the mugs directly to the buyers for $45 each, and the market only took a 10% cut. 

The store owner asked for "a pricing guide for what you like to sell them to retailers for/MSRP, or a wholesale guide if you have that put together."   She has not given any indication of the quantity of mugs she's looking for. 

Can someone help me unravel what that means?  Knowing that the mugs sold at the market for $45 each, what sort of prices and information would you provide to the tea shop owner?  

[Mark C.]

For wholesale (and thats what this will be) that price can be 1/2 to 1/3 off your retail price -even in rare instances 25% off retail.

It all depends -I wholesale to many places and its a mix. One is a high end gallery so the price is about 1/3 off my price-one only adds 6$ to each item (mugs ) so my price is much more about 15% off my price. A few are 35% off retail

You have to decide what you can afford to sell them for and still be ok with that.Since this is all new it may take you some time to get to this price. The other factor is can you supply them with enough product year around and still sell at your farmers market? this factor alone is worth figuring out at this point as well.

[GEP]

Agree with Mark, and also note that a buyer can only get a wholesale discount IF they are purchasing a minimum quantity, which is also set by you. In other words, they can’t get a 50% discount for buying 3 mugs. It’s gotta be a substantial order. 

It’s been about 6 years since I did any wholesale, so the norms may be different now. But minimum orders that I saw in the industry ranged from $200 to $500. Or, you can also do “20 mugs minimum.” 

[Mark C.]

My minimum was $300 a few years ago-I have since upped that number quit a bit to my existing outlets.

I will add I'm not taking any new wholesale accounts now

Another way to think about this is what can  a shop sell your mugs for and work backwards.

I just turned down a shop in Seattle asking about wholesale mugs yesterday-small world

[oldlady]

be sure to think about the costs you will not have if you let someone else sell your work.    some of my stuff is sold in 2 different places.  i do not have to pay someone to stand in a shop all day or buy the bags and wrapping materials or pay an entry fee months in advance hoping to get into a show or spend time setting out my stuff on whatever sales location is available outdoors.  wholesale might just work for you.

[Morgan]

Agreed with thinking about costs you do not have to make…a huge benefit to selling wholesale is you are getting rid of a ton of wares all at once (as well as a lump sum payment) so there is no cost of “time” it takes you to sell something if that makes sense…plus all the other costs mentioned by others. Sure you could eventually sell everything at your normal price but if your production is high than it can very much be worthwhile to dump a large amount of stuff wholesale. I personally will not let any gallery sell my stuff more than I do and simply sell at 30% off my retail prices.

also be very aware of inventory for future shows or all of your avenues of sales. The last thing you want is to sell everything you have then not have enough to sell by the time that next market happens  (or online sales and so forth).