The Small Shop Show, episode 48 — pricing without a price war
Host Mia Torres talks with pricing consultant Felix Brandt about why small online shops should test a price rise before they cut costs, and how to announce a price change to regular customers.
Summary
Felix explains why many small shops underprice: they copy the cheapest competitor and never test. He walks through a price test on one product line and shows why, with a 20% margin, a 5% price rise lifts profit by a quarter if sales hold. He describes how to announce a price change to regular customers, and Mia shares her own shop’s free-shipping threshold experiment. The episode ends with three questions to ask before any discount campaign.
Participants
- Mia Torres — host
- Felix Brandt — pricing consultant, guest
Agenda
- Why small shops underprice
- Running a price test
- Margins: price rise versus cost cut
- Telling regular customers
- Before you discount
Action items
| Owner | Task | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Mia Torres | Put the link to Felix’s pricing checklist in the show notes | — |
Host and guests
Host: Mia Torres, who runs a small online tea shop and the Small Shop Show. Guest: Felix Brandt, a pricing consultant who has worked with independent online retailers for eleven years.
Chapters
| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| 0:00 | Introduction and guest |
| 3:40 | Why small shops copy the cheapest competitor |
| 11:25 | A safe price test on one product line |
| 22:10 | Price rise versus cost cut: the margin maths |
| 31:05 | Announcing a price change to regular customers |
| 39:30 | Three questions before any discount |
Key takeaways
- Test a price change on one product line for a few weeks before changing the whole shop.
- With a 20% margin, a 5% price rise increases profit by 25% if sales hold.
- Regular customers accept a price change more easily when it is announced in advance, with a reason.
- Before a discount, ask who it is for, what it should change and how it will end.
Quotes
- “Nobody ever tested the price they copied from the competitor.” — Felix Brandt (4:15)
- “A price test is cheaper than a guess.” — Felix Brandt (12:02)
- “Our free-shipping threshold did more for us than any discount.” — Mia Torres (27:48)
Resources mentioned
- Felix Brandt’s pricing checklist (link promised in the show notes)
- Episode 31 of the Small Shop Show, on free-shipping thresholds
- A spreadsheet layout for price tests, described at 14:30