[0:02] Hey, TPT sellers, ready to see growth in your business? You’re in the right place.
Welcome to the Savvy Teacher Seller. I’m Kristen Doyle, and I’m here to give you no-fluff tools and strategies that will really make an impact on your sales.
Let’s get started, y’all.
Hey, hey, everyone. Welcome to this episode of the Savvy Teacher Seller.
I’m your host, Kristen Doyle. And if you are a TPT seller who sometimes struggles a little bit with pricing your TPT products, then today’s episode is just for you.
I know pricing is one of those things that so many of us struggle with, myself included, before I landed on a strategy that really works for me.
So today we are going to talk about when it is time to change a price, what action steps to take when you do change your price, and how to evaluate those changes and make the the right decisions going forward about where your product should be priced.
Before we get into all of the details, I want to remind you that prices on our products on TPT are not set in stone.
[1:09] And adjusting our prices is really an important part of running a successful business, whether it’s a TPT business or anything else.
Prices absolutely can, should, do change.
We see this all the time in our real life. But for some reason, when it comes to our own businesses, we tend to be a lot more resistant to changing prices.
Now, I could share with you multiple examples in my own store of times when I’ve raised the price of a product by sometimes less than even a dollar.
And I have seen hundreds or even thousands of dollars in increased earnings over the course of a year as a result of that change.
So believe me when I say it is okay.
It is smart business to change your prices. The biggest thing I want you to keep in mind from today’s episode is just to remind yourself that prices are not permanent.
[2:00] You can change them. And if that change works, great.
If that change doesn’t work, you can always change it back.
This is not an irreversible change that you’re going to have to live with forever and ever and ever.
[2:14] So play around with your prices because like I said, they are not permanent.
All right, let’s talk now about when to adjust prices. The first time I’m gonna tell you that you might consider adjusting your price is if you have any products in your store that are priced under $3.
You might want to consider raising that price to at least $3.
And there’s a couple of reasons for that.
The first reason is that when you sell a product on TPT that is under $3, you get hit with a little transaction fee because TPT is not making enough off of their commission to cover the cost of the transaction.
So they have to pass that along to us.
So if you are selling lots and lots of products under $3, you might be getting hit with that transaction fee a lot.
[2:57] So that would be the first reason. That is one of the biggest reasons that I personally just don’t create products that I think are worth less than $3.
The second reason is that your pricing has a lot to do with the perceived value of your product.
See, oftentimes people will pass on a low-cost product and they’ll actually choose to purchase a slightly more expensive one instead.
The reason for that is because of the perception that cheap products are poor quality.
No one wants to get cheap junk just because it’s cheaper. They want something that is high quality regardless of what they pay for it.
So keep in mind that raising your price could increase the perceived value of your product, which in turn can lead to increased sales.
Now, if you’re thinking, yeah, but I have these dollar products in my store that aren’t worth any more.
Well, I would encourage you to listen to the rest of this episode and use your data to see if that’s true. But if they really aren’t worth more than $3, then maybe consider adding some content to that product.
Maybe this product needs to get a little more robust so that it is worth more than $3.
[4:07] Now, let’s talk data. Conversion rates are your best data point to indicate when it is time to change a price.
If you have a product with a conversion rate that is higher than 12% to 15%, that is a pretty sure sign that you need to raise your price.
But before you jump into raising that price really quickly, make sure that when you look at that conversion rate, you’re looking at a time frame that includes at least a few hundred page views because you’ll need that many for the data to be statistically valid.
That is because conversion rate is a ratio and we need plenty of page views in order for that ratio to be valid.
Now let’s talk low conversion rates. What happens when you have a product that is not converting well?
[4:53] If you have products converting below, I would say 5%. This is a pretty good indicator that something is wrong and you might immediately jump to, I need to lower that price. And that is definitely the quickest and easiest change for you to make.
But I would encourage you before you go lowering your prices to give your product an objective look.
Maybe even ask a friend to look at it for you and see if there is something you can do to improve the product.
Whether that means you’re improving the product itself or the way that you’re marketing it on the product listing page.
Maybe you’re not describing it well. Maybe your preview images aren’t really selling the product for you.
[5:30] If none of those changes work, then go and lower your price a little bit.
So you’ve decided to change a price, whether it’s raising or lowering it.
Let’s talk about some best practices for changing your prices.
As far as how much to adjust your price by, I recommend raising or lowering your price by somewhere around five to 10% of the current cost.
And then wait until you’ve built up a few hundred page views again to see if your change was successful or not.
You can tell if it was successful if you are earning more, not if you are selling more units.
Because remember, if you’ve raised your price, you might sell fewer units and still make more money.
[6:11] Keep in mind that it is perfectly normal for those really high conversion rates.
If you’re in the 12% to 15% conversion rate or higher, then you should expect your conversion rate to decrease a little bit.
In fact, you kind of want your conversion rate to decrease a little bit as you are increasing the price.
[6:28] Ultimately, your earnings are the indicator of whether or not that product change was successful.
Make sure, though, that you wait to build up those few hundred page views again so that that you’re gathering enough data before you make a judgment call on whether that change worked or not.
Another best practice is to make sure that you are not changing prices immediately before a publicly announced sale because that can leave a really bad impression with potential buyers who might’ve heard about the sale and they’re loading up their carts in preparation for it and they come back to it a few days later and see that your product price has gone up right before the sale.
That is just not a good look and you want to make sure that you are maintaining trust with all of your potential buyers.
So make sure that you are not changing your prices right before a sale.
[7:15] If looking at all of that data and making those database decisions about your products seems overwhelming and too difficult, then my not-so-secret weapon for making those pricing changes and lots of other changes to my TPT products is your data playbook.
[7:33] YDP, as we call it, is a membership for TPT sellers that helps you to analyze your data, to look at it in an easy to understand format and know which changes to make based on the data.
One of my favorite new tools that they have added recently is the product change tracker.
The reason I love it so much is because this little tool crunches all the numbers so I don’t have to.
And it tells me if a change is successful or not. and it even gives me recommendations for what to do next.
It really helps to simplify the decision-making because this tool is analyzing the impact of those changes and giving me those recommendations.
[8:12] If you’re not a member of YDP, definitely check it out at kristindoyle.co slash data.
And if you have any questions at all about the membership, I am happy to answer them for you.
For the sake of transparency, that is my affiliate link and I do some coaching calls within the YDP membership on a monthly basis as well.
[8:30] But of course, I only share affiliate links to things that I really believe in and trust.
So you can trust my recommendation, even though it is an affiliate.
[8:39] Now, your action step for today is to find at least one product in your store that could use a price change and try out a small adjustment to the prices.
Make that data-informed change based on conversion rates and then come back in a month or so when you’ve gotten a few hundred page views to see how that product is doing.
If your change has been successful and you’re earning more, maybe make another little small change to see if you can raise it just a bit more.
If your change is not successful, then you can always revert it back to the original price.
Keep in mind that that price you set when you first upload a product should not be that product’s price forever and ever, amen.
Adjust your prices based on what your data is telling you, and you will see your earnings increase as a result.
Again, if you’re looking for more help using your data to optimize your TPT store, definitely check out your data playbook at kristindoyle.co.data.
Feel free to DM me at kristindoyle.co or post in my Facebook group if you have any questions at all about YDP and making those data-driven updates to your TPT listings. Talk to you soon, friend.
[9:48] I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you did, please share it with another teacher seller who would also find it helpful.
For more resources on growing your TPT business, head to kristindoyle.co forward slash TPT. Talk to you soon.
