Should prices be visible?

None of my work is ever priced. I wholesale mostly, but still do
some retail. I have a high turnover. If I was to price every piece, I
would be switching between wholesale and retail prices monthly. With
around 80-100 + pieces, I would spend all of my waking hours
pricing. I have better things to do with my waking hours…lol.

Those who are that suspicious of my reasons for not pricing, and
don’t ask the reason before walking away, would usually be problem
customers anyway. Always thinking that I was going to rook them in
some way, instead of assuming that I am, as my customers will attest
to…unfailingly honest. Many wholesalers and higher end jewelers
do not obviously display prices.

Lisa, (Rats took revenge for the rat zapper. One committed hari kiri
in my motor two days ago. $650 later, the car still smells like dead
rat. Phewie!) Topanga, CA USA

I agree with the statement below. I have seen the difference in my
sales doing both ways. I tried the dot system for a while (red =
etc) but plain ol prices are best.

I find when I go to a website and the prices are not clearly there,
i move on, no matter how much I am willing to spend, I dont have the
time to email for a price quote. I leave that up to custom made
items.

Have a great day,
Tina

Hello All,

About pricing vs. non-pricing. Try this thought experiment. Just
substitiute the words ‘jewlery store’ or ‘jewelry stall’ or similar
with the words ‘super market’. Then think about the need, or
otherwise, for pricing.

Regards,
Rob Jupp
Australia

I think if the price is hidden then the shopper will believe that
further enquiry is a waste of time because :

a. He/she is not in the “don’t care about the price” category;

b. He/she expects to be shocked when the price is revealed, rather
than pleasantly surprised;

c. The seller can only reveal the price in conjunction with a spiel
or hard-sell tactic.

To succeed without showing prices, either the product must be
irresistible, or the seller must be instantly available and instantly
recognised as friendly and approachable.

Alastair

I recently gave a friend a bathroom break, and watched her booth. I
was unable to quote prices for her, as there were none. Several
walked away rather than await her return.

I don’t know what the best answer is, I don’t think there will be
one.

Personally, I prefer not having to ask.
Hugs
Terrie

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard ‘I knew I had good taste’;
it’s curious that cost is somehow equivalent to taste.

KPK

I visited a store once, a boutique and there were NO TAGS on the
jewelry.

They had each piece photographed and on a paper had the picture and
the tag taped next to it. Each page was a showcase and it was
underneath the case. To get the price, just pull out the paper and
look.

It was GORGEOUS with no tags. Awesome.

David Geller
JewelerProfit
www.JewelerProfit.com

It is not realistic for a store with 5000 pieces of jewelry to
have all tags readable by a glance. 

If I my speculate a little here, I think it may be partly an issue
of context. When a shopper goes into a store, he or she knows very
quickly (if not ahead of time) what type of store it is, and so,
what range of prices to expect, be it Needless Markup, um, Neiman
Markus or Wallmart.

At an art fair, however, there are far fewer clues for a particular
booth. The individual needs to see at least a few prices to get a
sense of what range the pieces are in, to know the context.

Personally, I have reached a point where I am no longer shy about
“pretending” I can afford whatever I want when shopping. These days,
a salesperson judges by appearance at their own peril. I act as
though I expect to be treated with deference, regardless of what’s
in my mind or my wallet, and I generally am. But not everyone is as
enlightened as I… ;>)

Noel

When I’m shopping for stones at a gem show this is exactly what
happens to me. One booth in Tucson quoted my male friend $9/ct on
some sapphire melee, and quoted $12 to me for the same small
quantity. I am much more likely to buy from a booth that at least has
a price tag on the merchandise, even if it isn’t entirely visible. My
customers respond well to having visible pricing on every piece.

Laurel Cavanaugh

Most of the artisans feel that to see prices in the jeweler's cases
is declasse. 

This reminds me of me twenty-five years ago. I think I had some
vague notion that I would offend the customer by talking about
money.(looking back I see it was I who was uncomfortable because I
could not imagine myself spending $whatever for a pretty pebble) But,
money is at the heart of the matter. The customer expects to spend
and the jeweler wants the sale. It is critical to both parties.
Finally I just got over it and spoke matter-of-factly about the
price.

Getting to the money early on can actually speed the process along.
I’m not so rude as to ask “how much do you want to spend?” but I
respect whatever parameters I glean from conversation. Hand them an
expensive piece and mention the price, their reaction speaks volumes.
Adjust your presentation accordingly.

What I have noticed regarding price tags is that customers seem more
willing to accept the credibility of those pre-printed tags over
handwritten. However I hate the look, too commercial and mass market.
I’ll have to practice my penmanship.

Deliberately concealing the price is playing games with the customer.
It takes a certain prowess to play the game well. If you are good at
it, more power to you! But I have never heard of anyone being
offended or turned off by prices clearly displayed. I don’t want to
start the conversation with my customer with a discussion of price.
At my shop prices are fairly easy to see. I don’t like to embarrass
my customers by leading them on about a piece that is beyond their
price range anymore than I want to waste my time doing that. If your
sales style works with the concealed price tag, go for it. But it
doesn’t work for me as a seller and as a buyer I find it kind of
annoying.

Stephen Walker

In some venues, especially with a large inventory or(at shows, for
instance)where there is a widely diverse range of customers, it might
be impractical to label every piece; however, displaying the pieces
by price range can be a practical solution. A section from ‘under
$100’ to ‘$101-450’ etc. (however you want to spread your prices)
will keep the customers where their wallets are. The '500 and up"
will separate the casual shoppers from the spenders with more serious
money. If potential customers can’t see individual prices, at least
they will feel more comfortable knowing where to look, and not be put
off by having to ask the price of everything they like.

Dee

Hi everyone,

I find when I go to a website and the prices are not clearly
there, i move on, no matter how much I am willing to spend 

I have to say that I agree with Tina on this thread. Although I am a
newby to jewelry making and have not yet sold anything, I have been
a customer at shows and on the web for many years and I can really
love someone’s work but if the price is only available on request I
too will simply move on and find someone’s work who clearly displays
their prices.

Helen

We have never put prices on our jewelry in the store. What we would
do is have a loose leaf binder out for customers to go through. The
binder is an inventory with a photograph of each piece and
such as stone weights, metals used and price. It gave our
customers a way to find out what they want to know and it sort of
forced them to at least glance at everything we had in stock while
they searched for the picture of what they were interested in.
Sometimes they look at the binder more than our jewelry. It is a
great way to start a conversation and there is no awkwardness asking
what a piece costs.

John
John Winters

It’s amazing how much discussion has taken place about showing/not
showing prices.

As part of my proposed workshop next summer this topic will be
discussed as part of ‘being professional’. It’s a topic that
requires, at least in my mind, more time and space than this forum
allows.

KPK

There have been a wide variety of responses to this, including my
own, and I seem to be in the minority opinion. However, I wanted to
reiterate that all of my jewelry has price tags, despite my
contention that they don’t need to be visible. A customer with a
sharp eye, and with the tag in the right position (usually when I
forget to tuck it out of the way so you can see the piece and not
the tag), can read my pricing. They can certainly read it when I take
it out of the case. But the idea of having a bunch of self standing
labels in the cases trying to identify prices, or price ranges, is
just ungainly, and IMHO, plain ugly. Mind you, every one of the
approximately 300 pieces I have out at any one time each have
different prices so in my case it would mean having 300+ stands with
prices on them. Hello, is there any way to do something like that
attractively??? I don’t think so.

I think for someone at shows who has a lot of $20 earrings or $40
rings, maybe it’s a good idea. I think if you’re a fine jeweler,
with a unique and interesting product that requires a little more
thought going into the purchase then “Do I have an extra $20 in my
pocket”, it is critical that you get the pieces into the customer’s
hands regardless of the price. I cannot begin to tell you the number
of times people have bought stuff from me for way more than they
intended simply because I was able to get them to try it on. If they
had simply seen the price they would have never asked to see the
piece. I am NOT a pushy salesman either (actually a close friend of
mine who makes a small fortune as a salesman is always aghast at how
laid back I am with the customers when he watches me).

I had a woman in recently. A neighbor of mine brought her by
(although she had been in the store once before). She had no
intention of buying anything from me when she came in (mainly the
neighbor wanted to chat). She saw a ring in my cases with three
diamonds that I had just made. I pulled it out of the case for her
and she tried it on. She loved the ring and finally asked how much
it was. I told her it was $2500 and she said, “Oh, I can’t spend that
much. I’d have to put it on my credit card. I hate having credit
card debt”. But she couldn’t take the ring off. She tried a couple of
other pieces on. She left the store and came back ten minutes later
and bought the ring. That was two months ago. Yesterday she called
and said, “I paid off my credit card. Now I want you to make me some
earrings that match”. I’ve made far more money by making people ask
me about pricing and pieces then I’ve lost by people walking out
because I don’t have big signs with the prices on them. Selling
jewelry is not about pricing. It is about creating value for the
customer. Sure some people sell simply by price. But then I thought
Orchid was filled with a bunch of interesting designers, for whom
price should NOT be the selling point.

Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140

First of all there is no answer, this debate has been going on
forever. I have not read all the post so I might be repeating if so
sorry. My reasoning for not showing tags, they are ugly and make the
showcases look like (fill in your favorite word for excrement). In my
store I have a few tags showing but not many, most are under the ring
fingers or whatever the piece of jewelry is displayed on. I do have a
nice tag made for a group of pieces- $20.00 Each or whatever, and I
have a nice tag for some on the more expensive colored stones.
Jewelry is an emotional purchase whether it is cheap or expensive,
most people want to buy from a booth or store that looks nice and a
salesperson that looks good and wearing jewelry. Try this experiment
have one case with all tags showing and the other with no tags
showing and see which on gets the most attention. Another reason is
it qualifies the buyer when you show them the piece and tell them
the price.

If they say not bad you have a buyer, if they choke you know to go
to the next guy don’t take your time up with non buyers. Most people
do not think they are going to buy a $1000.00 ring when they are
walking a show, they walk up to your case see a ring they like see
the price tag $1000.00 and go on. They come up to my case see a neat
ring and they say I love that ring, I take it out, put it on her
finger and then tell her the price. Once its on her finger she’s
hooked, she might not buy that one but I am already pulling out
another one to show her before she even takes the first on off,
usually a little less so she can see what she gets for less money.

That’s my two cents that wont even buy you a piece of bubble gum
today.

Bill Wismar

Does the physiological assumption that “if you have to ask the price
it is too expensive” work for you for when you are shopping as well
as when your customer is looking at your work, and does it cross
your mind that you might be a victim of a self inflicted false
thought process? When I see something I admire, I want to know
quantitatively how beautiful it is, $, $$, $$$, $$$$… I want to know
the price as a function of what that person feels their work is worth
and to challenge my concept of myself to see if I feel I am worth
spending that much money on myself. It also helps me to learn the
lack and limitation I impose on myself.

Is it always a question of what the item is worth and whether we can
afford it, or is it about how we feel about ourselves?

I have women customers who will spend $300 on their daughter, but
would not spend that much on themselves. In retail, I quite often am
aware that the customer is trying to find a way to justify spending
the money to make the purchase, and in my opinion, it is not about
whether they can afford it, it is about self worth. Over and over
again, day in and day out.

A lot of us incorporate car repair, medical bills, ect. and are not
threatened with life long poverty, and some purchases would not
impose a financial hardship either. We just pretend it would and deny
ourselves what we want, something that we would enjoy. I have
customers come back to see if we still have a piece of jewelry under
$50, took them a week to justify the cost, and it’s gone and you can
see the regret on their face.

Somewhere between not being in debt and can’t take it with you there
might be a happy medium.

Richard Hart

This thread might be taking a slightly different turn… website
pricing.

I have been asked many times by my galleries if I sell retail from
my

website. I currently do not sell retail from my website for two
reasons: 1) to avoid a conflict of interest with my current
galleries. 2) I know it’s more profit for me, but until I can handle
the production and marketing that I have to do right now, I can’t
focus on a retail and a wholesale website.

And, if you guys find pieces that you love, but have no prices, you
won’t shoot off a quick email to see how much it costs? I’m not a
huge shopper, and I’m pretty picky, so when I find something that I
really like and want to own I’ll make the effort to find out a price
before dismissing it.

Amery Carriere Designs
Romantic Jewelry with an Edge
www.amerycarriere.com

Deliberately concealing the price is playing games with the
customer. It takes a certain prowess to play the game well. 

ring displays look like crap with all the tags showing. My intention
supercedes your opinion. Playing the game well in my opinion is to
approach each situation with honesty and integrity, and I can conceal
tags and have as much honesty and integrity as anyone who has all the
prices visible. Whether you have price tags showing or not, your
first objective in retail is to make a connection with the customer.
Whether I have a store or a booth

learning to have control over the situation whether it is just being
friendly and conversational or assessing the need of your customer,
or potential sales, how you make your customer feel is
far
more important than whether your tags are showing or not. No one is
born with excellent people skills, it is a process of learning what
works for you and what does not. Making a sale is just making a sale,
making a connection is where your residual income is.

Richard Hart