Discounts: How far do you go?

reddog88 · January 16th, 2010, 11:40 AM

Not even in business yet, and have had inquiry's on embroidering for various groups, but, they all want discouts for volume and for their cause, (i.e., churches, school groups, unions, etc.).

You all are the experts, I appreciate your opinions.

Eric · January 16th, 2010, 02:28 PM

What are your discounts???

I generally say to go by your suppliers, if you get X discount for 144 pcs, then turn that discount around to the customer. So if they order 144, you will too, and then "pass the buck" so to speak.

SunEmbroidery · January 16th, 2010, 10:33 PM

Its largely based on how you handle pricing and what type of orders you want and can handle. If you want large groups you'll probably have to offer some type of discount. I suspect that some of those askers are price shoppers who always expect the lowest price and are checking you out to see how low you will go to get their business. Personally, I give quantity pricing but no additional discounts unless its a cause I want to support.

fwscreener · January 17th, 2010, 10:37 AM

We do several things:

We have wholesale and retail price lists. When groups come to us wanting discounts and we feel they are legitiment we start out with the retail pricing and offer wholesale pricing. We give alot to several churches, youth organizations etc. BUT these organizations we give to are by our chosing. You can only do so much and we have to stay in business to make sure we make monies but also;our employees depend on us to make the right decisions so they can feed thier families.

What happened to us when we started we wanted to help all the churches, etc. and people would come to us because THEY were trying to do good and help others and wanted us to give away our product or service for thier cause.

How far do you go?? It also depends on who they are. We have a youth organization we do ????? for and they pay on-time and order on-time. We give them a larger discount. They also came to us the other day and ordered 1 jersey, 1 pair of shorts, 1 shooter shirt wtih a request for special screening. We asked what it was for and they said a young boy with downs and MS and he was not doing well. He had tried to play basketball with this team for the past 3 years (actually he was just part of the team). But this year he is too sick and is going to be an honary coach. When they came and picked his items up we told them there was no charge, we also gave them Mavericks tickets, a basketball, etc at no charge. The point is we chose to do this, we also told the coach we did not want anyone else to know we gave the items free. We are blessed and do not give items to get something back, we give because we want too.

Sorry I got carried away here, hope this helps......

Hope this makes sense..

Thanks

reddog88 · January 17th, 2010, 12:28 PM

Excellent advice. Thanks.

A little detail here, we were in retail for over 50 years as a 2 family partnership, in groceries and gas. It's retail, but more of a volume business. I wasn't born when it started but, but was when it sold. Honestly, Walmart was our downfall, we couldn't compete and make money.

Anyway, thanks, and any more opinions and advice is appreciated.