Its true.... I have sent emails before saying "The cake serves 30 and will be $5/serving."
I get an email back saying "Could you send me what the total would be for the cake?"
I guess in this day in instant info., some people just don't think of "thinking it out".
I just had someone talk about their daughter wanting cupcakes for her wedding. Well the mother is paying for the wedding and she told me she told her daughter, that if she wanted cupcakes, she would get them at Sam's Club. She wasn't paying for "wedding" cupcakes. She then proceeded to tell me how she would rather pay for a wedding cake, since wedding cakes start at $200 for 100 people, then asked me, "Right"? I said sure if you got to Sam's Club. We'll see if she calls. 
Change your website to say "....start at $3-$4 a serving. Let me repeat that. They START at $3-$4 a serving."
One of my acquaintances has something similar to this on her pricing page: "Cakes start at $3/serving, but can increase given the complexity of the design. Most of our cakes average $5-$6/serving."
Having the "starting" price is helpful, but sometimes people fixate on it. "oh! $3/serving!" It could be beneficial for you to tell them what they're likely to end up spending if they book with you. Just a thought.
Having the "starting" price is helpful, but sometimes people fixate on it.
Yeah, I learned this when I worked for the powercord mfg'r. If a customer asked for a quote for 10K, 50K and 100K, I could bet the farm they'd want the 100K price for 10K qty. Lost count of the times I had to return their PO because they had the wrong price, based on their quantity.
Change your website to say "....start at $3-$4 a serving. Let me repeat that. They START at $3-$4 a serving."
One of my acquaintances has something similar to this on her pricing page: "Cakes start at $3/serving, but can increase given the complexity of the design. Most of our cakes average $5-$6/serving."
Having the "starting" price is helpful, but sometimes people fixate on it. "oh! $3/serving!" It could be beneficial for you to tell them what they're likely to end up spending if they book with you. Just a thought.
I do put the "over $15" in the same sentence...I suppose they think that's the total for the whole cake? haha.
I have my prices CLEARLY stated on my website. No trying to hide it, either.
And, STILL, i get emails regularly from the contact form on my website asking what a cake for 12 people would cost.
I have to assume that they looked around my website and read the section on pricing, since everyone's first question is "what's it gonna cost me?" I imagine they HAD to of seen my breakdown of prices...Round cakes, 6", 12 servings, $48
PLAIN AS DAY
Everyone wants the Duff cake on a Wal Mart budget and really aren't doing much shopping on it. They do a google search for "Cakes <my city>" and find me and assume that I'll give them the small-city price for metropolis cake design
bwhahaha
Kitagrl, I'm sorry to hear about your troubles!
Just wanted to say hi as a fellow Philadelphia caker. Don't worry- I'm not the one undercutting you because I don't sell cakes at all--only make them once in a while for family (and not too often either, as I'm a full-time law student!)
But anyways, you have to be doing a lot right since you won best of Philly 2009. And your cakes look wonderful. Stick to your guns with your pricing. You don't want to start losing money on your business. Maybe it would help if you added a line saying, "most of our cakes end up in the $5-7 range. I would be happy to email you a price quote upon request and receiving detailed information about your cake design!"
Kitagrl, I'm sorry to hear about your troubles!
Just wanted to say hi as a fellow Philadelphia caker. Don't worry- I'm not the one undercutting you because I don't sell cakes at all--only make them once in a while for family (and not too often either, as I'm a full-time law student!)
But anyways, you have to be doing a lot right since you won best of Philly 2009. And your cakes look wonderful. Stick to your guns with your pricing. You don't want to start losing money on your business. Maybe it would help if you added a line saying, "most of our cakes end up in the $5-7 range. I would be happy to email you a price quote upon request and receiving detailed information about your cake design!"
Thanks! Don't worry, I know there are alot of Philly area bakers and some really good ones too! There are plenty of customers to go around and I love having a network of people I can call just in case something goes wrong and I need a backup. So I'm not upset about that, but was just irritated that my order after a tasting got snatched by a cheap cake baker! Oh well!
Thanks for everyone's tips, I'll definitely have to see what I can do to improve the clarity of my pricing on my website.
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