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How to successfully increase your price point (even during a pandemic)

Business25-Oct-2021

Emma Swain, founder and owner of Nora Eve Bridal, shares her story of successfully increasing her boutique price point during a pandemic and offers three takeaway tips on how you can too.

As we emerge from the pandemic and appointment levels start to return to normal, there’s an important conversation we need to have as boutique owners. Pre-pandemic, business for a lot of us was going ok, sales were steady, and we were making money… but at what cost? Lockdown taught us there is more to life than working 1982681 hours a week selling wedding dresses. It certainly taught me to slow down and think differently about how my business makes money.

When I first opened Nora Eve, my approach was to stack ’em high and sell ‘em cheap, stocking 100’s of off the peg dresses that brought huge footfall into my store but also meant a constant turnover of stock that was exhausting to keep on top of. Over the years, I refined our collection, bringing in a selection of trusted mid-range designers whose dresses appealed to many for their classic designs and affordable price points. We may not have needed to sell quite as many dresses as the early days, but me and my team still had to work hard to break even.

During the pandemic I had time to reflect on my business and where I saw it going over the next 5-10 years. I no longer wanted to be working all the hours and I needed my business to work harder for me. My business coach, Louise Beukes, suggested refining our collection and increasing the price point of our dresses so that we could sell less to make the same (or more!) profit. Initially I was hesitant: we were in the midst of a pandemic and with weddings full of uncertainty brides were spending less, not more!

Also, Nora Eve was well-known for stocking affordable dresses, and I was worried about losing our client base. But upon researching our audience and speaking to our brides online about their favourite designers and budget, I realised that by streamlining our stock we could serve our existing brides and attract brides with higher budgets locally and from further afield. It also became clear that couples who had postponed their weddings were even more intent on planning a once-in-a-lifetime experience and many were happy to invest more on their wedding dress in order to look and feel absolutely incredible after such a long wait.

Convinced, I started by clearing out any stock under £1000 with an online flash sale which provided us with a healthy budget to invest in new designers, and then used the information I’d gathered from speaking to our brides to select which designers to keep and which new ones to invest in. Stocking a range of price points was really important as we wanted to ensure our collection catered to a range of budgets and styles, whilst ensuring profitability for the business. I knew that with higher budgets comes higher expectations, so we launched Nora Eve Luxe to cater for these brides, offering an enhanced appointment experience as well as tweaking our marketing messaging to appeal to this new audience on our website, social media and press.

Just a few months after re-opening fully with our new collection, I’ve already seen a huge difference in sales revenue, booking more high-quality appointments that lead to sales, brides are travelling from as far away as London and Northern Ireland to buy from us, and my team are able to dedicate more time to giving our brides a first-class experience every step of the way.

If you’ve been wondering how to do the same, here are Emma’s top three tips for increasing your price point:

1. Do your research

Don’t be constrained by your existing client base. It was only after speaking to our followers online that I realised we were missing out on brides with higher budgets who loved our boutique but couldn’t find the designers they desired on our rails.

2. Set a budget and stick to it.

It can be difficult to know how much to invest in new collections, and easy to get swayed by the pretty! Selling off our old stock gave me a definite budget to stick to when purchasing samples and helped to keep our cashflow manageable.

3. Add value.

A higher price point means expectations are higher, so look at ways you can enhance your existing client experience to provide more value to your brides. We introduced a new luxury experience in a separate ‘lounge’ area of our boutique, offering a glass of fizz to the bride and her guests and adding in treats to make her feel extra special.