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Listen in! Pick up some expert advice to a reader's question that we selected from CyberSchmooz. Featured Biz Question We are a small business which sells apparel and have local stores which carry our product. We are planning to open an online store. How do we price our item so as not to anger our stores which have been our "bread and butter" to this point. If a person can get our product on-line for 15% less (because we are now the retailer) than an in store purchase, wouldn't we be creating a problem? Do we have one suggested retail price for both? Also on our hangtag on the garment in the stores, is it inappropriate to put your website on that tag so customers can see your entire line and purchase all your products? Would stores object? We want to make money but also do the right thing. Help would be appreciated. Answer from our Guest Expert Lillyvette Montalvo Retail Business Prices Dear Idea Cafe Schmoozer, I'm sure you feel like you're really in a pickle. In truth, though, you'd definitely be in one with some of your retailers if you decide to undercut their prices on your new website. The problem is there's a manufacturer's suggested retail price here -- your price. So, your price suggestion guides the retailers. If you take your products online and reduce this price, can you afford to lose these relationships you've nurtured with these stores that have carried your products? If you severe that relationship, will you be able to survive solely with your Internet-based store? Look at it this way�you're automatically shutting out the people who've helped you get where you are today. Once you advertise lower sales prices, you're already cutting out the retailers from the picture completely. You're not even giving them a chance to compete�and you sold them the product. Are you willing to break that relationship forever? Will the retailers feel betrayed? Will they then provide you with negative word-of-mouth marketing that could damage your business beyond repair? Are you willing to accept all of these factors? If you believe you've had a good relationship with these retailers, you want to save this relationship. And if you believe that without the retailers you couldn't have gotten to where you are today, then "share the wealth!" Here's what I mean....continued Page 1 - 2 - 3 Enter your search terms Submit search form       Search Idea Cafe Web Small Business Tax Center • Idea Cafe Home • Sign Up • Biz Grant Center • CyberSchmooz •Coffee Talk with Experts • People in Biz Profiles • Starting Your Biz • Biz Planning • Running Your Biz • FREE Trade Publications • Marketing • Financing Your Biz • Human Resources • Legal & Biz Forms • Managing Your Biz • eCommerce • You and Your Biz • Gen X • Work@Home • The Fridge • De-Stress • Send an Award • Send an eGreeting • Yoga @ Your Desk • Web Guide • Idea Cafe in the News • About Idea Cafe • Advertise on Idea Cafe • Contact Us • Privacy Policy • Site Map • Small Biz News Copyright 1995-2024, Idea Cafe Inc. Downloads are for personal use only, not for resale to others, and may not be reprinted in any form without written permission from Idea Cafe Inc. DISCLAIMER: We hope whatever you find on this site is helpful, but be cautioned that it may not apply to your own situation, or be totally current at any given time. Idea Cafe Inc. and all of its current and past experts, sponsors, advertisers, agents, contractors and advisors disclaim all warranties with regard to anything found anywhere on this family of websites, quoted from, or sent from Idea Cafe. and its related sites, publications and companies. We also take no responsibility for comments published by others on these pages. TRADEMARKS: The following are Registered Trademarks or Servicemarks of DevStart, Inc.: Idea Cafe®, Online Coffee Break®, The Small Business Gathering Place®, Take out Info®, Biz Bar & Grill®, Complaint-O-Meter®, A Fun Approach to Serious Business™, CyberSchmooz™, and BizCafe™.

About the Expert Lillyvette Montalvo Lillyvette is a Certified Diversified Cash Flow Specialist who used her years of public relations, marketing, and financial experience to create Star Capital, Inc. which helped biz owners get the dollars they need to make their businesses grow and succeed. more   Meet the Idea Cafe Experts