Speaker 1: Welcome to big Business. This is one of my bonus episodes.
Speaker 1: In case you didn't know, I come out with a
Speaker 1: bonus episode every week as well as my main so
Speaker 1: two of me every week. You're spoiled for bloody choice.
Speaker 1: Someone is Actually I'm just going to answer a question
Speaker 1: that came through in my DMS quite literally, just like
Speaker 1: a couple of days ago. So shout out to Taylor
Speaker 1: for asking me this. It's a bit spicy, it's a
Speaker 1: bit it's a bit of tea Zander. Maybe you can
Speaker 1: weigh in on what you think about this as well.
Speaker 1: So Taylor has said, Heybritt love the pod, I have
Speaker 1: a question I'd be interested to hear your perspective on
Speaker 1: in a Q and A or bonus ep Well, you're
Speaker 1: getting exactly what you asked for, Taylor. What is your opinion?
Speaker 1: Slash thoughts on big clothing brands hiking their prices up
Speaker 1: on clothing items when they go somewhat viral on TikTok
Speaker 1: or Instagram. For example, a massive Australian clothing brand that
Speaker 1: rhymes with I'm not even going to say because it's
Speaker 1: really obvious, had one of their tops go live at
Speaker 1: a hundred nine dollars and it is now one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty nine dollars. After the top going viral on TikTok.
Speaker 1: Every few days, it would go up by ten dollars
Speaker 1: until someone made a video about it. To me, it
Speaker 1: feels a bit unethical, as they had their price set,
Speaker 1: which would have been profitable regardless, but to make extra
Speaker 1: off consumers, they increased it further as the new customers
Speaker 1: would keep purchasing it. We'd love to know your thoughts
Speaker 1: on these apologies for the long message Spicy.
Speaker 2: That is spicy. My immediate thought is that I no
Speaker 2: longer trust the brand and I'm not going to shop
Speaker 2: with them again.
Speaker 1: I think brands need to be aware of how this
Speaker 1: can make the consumer feel. Like I see it from
Speaker 1: like obviously both standpoints as a business owner and a
Speaker 1: consumer myself. From a business standpoint, they're just seeing that
Speaker 1: this top has gone absolutely viral, and like, fuck, we
Speaker 1: should have charged more for it. I'm also wondering if
Speaker 1: they are putting up their price by ten dollars each time.
Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever bought anything from that brand,
Speaker 1: but like, all of your stock has barcodes on it,
Speaker 1: and they've got prices well, I don't know about theirs,
Speaker 1: but like ours, like every single one of our pieces
Speaker 1: of clothing has a barcode, you know, on the swing tag.
Speaker 1: It's got the barcode and the price. So if they're
Speaker 1: increasing the price by ten dollars every day, they're gonna
Speaker 1: have to be rebarcoding every single fucking unit. But maybe
Speaker 1: they don't have prices on their on their barcodes, but
Speaker 1: then again, they've got stores, so they would have to
Speaker 1: have prices on there, So I'd be interested from the
Speaker 1: logistics standpoint how they went about that. So I guess
Speaker 1: just seeing it from their perspective, they've seen, holy shit,
Speaker 1: this top is so viral. We should have charged more
Speaker 1: for it, like because in their eyes, it's worth more
Speaker 1: because people absolutely love it. And I know myself that
Speaker 1: we've definitely launched pieces and I've kind of looked at
Speaker 1: its popularity and been like, fuck, we should have done
Speaker 1: like ten dollars more for that, because one thing that
Speaker 1: like I guess I never thought of before owning Fate
Speaker 1: is like how drastic of a difference ten dollars can make.
Speaker 1: But then again, like I see it from the customer's standpoint,
Speaker 1: if customers are noticing that you're upping the prices like
Speaker 1: consecutively over days. When something's gone viral, it's gonna leave
Speaker 1: a bad taste in their mouth.
Speaker 2: And people are smart, like people know brand value. So say, hypothetically,
Speaker 2: you've got a brand that isn't quite up market and
Speaker 2: they're upping their prices.
Speaker 1: Cons this brand is up market, it's quite not fancy, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's clothing is probably no different to ours, but they
Speaker 1: have this like illusion of it being like premium because
Speaker 1: even but one hundred and thirty nine dollars for a
Speaker 1: top is so fucking expensive.
Speaker 2: So expensive. But that's that's what I'm saying. Like, if
Speaker 2: it is a brand that isn't up market and they're
Speaker 2: lifting the prices, yeah, then people aren't dumb. They're gonna
Speaker 2: be like, well, it's actually not worth that. But then
Speaker 2: when you have a brand that may be more up
Speaker 2: market and they're still raising their prices on a product
Speaker 2: that's already expensive for people, fuck you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't know that this happened, Like this is
Speaker 1: the first time I've heard of it, But like my
Speaker 1: instant thought is like I can see why they've done it,
Speaker 1: not that I think that warrants them doing it, especially
Speaker 1: in front of their customers. If anything, like if it's
Speaker 1: going to be a popular style that they're going to
Speaker 1: keep around for the next few years kind of thing,
Speaker 1: like maybe they could look at doing an increase, you know,
Speaker 1: in six months, or like, you know, if they bring
Speaker 1: it back again the following season, it can be ten
Speaker 1: dollars more. But don't increase your prices in the hype
Speaker 1: of an item to make an extra buck out of
Speaker 1: your customers, because they're gonna fucking notice, especially if it's
Speaker 1: a hot viral item, like they're gonna go, oh, I
Speaker 1: want that top. The customers are going to know it
Speaker 1: was one hundred and nine dollars and if it gets
Speaker 1: restocked or whatever, like they're going to notice that that's
Speaker 1: twenty dollars more.
Speaker 2: I feel like, what And I'm not someone in business
Speaker 2: in clothing or anything, but I feel like what maybe
Speaker 2: would have benefited them is if they added something gimmicky
Speaker 2: to this viral moment that kind of almost would have
Speaker 2: justified in people's minds them raising their price, Like what's
Speaker 2: what's something that they could throw in or what's something
Speaker 2: gimmicky that they could add, like a gift with purchases
Speaker 2: almost yeah, yeah, something that's going to almost allude people
Speaker 2: to what they're actually doing. I think that made that
Speaker 2: could have worked. But just like raising that price every
Speaker 2: day by ten bucks.
Speaker 1: I know, and ten dollars makes a huge difference to
Speaker 1: a business, like pricing something at eighty dollars and pricing
Speaker 1: something at ninety dollars even though it's just ten dollars,
Speaker 1: Like it makes a massive difference to a business. But
Speaker 1: the fact that they've jumped it up by twenty dollars
Speaker 1: just because it's going viral, Like yeah, I don't know
Speaker 1: on the back end what they'd be thinking, like maybe
Speaker 1: someone's I don't want to give them the benefit of
Speaker 1: the doubt. I'm like if someone priced it wrong and
Speaker 1: then they've rectified. But what like this person said, when
Speaker 1: they send it in, like your prices are set, and
Speaker 1: your prices are set to make a profit from the
Speaker 1: get go, so they're just like adding another twenty dollars.
Speaker 2: And also they're getting all this extra business across the
Speaker 2: business anyway because they've had this viral moment, so it
Speaker 2: just seems like they're wanting to grab more and more
Speaker 2: and it's like, am, oh my god, what's that Robin
Speaker 2: hood saying the rich take from the rich and no,
Speaker 2: but they're not. They just keep the opposite.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not a good look at all. And that's
Speaker 1: my opinion from a business standpoint, I can see why
Speaker 1: their mind went there, and I've had that thought before.
Speaker 1: I'm like, fuck, we could have sold this for ten
Speaker 1: dollars more. Like you know, I've had those thoughts, but
Speaker 1: I've never then gone quick jump in and changed the price.
Speaker 1: But again, like it all comes down to barcodes and everything.
Speaker 1: I'm like, how are they changing the barcodes for every
Speaker 1: single one? Because there's a barcode on the outer bag
Speaker 1: and there's a barcode on the swing tag on the
Speaker 1: inside of the item as well, So they'd be creating
Speaker 1: more work for all their staff as well. I don't
Speaker 1: exactly know, because I don't know how it's happened, but yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right to think that this isn't on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and how would you from your perspective, how would
Speaker 2: you then tackle this like a negative reaction, Like what
Speaker 2: would you do from a business standpoint to kind of
Speaker 2: rectify that? Do you think?
Speaker 1: Good question? They're like, they'd either have to come out,
Speaker 1: you'd have to come out and make a statement.
Speaker 2: Would you acknowledge.
Speaker 1: That you've done it? Yeah, yeah, you'd have to. But
Speaker 1: I think like a lot of businesses and brands, they
Speaker 1: don't give a fuck, Like they just they would just
Speaker 1: leave it and everyone will forget about it, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but if enough people were calling me out, like I'd
Speaker 1: have to make a statement and say why I did it,
Speaker 1: and like be honest, be like we just saw the
Speaker 1: hype of this item, so we wanted to sell it
Speaker 1: for more. Or if they genuinely made a mistake and
Speaker 1: it wasn't meant to be one hundred and nine at
Speaker 1: the start, like give proof as to how that was
Speaker 1: wrong and why it did jump.
Speaker 2: Up, like they'd make up the press.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but like have the receipts. I don't know, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just something I guess to be mindful of. And
Speaker 1: you hear of businesses doing this as well, Like like
Speaker 1: you hear stories before sales they like put up the
Speaker 1: retail price and then they say we having thirty percent off,
Speaker 1: but they'd like put all the prices up, which is illegal,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure. But yeah, businesses like it's not illegal
Speaker 1: for them to put up the price of something, but
Speaker 1: it does leave a bad taste in the consumer's mouth.
Speaker 1: And I guess it's up to you what you want
Speaker 1: to do with that thought about the business. But fuck,
Speaker 1: it's business at the end of the day, isn't it.
Speaker 1: And people are just wanting to make more and more money.
Speaker 2: They're all trying to play the game exactly right, and
Speaker 2: you can play it wrong sometimes exactly right.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I would never do something like that. Like
Speaker 1: we've increased our prices since Fate started, Like I always
Speaker 1: talk about, you know, back in the day, how I
Speaker 1: was selling my items for way too cheap, Like I
Speaker 1: wasn't making profit. I was breaking even barely if that.
Speaker 1: So we've definitely increased our prices over the years. But
Speaker 1: it's not a twenty dollar jump in a viral moment.
Speaker 1: It might be a twenty dollar jump over four years
Speaker 1: or something because like inflation, et cetera. But yeah, bad
Speaker 1: move on their behalf. No, not that I'm trying to
Speaker 1: throw shade, but yeah, they should have thought twice about that.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, surely they could have predicted that
Speaker 1: the top was going to be popular, but sometimes you don't.
Speaker 1: Sometimes items will take you by surprise. But they should
Speaker 1: just learn better for next time. Like, all our customers
Speaker 1: like this style, so if they make anything similar in
Speaker 1: the future, maybe they can sell it at a higher
Speaker 1: price point. Yeah, that's what I would do anyway.
Speaker 2: I think, especially when we're in like a cost of
Speaker 2: living crisis and people can barely forward the basics, pulling
Speaker 2: something like that now is never going to land.
Speaker 1: It's a bit toned death.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely tone death.
Speaker 1: So anyway, Kaylor, feel free to shop at FATE. I
Speaker 1: won't put the price up by twenty dollars when we
Speaker 1: have a viral top