How Do You Handle Hagglers?

[Spicy Nug]

This is a problem I get not just on my Etsy shop, but literally everywhere I try to sell.

It doesn't matter if I have standard pricing, I always get people who see that pricing and are just like "Ummm... I'll give you half the amount you asked for".

The worst one recently was some who offered me a 1/4 of my pricing!

Sometimes I have items that are about $100. Handmade things you know? So to be offered about $25 is just an insult.

It's hard for me to not want to scream at them and tell them off. Currently I just politely decline the offer but this is leading to a lot of frustration.

Sorry for the tangent but how do all of you deal with hagglers? Any good way to reduce how often haggling happens?

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[shattered world]

I laugh at them in a “R U Srs” way. They get embarrassed and leave.

Maybe this isn’t professional for idc. I don’t do business with hagglers.

Just don’t do this with a strode front or anywhere someone can leave you a review. One off items or street selling or whatever then yeah laugh at them.

 

[SilverClouds]

I don't think you can do this with items but for services let's say they want to pay 1/4th... Then I'll try to sell them a week of service instead of a month . Problem solved. 1/4th payment? 1/4th work. Lol. This actually works, but sometimes they insist on the same amount of work for lower price and I just tell them to fuck off.

 

[UnusualSubstance]

"I can always do 2x the original price for you"

 

[RiskyStuff]

So maybe make 4 times smaller products, but I don't know if it's feasible.
Or maybe tell them how to make more money, so they can afford in the future.

 

[t2van]

"I can always do 2x the original price for you"

This.



Alternatively:

If someone offers you $25 on a $100 item. Say you can accept it, but the delivery is $100.

I don't mind a negotiation as such. If you are constantly getting low-balled, is your pricing correct? Does the customer know it's a higher-quality product than the one being sold, and so on?

Your other option is to inflate the price on another listing, changing the wording and use a more 'educated tone and language' and see where that gets you.

A friend of mine used to sell the same garden furniture on 3 different websites taylored to 3 different buyer types.

Low, Mid and High range.

Only thing that changed was the brand name, the quality of photos, and the language. The same product sold for £150 markup all the way to £1000

 

[Dopious]

I never bother to answer those mails, there is a reason my inbox has a trashcan.

 

[SilverClouds]

A friend of mine used to sell the same garden furniture on 3 different websites taylored to 3 different buyer types.

Low, Mid and High range.

Only thing that changed was the brand name, the quality of photos, and the language. The same product sold for £150 markup all the way to £1000

...and traffic source.

 

[Spicy Nug]

This.



Alternatively:

If someone offers you $25 on a $100 item. Say you can accept it, but the delivery is $100.

I don't mind a negotiation as such. If you are constantly getting low-balled, is your pricing correct? Does the customer know it's a higher-quality product than the one being sold, and so on?

Your other option is to inflate the price on another listing, changing the wording and use a more 'educated tone and language' and see where that gets you.

A friend of mine used to sell the same garden furniture on 3 different websites taylored to 3 different buyer types.

Low, Mid and High range.

Only thing that changed was the brand name, the quality of photos, and the language. The same product sold for £150 markup all the way to £1000

Haha I love this!

So maybe make 4 times smaller products, but I don't know if it's feasible.
Or maybe tell them how to make more money, so they can afford in the future.

Eh not really. At some point it’s not worth it to just downsize the product.

I laugh at them in a “R U Srs” way. They get embarrassed and leave.

Maybe this isn’t professional for idc. I don’t do business with hagglers.

Just don’t do this with a strode front or anywhere someone can leave you a review. One off items or street selling or whatever then yeah laugh at them.

In person sure I’d laugh at them.

 

[Zwielicht]

Okay, since you commented in my thread, I'll share my strategy for dealing with hagglers.

You should know two things when dealing with hagglers: who they are and the value of what you're selling.

When it comes to knowing who they are, I wrote up a guide today about how I put together a customer profile based on details I can immediately see.

Summarised, some people are more likely to haggle than others. You're not going to want to deal with time-wasters, so don't even bother trying to reason with people who aren't going to understand anything you say.

As for valuing what you're selling, always determine how low you're willing to go on the price. If it's something you just urgently want to get rid of or that you were planning on donating, anything is better than nothing.

If you have a surplus of something you need to get rid of eventually, consider going lower, but not as low as you would if it were something you urgently want to get rid of.

If you make handmade, made-to-order goods; price those however you'd like and don't budge on the pricing. If someone tries to haggle, just tell the pricing is firm. If you want to, you can always send them so guilty-tripping message saying, "I pour my heart into the art I make, so the pricing is firm".

 

[Champagne]

I would not engage with them. Tell them that it’s handmade and that the price is there for a reason. If they still won’t accept that, I would just ignore them. There’s no point in selling yourself short, especially since these people are always the first to complain when something goes wrong.