How to Raise Your Prices (and What to Tell Customers)

Business guide · Updated October 2026

Most small sellers put off raising prices for far longer than they should. The worry is always the same: customers will leave. Some might. The useful question is how many would have to leave before you were worse off, and for most products the answer is a lot more than people expect. This guide covers when a rise is due, how to pick the number, who needs to hear about it, and what to say, with wording you can copy at the end.

Five signs a price rise is overdue

Your costs have gone up and your prices have not. Every sale now earns less than it did.
You regularly sell out, or your order book is full weeks ahead.
You have not changed a price in over a year.
Nobody ever questions your prices. If no one at all hesitates, there is usually room.
The business is busy but there is little left at the end of the month.

One of these is a prompt to look. Two or more and you are probably already paying for the delay.

Decide what the new price has to do

Take a potter who sells a mug for $24. It used to cost $9 to make; clay, glaze and firing have pushed that to $10.50. There are three possible aims, and they give three different prices.

Absorb it. Stay at $24. Profit per mug falls from $15.00 to $13.50, a 10% pay cut.
Keep the same dollars. $25.50 restores the $15.00.
Keep the same markup. The mug was priced at about 2.67 times cost, which now gives $28.00.

None is automatically right, but you should know which one you are choosing. The markup calculator gives the price for any cost and markup, and the profit margin calculator shows what each option leaves you. Say the potter settles on $27.

Work out how many customers you can afford to lose

This is the calculation that takes the fear out of it. At $24 each mug now earns $13.50. At $27 it earns $16.50. Divide the old profit by the new one:

$13.50 ÷ $16.50 = 0.818
So the potter can sell 18.2% fewer mugs and earn exactly the same.

If she sells 100 mugs a month, that is $1,350 of profit today. At $27 she needs only 82 sales to match it. If the rise costs her five customers instead of eighteen, she makes $1,567.50, about $217 more, for less work. The "What if I change my price?" tool on the break-even calculator runs this for your own figures.

The same sum explains why discounts hurt. It works in reverse: cut the price and you need a surprisingly large jump in sales just to stand still. If you are tempted to soften a rise with a permanent coupon, check it in the seller section of the discount calculator first.

Ways to raise prices without touching the main number

A higher sticker price is not the only route. Depending on what you sell, one of these may be easier to introduce:

Run fewer sales, or make them smaller. Ending a habitual 15% off is a price rise.
Start charging for something you give away: gift wrap, rush orders, customisation.
Raise the free-shipping threshold, or set a minimum order.
Launch new products at the new level and leave old ones until they are restocked.
Raise the best-seller and the most labour-heavy items first, not everything by the same percentage.

Who needs to be told, and who does not

People buying a single item from a listing do not need an announcement. They see today's price and decide; drawing attention to the change only invites comparison. Three groups do need to hear from you directly, and before it happens:

Shops that stock you. They set their own prices from yours and need time to adjust.
Subscribers and anyone on a recurring order.
Regulars and customers with a quote outstanding.

A few weeks of notice is courteous for wholesale accounts, and a month is common. Remember what the change does on their side: if the mug's retail price goes from $24 to $27, a shop paying half now pays $13.50 instead of $12. For the potter, that takes her wholesale profit from $1.50 a mug back to $3.00, where it was before her costs rose. The wholesale price calculator shows both prices together.

What to say: four rules

Keep it short. Three or four sentences. Long explanations read as doubt.
Give one honest reason, in a line. Rising material costs is enough.
State the new price and the date. No vague "adjustments".
Do not apologise. Thank people for their custom instead.

Wording you can copy

To a shop that stocks you

Hi [name], a quick note on pricing. From [date], the wholesale price of [product] will be [new price], up from [old price]. My material costs have risen over the past year and this brings the price back in line. The suggested retail price moves to [new retail]. Any order placed before [date] will be at the current price. Thank you for stocking my work.

To regular customers or a mailing list

From [date], prices on [product or range] will go up slightly, to [new price]. It is the first change in [period], and it lets me keep using the same materials and making everything the same way. If you have had your eye on something, the current prices stay until then.

Replying to someone who objects

Thanks for telling me, and I understand. The new price reflects what it now costs to make each piece properly, and I would rather charge a fair price than cut corners. I hope you will stay, and I am grateful for your orders so far.

After the change: what to watch

Expect a quieter week or two. Then compare a full month at the new price with a normal month before it, looking at three figures: units sold, revenue and profit. Units may well be down. That is fine as long as profit is level or up, which is the whole point of the earlier sum. The profit margin guide sets out a monthly routine for tracking this. Resist the urge to launch a discount in the first fortnight; it tells customers the new price was never serious.

Small and regular beats large and rare

A seller who adds a little every year rarely has to have a difficult conversation. One who holds prices for four years and then needs 25% at once does. Put a date in your calendar, once a year, to recheck every product's cost and decide deliberately whether its price still works. Deciding to leave a price alone is a good outcome too, as long as it was a decision.

Frequently asked questions

How big an increase is too big to make in one go?

There is no safe percentage that applies to everyone, so work it out from your own numbers. Calculate how many sales you could lose at the new price and still earn what you earn now. If that figure is far above any drop you can realistically imagine, the rise is safe. If it is close, split the increase into two smaller steps a few months apart.

Should existing customers keep the old price?

For one-off purchases, no: the price is simply the price on the day. For anything ongoing, such as a subscription, a standing wholesale account or a commission already quoted, honour what was agreed and give a clear date when the new price starts. Letting regulars order once more at the old price costs little and buys a lot of goodwill.

When in the year should I raise prices?

Before your busy season, not in the middle of it. Changing prices during a rush causes mismatched listings, confused repeat buyers and awkward conversations at the worst time. For wholesale, tell shops before they place their seasonal orders, so the new price is already in their planning.

A competitor is cheaper than me. Can I still put my prices up?

Usually, yes. You rarely know a competitor's costs, and matching a price you cannot afford only copies their problem. What matters is whether your own customers see enough difference in quality, service, speed or style to pay yours. If your product is truly identical to a cheaper one, the answer is to change the product or the audience, not to give up the margin.

What if sales drop more than I planned for?

Give it long enough to judge, at least a full month and ideally two, and compare profit rather than the number of orders. If profit is clearly down, do not quietly put the old price back. Run a time-limited offer, add a smaller or simpler version at the old price point, or improve what the customer gets. Each of those keeps the new price as the reference.