Why You Shouldn’t Offer Knitting Pattern Discounts
This is a guest blog post written by Fiber Business Coach Anastasia Williams! You may recognize her name from the blog The Top 10 Knitting Podcasts in 2022. Her podcast that used to be called “Making Magic” is now named “Fiber Radio”, and she uses her platform to give advice and insights to fiber business owners. One of my favorite topics that she has spoken about is on why you shouldn’t offer knitting pattern discounts when you launch a pattern, which is what she will be talking about with us here today!
My hope is that you don’t hate me for just the title of this blog post, but alas, it had to be said.
We are a weird industry, you know? The fiber arts industry often marches to the beat of its own drum and doesn’t typically follow trends of other markets. In a lot of ways, this is a great thing and reflects the appreciation of creativity that flows through so many of our veins. In other ways, we do more damage to ourselves (and our wallets) than other businesses do.
The primary thing that I see, as a Fiber Business Coach, is the continual offering of a discount code upon release of a new pattern. Yarn dyers will even do this with shop updates, especially if they are not a shop that sells out within hours of posting new inventory. We assume that the discounts are the “scarcity” tactic we need to get potential customers to make that purchase from us right upon release. However, this assumption is misguided, and I’ll explain why.
Your items are not priced high enough for discounts
I’m looking at you, knitwear designers. Patterns are the most common thing to be discounted in the fiber arts world, which feels ironic considering they are also one of the lowest priced products in this industry.
In case you need reminding, you worked to make that pattern. You spent countless hours knitting up your sample (or maybe you hired someone else to do it, which costs money). You pored over the pattern’s accessibility and clarity while writing it up and formatting the final .pdf. You hired a tech editor to make sure everything looks up to snuff from a third party’s perspective. You chose test knitters and spent time answering their questions and possibly chasing them down for photos. Then you put the pattern up on Ravelry, Payhip, Etsy, or wherever else, and those platforms take a nominal fee for your listing or on each purchase. We haven’t even talked about the time you had to spend on marketing. And… you are only charging $7 for that pattern.
If you want to be a serious designer and make some form of income from the work, you will have to either raise your prices (which I think you probably should anyway) or turn over a large volume of sales in order to make enough money back to cover your costs and compensate yourself. You’re selling yourself short immediately by offering a discount upon release, especially when the initial release of the pattern is when it’s going to gain the most attention and traction.
I realize that the very few top designers charge little for their patterns and they are offering a discount. It’s easy to immediately take their lead because they are who you may look up to or aspire to be. But please keep in mind that they have immense followings and sell a very large volume of patterns each time they have a new release. Even with discounts, the amount they make on sales will far surpass the amount of money they invested (which I imagine is very minimal given there does seem to be a systematic formula/similarities to their patterns overall, and probably did not require much extra work).
You are training your customers to devalue your product
Long story short, if you consistently offer a discount on your patterns (or other products) when you release them to the public, the public will learn to only purchase your patterns when a discount is available.
The issue with this is that it impacts everyone in this industry. If you only charge $7 for a pattern (again, you should be charging more) and then you offer a 20% discount, your pattern now costs $5.60. This is the gross amount, by the way. We haven’t factored in your costs or transaction fees. When your customer knows they can always get a pattern from you for $5.60, they are going to turn their nose up at any other designers who are charging more than that. It’s a ripple effect. If your customers don’t believe in the value of your product, they won’t believe in the value of anyone else’s.
One of my favorite examples that illustrates the negative of frequent and consistent discounts is the large retail store, Gap (who also owns Banana Republic, Old Navy, and Athleta). I’ve worked at both Gap and Banana Republic in the past, and I noticed a very interesting trend. 40% off sales were offered almost weekly in stores – they still might be today. But having those super frequent and predictable sales meant that consumers would wait to make a purchase until the sale was live and active. I was an employee and I even waited for the sales to make a purchase (because I could stack the sale price and the discount for being an employee together). I didn’t believe that the products were worth paying full price for, like ever. And we know this business model isn’t healthy or sustainable because those retail stores are struggling to even stay relevant and profitable these days.
Accessibility comes after you pay yourself
A key issue that comes up in conversation circles is the idea of “accessibility” – meaning, how can we make our products affordable to those who don’t have the same financial (or other) privileges that we do. If you worry about this with your products, just let me tell you that I love your big heart and the values you hold.
However, here’s something to think about – if you aren’t breaking even with your existing sales, is focusing on accessibility for others a key priority? Unfortunately, no. You have to make money to pay for the work that you do (and sustain yourself) or else you cannot serve anyone with that work. While accessibility is definitely a noble pursuit, you have to make sure your own needs are taken care of first. You can insert the example of the oxygen mask on the airplane analogy here if that helps illustrate it better.
Another key thing to keep in mind is that we are a “leisure” industry, and this means that the goods and services we offer are primarily purchased with expendable income. It is a little bit of a requirement that you have additional funds in order to pursue a craft hobby because most of the crafts we create in our industry are not necessary to survive, nor are they cheaper than buying a similar finished object from a big box store.
In some marketing content, there is an adage of “if someone can’t afford your product, they are not your ideal customer”, and I believe there is some truth to that. We can still ensure that marginalized individuals have equal access to our products in other ways, but not everything that we sell is going to be for everyone, nor should it be for everyone. Once we start to tread down that path, sales in general become harder to make.
A last thought for pattern designers on accessibility is that I don’t believe that a product selling for less than $10 is inaccessible. That’s an extremely low price point, and while yes, not everyone will be able to afford it, there are other ways for individuals to access patterns they cannot purchase (such as through test knitting or getting free patterns in exchange for signing up for a newsletter). This is just some food for thought.
Discounts are typically a “last resort” strategy
Although there may be one that exists, I have not yet found a single industry outside of the fiber arts industry that offers discounts right out of the gate on physical products (I consider knitwear patterns to be physical products). Occasionally, you may see a service provider offering an “early bird” or “beta testing” discount on a new course in order to get a few people in through the door at a higher price, but again, not physical products.
Think of your favorite retail stores. When do things start to get marked down? The answer is – when the store can no longer move that product and they need to make space for new inventory. You may see them offer promotional sales, but not usually on a product that they have just released. They want to try to get as much money as possible out the gate for those items before even considering a discount. And honestly, you should, too.
Look to promotional sales instead
There isn’t a huge difference between offering a discount and offering a promotional sale in theory, but the execution is what stands out.
Again, if you are offering a discount every single time you release a pattern, you are creating a predictable outcome. Those discounts will be expected by your customers and they will hold out and wait for them in order to purchase from you, and never ever pay full price.
If you offer a promotional sale either once or twice a year, this is typically not predictable (unless you do it on your birthday every year, which I would caution against because it could be treated as a given that you’ll offer it) and customers are most likely to purchase out of surprise and delight. It’s an unexpected treat, which our brains find much more enticing and pleasurable. Most of the individuals that I work with in my membership, the Fiber Business Collective, that use promotional sales instead of consistent discounts have a much more stable financial foundation than those that do not.
Your work is worth charging for
What I want to impress upon you is that you deserve to be paid for your work. There may have been voices in your head (or outside of it) in the past that have said otherwise or made you feel uncomfortable with even talking about your products and asking people to buy from you. You need to learn how to reassure your brain (which is trying to keep you safe) that marketing yourself means that you get paid.
Let’s take this a little further. When you get paid, what else happens?
You can feed and support your family
You can use your money to donate to charitable causes
You can “vote with your dollars” by making purchases from values-based companies
You can make purchases that trickle down and support supply chain industries
You are able to pay your own suppliers and support team
You are able to keep serving your customers with your work
Money isn’t “icky”, having money does not say something negative about you, and wanting money doesn’t say anything negative about you, either. We live in a capitalistic society where money is required in order to survive. And you, my friend, are a human being that deserves to do more than just survive in this world – you deserve to thrive while lifting up everyone else around you.
I very much appreciate Anastasia’s thoughts on this subject. With my very first pattern coming out in just a few weeks, I plan on sticking to her advice and not offering a release discount. Click here to check out Anastasia’s website to learn more about her and the services she offers. And sign up to the New Wave Knitting Circle newsletter so you don’t miss the Staple Skirt pattern launch!