Haggling · 4 min read
Setting your floor price to haggle well
You only haggle well when you know how low you can go. Here is how to work out a floor that protects your margin, and why it must stay secret.
“What’s your best price?” You know the question. At the market, you answer on instinct: you know your goods, you size up the customer, you know what you paid. Online, at midnight, the shop has to answer for you. So it needs a rule.
The floor: three figures, keep the highest
- Your price minus the maximum discount you are willing to give.
- Your cost price: what the item cost you, transport included.
- The minimum price below which you never sell this item.
The floor is the highest of the three. A maximum discount of 30 % must never make you sell below cost: if it would, the cost price wins.
Why it must stay secret
A customer who knows your floor stops haggling: they ask for it. In Komerxe, the floor never leaves your dashboard. The customer only sees the listed price, the counter-offers and, at the end, the agreed price.
Leave room for the conversation
If you plan to haggle, your listed price has to allow for it. A good haggle leaves the customer feeling they won something, and leaves you a decent margin. In automatic mode, Komerxe answers an acceptable offer with a counter-offer halfway: the customer takes a step, so does the shop.
Which mode to choose
- Automatic, for everyday items: the shop sells while you sleep.
- Manual, for one-off pieces: you answer every offer.
- Mixed, for most shops: the shop handles what is above the floor, you settle the rest from an email.
An agreement holds for 24 hours, for the quantity agreed, and can be used once. Nobody comes back three months later with “the price from last time”.