How can I give a customer a volume discount?

Tandem

I wanted to give one customer a discount for placing a large order without making the prices available to my other customers.

I was thinking about having the customer fill up their shopping cart with their selections and call me on the phone when they were going to check out. I would then lower the prices on the gallery by 20%, let them complete the order, and once the order was placed restore the prices to their original level.

Would this work? I know it would make the prices available to everyone else but it would be for a short enough time to not be an issue.

Hyper-Performance

Tandem wrote:

I wanted to give one customer a discount for placing a large order without making the prices available to my other customers.

I was thinking about having the customer fill up their shopping cart with their selections and call me on the phone when they were going to check out. I would then lower the prices on the gallery by 20%, let them complete the order, and once the order was placed restore the prices to their original level.

Would this work? I know it would make the prices available to everyone else but it would be for a short enough time to not be an issue.

If I have a customer making volume purchases, I get a list from them of what they want, agree on pricing then I order the prints myself (no mark-up) and send them to him once they send payment. This does a couple of things. I dont have to worry about making on-line pricing changes, if they refer some one else to my site or they want more onesy-twosey photos later on then full price is offered. It also give my customer a good business impression that I did something special just for them.

lynnesite

Hyper-Performance wrote:

If I have a customer making volume purchases, I get a list from them of what they want, agree on pricing then I order the prints myself (no mark-up) and send them to him once they send payment. This does a couple of things. I dont have to worry about making on-line pricing changes, if they refer some one else to my site or they want more onesy-twosey photos later on then full price is offered. It also give my customer a good business impression that I did something special just for them.

And do you remit sales tax to your state on the retail price?

Tandem

lynnesite wrote:

And do you remit sales tax to your state on the retail price?

That's the problem and the reason why I asked the question. I haven't done any direct sales yet and I don't want the extra burden of processing the sales tax.

When I retire from my day job at the end of the year (95 days!) I'll have more time for the business end of photograhy. For now I'd rather have SmugMug handle all that so I have more time for the fun part.

lynnesite

I was asking the person who replied to you, Hyper-performance. Like you, I don't want to have to deal with the quarterly reporting/hassle of sales tax, and do everything through smuggy.

Congrats on the retirement!

Hyper-Performance

lynnesite wrote:

I was asking the person who replied to you, Hyper-performance. Like you, I don't want to have to deal with the quarterly reporting/hassle of sales tax, and do everything through smuggy.

Congrats on the retirement!

Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. My business is such that I sell a lot of other goods as well requiring sales tax. All in all it's not that big of a hassle. (And to help my customers I "absorb" the sales tax in the price of the item).

I'm sure that internet sales, EBay sales, etc. will all soon require sales tax, you might as well get used to it now.