The True Co$t Of Transparency

We like honesty. On the other hand, what we don't like at all are the rising prices on the markets – actually on all markets, even at the supermarket around the corner. The inflation rate is at a historically high level and that affects us all. The pandemic, the effects of climate change and global political events are causing (commodity) prices to skyrocket. In addition, there are delivery problems in all areas, a shortage of skilled workers, and uncertainty everywhere. But let's get straight to it: We too are confronted with rising costs and have therefore had to increase some of our product prices.

In terms of prices, opinions are actually divided. Many of our customers would claim that we are in a higher price segment, while others describe our prices as quite fair – especially with regard to comparable products. We also constantly discuss it and try to evaluate our products from our own point of view. Over the years it has been shown that childrens' items must of course be cheaper than those of adults – although they do not differ as much in terms of manufacturing prices as one would think.

We have broken down the composition using the example of our best-selling sweater Cut & Sew. As you can see, our prices are not random, even if it sometimes seems like it, but are calculated quite tightly for the industry. They are a combination of many factors, above all the production price.

Price Transparency

Long-time customers may have noticed that we originally started at 59,90€ for this sweater. Within four years, the production price has increased by more than 5€. We roughly simulate the sales prices with a factor of 4 to the production price, which makes the mentioned 20€ difference with the 5€ additional costs. So we basically just pass on the costs – and that of course with increased ancillary costs and the price of the childrens' version remaining the same.

Also, and this needs to be said again: A lot has happened since we released the first Cut & Sew Sweater: We have constantly developed the product further, optimized the unisex cut for a wide variety of body shapes and made it an all-round lovable and absolutely wearable item (as are all of our items, in fact). So when setting the sales price, it is always about the number of arguments that speak in favor of a product, and of course we at Manitober have a whole (color) palette full of them.

At Manitober we are excited as to how much the pricing and supply issues will continue to develop and affect us. We know that it cannot be a good thing to confront customers with ever higher prices with smaller wallets. This applies to us and all other companies in any industry. However, as we are still a fairly small player in this wild consumer goods market, we are not really optimistic about the future.

We hope that we will continue to expand the advantages that make up our products and us as a company and, above all, that we can communicate them and make them comprehensible with the help of our vision. This vision seems all the more important to us now that we are feeling the impact on our account firsthand. For many, this is where it starts to hurt. And so we hope that there will be a rethinking of buying high quality and durable products before this paradoxical structure of cheap and fast fashion goods collapses upon us.

1 comment

Hallo, gefällt mir gut, die Position! Kleiner Tipp am Rande: das zweite “eigentlich” vor “all unsere Teile” würde ich aus argumentativen und sprachlichen Gründen streichen ;-)

Viele Grüße von Monika Kirschner

Monika Kirschner June 01, 2023

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