Learning about retail

YOLO is a big learning curve for me. A lot of what I have been doing comes from 'educated' gut instinct and it was good to have some of this verified.

Setting prices for products is difficult. We know our production costs and also need to make something on each item to cover salaries, marketing and other business expenses. But pricing isn't as simple as 1 + 1 = 2 because the price has to be one that the market will be prepared to pay for the product. For us, this means compromising to give our customers the most reasonable deal.

Our YOLO Compost Tumbler was very kindly 'hosted' by a gardening place for a few weeks to gauge interest from the public. Despite August and September being our busiest months to date, I didn't receive a single order through them. As I had to be out their way on Thursday, I dropped them a quick note to say I'd be through and that I'd collect my tumblers. I also thanked them for being so willing to put my compost tumblers on display and that I hoped in time, as our brand builds, that there will be more demand from the public for our product to be in their store.

The guy replied to say they'd had lots of interest but that the price had put people off. As I believed that my YOLOs were priced there at my recommended price, I'd been thinking that what was missing was the one-on-one interactions that we've enjoyed at expos and which the compost tumblers would have missed at his place.

It was only after I collected the tumblers that I saw the price tags...

We sell the small double at R2,295.00. Their price: R3,469.95.
We sell the medium double at R2,995.00. Their price: R4,159.95.

No wonder!

Unfortunately hundreds of potential customers may have been put off ever considering a YOLO Compost Tumbler but there is also a silver lining in that now have confirmation of what the market is not prepared to pay. I wouldn't either!

If people are not composting already, by any means, our YOLO Compost Tumbler is the best solution for them - apartments, townhouses and homes with gardens. But, starting to recycle organic waste from your kitchen and garden doesn't happen overnight. This is a 'behaviour change' process and it comes with a price tag, unless you have space in your yard for a compost heap in which to dump organic material. Whether a person decides to go with a YOLO Compost Tumbler, bokashi system, hot bin or wormery, it costs to buy something to help you turn organic waste into nutrient-rich compost.

We're still in the first few months of our business and while we have a long way to go, we're doing things right by considering the customer first. 

Want to know what our most popular YOLO Compost Tumbler colour combinations are? From the beginning, green-yellow has been a favourite combo. We introduced our brown and grey colours in late August and have seen a rise in the popularity of green-brown. Green-orange is a favourite in the medium and large sizes while brown-grey is also currently trend in these sizes. The orange-yellow combo comes in waves. We have made a number of units in 'outlying' combinations like grey with green, orange or yellow; these look amazing too.