Quantity Discounts?

[Curtis Cunningham]

In the past couple of days I've had two separate people walk in for their photographs, and both requested 4 sets of photographs. I charge $19.99/set (2 photos per set), so doing the math you get a price of $79.96 for the 4 sets. So my question is this, "Is there a point at which it becomes good customer service to offer quantity discounts?"

[michaelnotar]

more details please...what are you shooting....was it shot on spec at all like shooting a sports game or was it portraits where you have expected print sales.

i do sports print cheap and no discounts, i do portraits like this per pose, largest print at normal rate, copies of it of equal/smaller size are discounted. copies are discounted more aggressively if the largest print of the pose is a 20x24 vs. if its a 5x7.

[Ronald Garrett]

What I do is offer any portrait from 4 X 6 to 8 X 10 copies for $5.00 each. The 11 X 14 to 17 X 20 copies for $10.00 each. Most of the work in portraits is the sitting, setup, and choice of image issues. Printing an extra copy takes very little time, which is money.

I also offer family discounts, free 5 X 7 on birthday, repeat customer discounts, and anything else I can conjure up to entice customers to spend a little cash.

Times are hard and are going to get harder. Photography is a luxury item. Cash strapped familys are facing the reality of doing without non essential items.

Unless you are already established with a politically correct reputation, the deep pocket crowd is a tough nut to crack.

Offer this customer a discount of some kind and encourage a return for more value.

[Curtis Cunningham]

I apologize for not being more clear with my initial question. I was wanting to refer specifically to the passport photography I'm doing but I can see now that I never actually mention the word "passport". Sorry.

To reiterate, I'm offering a set of 2 passport photos for $19,99. Someone came in and needed 4 sets (8 photos in total) so I charged him $79.96 for the 4 sets.

So I'm wondering about discounting my price if people want more than a specific number of passport photos.

[Mike Keller]

It could be good to offer extras, they advise people traveling overseas to carry a photocopy of their passport and an extra set of photos, in case the passport gets lost, needs to be duplicated, whatever. So if its in your budget, you could offer the four sets up front for $69 or $65 or whatever, and get more upsells.

[Norm_Cabana]

Curtis,

Avoid, whenever possible, giving discounts. Yes, reward your customers for buying more, but not by cutting prices. In your situation, the customer has already agreed to pay full price. To reward them I might have given a fifth set of prints free or given the customer a copy of their digital image. Giving a cash discount means that you are taking cash right out of your pocket and you need that cash.

[ChrisPerry]

If they're willing to pay full price, then why discount? If it's to get the additional sale (not much more time to print 4 or 6 instead of 2) then there might be a reason to discount - 2 for $20, 4 for $35, 6 for $45 - might make a $20 sale into a $45 sale for no extra work on your part.

So you have to ask the purpose of offering a discount. If it's just to make you feel less guilty, then no, don't do it.

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