Price Increase - Justified

As I have announced on my etsy shop http://creations1000.etsy.com/ since last one week or more, I am taking the shop artwork and item prices through a revision, as I complete 2 years of the shop on 10th Feb 2011. It has indeed been an exciting journey for me with several learnings, joys of sales, shipping, feedbacks, improvisations with help of my family, friends and all artists associated directly indirectly. When there are several prices around that I pay for day to day items and I have no control on or get an explanation for price-increases, I feel even more stronger need to justify impending price increases to my customers. I very well am aware how as a buyer feels when the prices we are used to are higher than what we are used to.

Well in the end it is a supply chain isn't? It's a trade off between giving best quality product and service at best price and at the same time, earn enough profit so that your business sustains, grows and you can continue to provide your buyers better services, products with greater innovation and improvising upon quality in a continuous fashion.

With all said, fact is my (our) own supply costs are increasing, be it for example, the material cost for the artworks, usage of better packing material requires better packaging products, increased transportation costs from the time I started and many more. Plus all of us the fellow etsysellers do pay etsy commission as well as paypal commission and I am grateful to all these e-commerce entities involved including google by itself that helps with online purchases appealing despite being a 2D media for selling 3D objects.

Above all, there is value for creativity which is so hard to measure..but it still needs to be measured somehow, in order to be bought or sold. I believe in my own creativity, be it creative writing for products specs, be it photography of the art works and art supplies, be it being an explorer who is constantly searching for the something creative and appealing, be it believing in my own aesthetic sense. I believe in my father's artwork that he has been doing for years as an artist from well known art school in India (JJ school of art) and years and I have been seeing for years and years. I believe in Sri's photography art which is showcased on my shop, I believe in all artists associated with my shop. I believe in all the business suggestions given by my husband and endless thought process gone into making creations-the art shop where it is now.

At the same time in order to attain better growth and also after careful observation of online offline market in terms of prices, I have finally decided to make some increases to the pricing, depending on the item to item. Hope this justifies price increase enough and I assure you that prices would still be reasonable and you will continue to provide us business and help us grow. Thanks.