Pricing and lessons learned

Once the shorts arrived in October and the first round of shorts went out I turned my focus to finding new business. I finally had a website (lol) and a little more confidence when I approached retail stores to sell. Walking in and meeting someone in person has consistently proven to be the best way for me to find business for PHNX. I would research stores on my way if I travelled out of town so I could stop in and pitch the shorts to them. Many times they said no, but sometimes people said yes and it was (and is) such a thrill to make the sale.

After selling to a few stores, I realized that I would need to raise my prices if I was going to also be selling at wholesale. This was a difficult decision because one of my goals for PHNX has been to make clothes that make women feel great while also maintaining an accessible price point. It’s a constant struggle and one we have not yet mastered. As a small business, our costs are higher with lower margins than a lot of our competitors. Our goal is to make sure you love anything you purchase from us. We offer free returns and exchanges because we believe whole-heartedly that you should LOVE the clothes you have. It’s also why we build our clothes to last. If you invest in something we believe it should last longer than you expect.

Ultimately, the decision to keep prices low initially would end up costing us down the road. That’s a post for another day, but it was a difficult yet necessary lesson to learn.