How do you announce a price increase without losing loyal customers?

Will putting your prices up cost you customers?

Far fewer than you’d think. I’ve worked with three companies on price increases recently, and with all of them it went better than people expected. One sent customers a short video explaining the rise and got back positive comments and people paying ahead. Nobody pushed back.

You’ll need to do it regularly anyway. Even with no inflation, there would still be competition for talent. Good people want to earn more or work less, so you still have to drive efficiencies and put your prices up to keep them.

If you’re smart about it, you can build a lot of community around pushing your prices up. Handled well, a price rise brings customers closer instead of sending them shopping.

What should the announcement say first?

The price rise. Start with it, then justify it with what’s improved. Don’t bury it in paragraph four under a story about your values. People can tell when they’re being softened up.

The best moment to raise prices is when something has genuinely got better: a new formula, a better ingredient, a new product, an upgraded service. Then the framing writes itself. There’s a price increase, but we’ve also got something cool we’re releasing.

What kills trust is the bare email. Price rise, then another price rise, with nothing proactive attached. Customers start to wonder what they’re paying the premium for, and that’s exactly when they go looking at your competitors. So show them what you’ve been working on and what’s coming, and mention the increase plainly alongside it.

Send it from the founder. A plain-text email or a short personal video does far more than a designed campaign with a banner across the top. Say how long you held prices before this.

How much should you explain?

Less than you think. A long justification makes you sound guilty. I reviewed a set of price-rise emails and a video script recently, and my main note was that there was a little bit too much justification of the price rise. It was a small increase, so it barely needed explaining.

Keep it short. Say you held off as long as you could. Name the one or two things your customers value most that you won’t compromise on, like the quality of the product or the people looking after them. Repeat that reason and stop.

Skip the witty angle too. Someone always suggests a clever, funny announcement. Customers see through it, and humour can feel like you’re making light of something that costs them money. Be straight down the guts about what’s changing, when it changes and why.

How do you let loyal customers keep today’s price?

Give them a way to keep paying what they pay now. This is the part that turns a price rise into an offer.

There are two easy options. Let them lock in today’s price by moving onto a subscription before the date, or let them bulk buy ahead at the current price. Giving people the chance to stock up is part of the play. Your best customers feel looked after, and you pull revenue forward.

Set a hard date. Don’t tie the rise to something vague like “once the new batch lands”. You can’t play it that way. Prices go up on this date, and everyone knows exactly how long they’ve got.

What does the email sequence look like?

For a store with a lot of repeat buyers, this is the order I’d use. Five plain emails, nothing fancy.

1. The price rise: what’s changing, the date it changes, and a short reason.
2. What’s new: the upgrade or new formula that comes with it.
3. How to keep paying less: subscribe or stock up before the date.
4. How subscriptions work, for anyone who’s never bought that way from you.
5. A final reminder just before prices change.

Put a P.S. on the first email inviting anyone who’s genuinely struggling to reply to you personally, so you can work something out. It’s one line, and it shows you mean it.