88¢ Loss Leader Success

A story about how Al Doan accidentally discovered the power of loss leaders in his quilting business through a pricing mistake.

"We went 3 weeks without a sale, finally my cousin Jennifer ordered something. We'd get like an order or two a day. Then one day we meant to price something, the Crazy Eights charm pack, at $2.88 but accidentally priced it at 88¢. We sold like 11 of them.

But shipping was $5, and our cost on it was around $4, so we still made money. The average order size was actually like $28. That's when we realized - this works! A loss leader in a meaningful way could help build the business.

The deals became great deals that people loved, and that's what ended up building our business."