26 AskBiz guides on pricing strategy, covering SMB Pricing Fundamentals, Ecommerce Pricing, Pricing Process and related operating decisions for SME founders.
A well-positioned premium tier serves two purposes: it captures revenue from your highest-willingness-to-pay customers, and it makes your standard offer look like better value by comparison. Most SMBs only need to add one tier to see immediate lift in average transaction value.
8 min readMarketplace fees — referral fees, FBA fulfilment fees, subscription costs, advertising — can consume 30-40% of your selling price on Amazon. If your margin isn't calculated after all these fees, you're almost certainly losing money on some or all of your listings.
8 min readPricing is not set-and-forget. A structured annual review — covering cost changes, competitive movement, and value delivery — is the single highest-ROI business activity most SMBs never do. It takes one day per year and typically yields £15,000-£40,000 in recovered margin.
8 min readBundles increase basket size by giving customers a packaged solution at a perceived saving. Done right, bundles also increase your margin by adding high-margin items to transactions that would otherwise only include lower-margin core products.
8 min readBlended gross margin hides category-level profit and loss. Some categories are carrying others. A category margin analysis reveals which product lines should be expanded, which need repricing, and which are costing more than they contribute.
8 min readCost-plus pricing is safe but often leaves significant money on the table. Value-based pricing captures what customers actually pay — but requires visibility into true costs first. AskBiz gives you per-SKU margin tracking so you know exactly where to push price higher.
9 min readDiscounting is not inherently bad — it's undisciplined discounting that destroys margin. A structured discount policy with clear rules, margin floors, and performance tracking lets you drive volume and retain customers without watching profit evaporate.
8 min readStatic pricing loses money at both ends of the demand curve — you leave money on the table at peak and damage margin at trough. Dynamic pricing lets you charge appropriately for demand, with guardrails that protect customer trust.
9 min readContract manufacturing pricing should follow a clear build-up: materials + direct labour + machine overhead + SG&A allocation + profit margin. Most small manufacturers skip the overhead and SG&A steps, resulting in quotes that look profitable but aren't.
9 min readFuel surcharges and delivery fees are legitimate cost pass-throughs — but how you communicate them determines whether customers accept them or resent them. The key is transparency, predictability, and framing them as industry-standard practice rather than a penalty.
8 min readMost SMB owners are terrified of raising prices. But UK retail data shows that well-communicated price increases of 10-15% result in less than 5% customer churn on average. The key is timing, communication, and choosing which products to raise first.
8 min readA Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policy is a brand owner's tool for preventing retailer price wars from destroying the value of their product. Without MAP, your wholesale partners compete on price until your brand is associated with "cheap" — and your direct retail margin collapses alongside.
8 min readCompetitor price monitoring doesn't require expensive software. A systematic, low-effort approach using free tools and quarterly reviews gives most SMBs 90% of the intelligence they need to price confidently against competition.
8 min readASEAN market entry pricing requires a complete reset from your home market model. Income levels, competitive dynamics, distribution costs, and import duties create a completely different pricing environment. Copy-paste pricing from the UK or Singapore will either price you out or signal low quality.
9 min readPsychological pricing techniques — charm pricing, price anchoring, bundle framing, and decoy pricing — are proven to increase revenue without changing your product or cost base. They're free to implement and require only discipline to maintain.
8 min readMost independent repair shops price labour by what the local competition charges — not by what they need to charge to be sustainably profitable. Calculating your true breakeven rate, then pricing to value, typically reveals a gap of £15-£25/hr that you've been absorbing.
9 min readA 68% gross margin on food is achievable for most independent restaurants — but it requires knowing the true cost of every dish, not just the main ingredients. AskBiz tracks recipe-level COGS so you see margin per dish on every order, not just at month end.
9 min readRush fees and premium slot pricing capture the additional willingness-to-pay that urgency creates. A customer who needs a phone fixed today will pay more than one who can wait three days. Systematic premium slot pricing captures that value without awkward negotiation.
8 min readMost salon owners check competitor prices and then undercut slightly — triggering a race to the bottom that damages everyone. The smarter move is understanding what competitors charge for comparable service quality, then positioning above that where your service justifies it.
8 min readSingapore's GST increase from 8% to 9% in 2024 created a real pricing decision for every GST-registered SMB. Absorbing the 1% point increase sounds small — but on SGD 1 million in revenue, it's SGD 10,000 directly off your bottom line. Most SMBs should pass it on.
8 min readSubscription pricing converts unpredictable project revenue into reliable monthly income. Done right, it also increases annual revenue per client and reduces the cost of sale. The key is scoping subscriptions tightly enough that you don't lose margin to scope creep.
8 min readA price war triggered by a well-funded competitor or a race-to-the-bottom market is one of the most dangerous threats to an SMB. The instinct to match cuts almost always makes things worse. The survival strategy is value differentiation, margin discipline, and selective competition.
9 min readPrice elasticity measures how sensitive your customers are to price changes. Testing it systematically — rather than guessing — lets you find the highest price customers will pay without significant sales loss. Most SMBs never test; those that do consistently find they're underpriced.
8 min readYour shelf price minus your supplier invoice is not your margin. Between wholesale cost and the cash in your bank, there are six to ten cost layers most retailers undercount. AskBiz maps your full margin stack so you price from reality, not assumption.
8 min readUS professional services billing rates rose 6–11% in 2026 across most sectors. This guide covers current rate benchmarks by discipline, how to set your own rates confidently, and how AskBiz helps service businesses track billable revenue, invoice on time, and protect margin.
10 min readAccurate COGS is the foundation of every pricing and profitability decision. Most SMBs undercount it significantly — missing freight, duty, packaging, wastage, and handling costs. AskBiz and Xero together capture all of these and show true per-SKU margin automatically.
9 min read