HelloCustom is a personalization service for Print on Demand Products. It currently offers 3 pricing options including a “deal” which may not be a deal depending on your volume.
Here is the analysis:
Option 1: Pay $29.99 per month plus .29 per personalized product.
Option 2: Pay $299.98 yearly plus .29 per personalized product.
The second option is an average of $24.99 per month.
Over a year Option 1 costs $60 more than Option 2. The benefit of Option 1 is you can cancel the service without paying for a full year and thus save money. The break even is at 10 months or the savings by paying for a full year up front is not paying for 2 months of service. If you are going to use HelloCustom for more than 10 months then go with the yearly plan Option 2.
Option 3: Pay $67 lifetime plus .49 per personalized product.
This is where the math gets more tricky. The lifetime “Deal” at first blush seems like an incredibly good offer of getting lifetime service for only $67.
If you only have a few sales per month this is a no-brainer to avoid monthly fees.
But – and this is a big but – you’re paying almost twice as much per personalized product (.49 versus .29) a fact HelloCustom practically hides.
So now what is the break even point? If you have a lot of sales paying twice as much per product is a cost killer.
1165 sales in a year
If you have 1165 sales per year (97 per month or 3.2 per day) then Option 2 will cost you $637.73 per year.
1165 sales is the number at which the lifetime “deal” is no longer a deal as your yearly cost is $637.85.
This is just an analysis for one year: how many sales to break even.
If you use HelloCustom for 2 years then then break even point is 2665 sales over 2 years.
This is 1333 sales per year. Note how the number of sales goes up because you are paying so much more per product.
If you use HelloCustom for 3 years then then break even point is 4165 sales over 3 years.
This is 1388 sales per year.
Bottom line: the lifetime “deal” is a good deal if you make few sales. If you have success with many sales then it becomes a bad deal. Ironically, after the breakeven point – meaning you are making a lot of sales – you are better off with Option 2 paying a $300 yearly fee instead of the $67 lifetime deal.
Recommendation: HelloCustom currently says you can downgrade your plan at any time. The obvious strategy then is to sign up for the lifetime deal and then if you have success and reach a breakeven point in sales to then downgrade to the yearly payment to reduce your per item personalization fees.
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