MicrostockGroup

Agency Based Discussion => iStockPhoto.com => Topic started by: Monkeyman on June 12, 2013, 07:22

Title: Increase in vector prices again...
Post by: Monkeyman on June 12, 2013, 07:22
I just noticed that all my best sellers have been raised to 20 credits from 15. Don't know how it will affect sales yet, but it doesn't seem like a very smart move to me... Some of the files have only had one or none sales in June, compared to around 10 downloads in May (altough I can't tell for sure when they raised the prices).

This desperate hunt for short term profits is stressing me out... there is NO doubt any longer that iStock is on its way down, and yet they're pushing prices up to get whatever profit they can before the ship has sunk completely.

Any other vectorians who have noticed price increases? And can you see any difference in sales after the increase?
Title: Re: Increase in vector prices again...
Post by: MisterElements on June 12, 2013, 07:41
I think the IS management may.... each morning role an idea dice.....whatever is rolled is the new direction IS will take that day.
Title: Re: Increase in vector prices again...
Post by: Monkeyman on June 12, 2013, 08:45
Yeah, not much of what they do seems to make any sense... I guess it's the managers at Getty who are just staring at numbers all day and don't really care much about the development of the site, or any long term plans.

They've taken a few steps in the right direction lately but  I don't think it's enough. Why did they just lower the number of collections from seven to four? Four collections is still confusing. They should have been removed completely...

And the system with flexible pricing to find the "sweet spot" for each file is good I guess... but the difference between the different price levels is probably too big to make it work effectively.
Title: Re: Increase in vector prices again...
Post by: EmberMike on June 12, 2013, 08:49

I'm not seeing any increase in prices.
Title: Re: Increase in vector prices again...
Post by: Logorilla on June 12, 2013, 16:26
No increase for me. Maybe they reviewed your portfolio and felt the increase justified.
Title: Re: Increase in vector prices again...
Post by: cthoman on June 12, 2013, 17:28
I was under the impression that they regularly test pricing for different customers in different regions. That could be what this is.
Title: Re: Increase in vector prices again...
Post by: ShadySue on June 12, 2013, 18:06
I was under the impression that they regularly test pricing for different customers in different regions. That could be what this is.
Could be that (?). I don't see any mention of it in the illustration forum over there.
Title: Re: Increase in vector prices again...
Post by: davidgoh on June 12, 2013, 22:47
I had a large amount of my work upgraded to a higher price tier. :( This isn't very ideal -- I'm giving it some time to see if there are any more price shuffles, and then I'l requesting some of my files to be reduced in price.
Title: Re: Increase in vector prices again...
Post by: Monkeyman on June 13, 2013, 03:58
I've looked around a bit and they seem to have raised prices for most of the best selling vectors. I think they've done this before, I just can't believe they keep doing it when sales keep going down...  :(

Like davidgoh, I'll also keep an eye on how the sales change because of this... if they go down I'll ask them to lower prices again. The problem is that the people working with contributor relations are probably not the same people that are adjusting the prices, so priced would probably go up again after a while.
Title: Re: Increase in vector prices again...
Post by: cthoman on June 13, 2013, 09:06
I've looked around a bit and they seem to have raised prices for most of the best selling vectors. I think they've done this before, I just can't believe they keep doing it when sales keep going down...  :(

Like davidgoh, I'll also keep an eye on how the sales change because of this... if they go down I'll ask them to lower prices again. The problem is that the people working with contributor relations are probably not the same people that are adjusting the prices, so priced would probably go up again after a while.

I guess that is what they said they were going to do with their collections.
Title: Re: Increase in vector prices again...
Post by: ShadySue on June 13, 2013, 10:30
Seems odd that they did it within a couple of days of their collection change.
Title: Re: Increase in vector prices again...
Post by: cthoman on June 13, 2013, 10:33
Seems odd that they did it within a couple of days of their collection change.

It's too efficient and they didn't break anything.  ;)
Title: Re: Increase in vector prices again...
Post by: Monkeyman on June 13, 2013, 10:58
If I remember correctly they said that files uploaded after September 2012 will not yet be affected by this new "find the sweet spot for each file" pricing system. And most of my files affected by this price increase are from 2013.

I was hoping for big price cuts after the exclusive survey, and after the vector sale, but I guess I'll have to keep dreaming.