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Founder of Afina Ramon Van Meer I wanted to see if people would buy a version made in the USA from its specialized shower head.
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He found that it would cost three times more to produce – and increased the sale price by 85%.
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After several days of testing, a total of zero customers bought the USA model.
As the owner of a small business, Ramon Van Meer said he used to hear people say that they would be ready to pay more for products made in America.
When President Donald Trump reduced prices on Chinese imports by an additional 145%, Van Meer decided to see if the buyers would put their money where their mouths are.
“I wanted to know the answer, then use it for my own business,” the founder of Afina told Business Insider.
Thus, the serial entrepreneur began to find American suppliers to make his best -selling product: a specialized filtered shower head.
Van Meer said that its filters are made in the United States, some additional materials come to Vietnam and that the final product is made in China with a single supplier.
To move everything in the United States, he said that he had to find four to six separate suppliers that would manage various aspects of the production process. All in all, he found that it would cost three times more to produce – more than the cost of simply paying the price.
Armed with real figures, he decided to take a test with two identical products, the only difference being their origin and, critically, their price: visitors to the Afina website were presented to the option of a Chinese manufacturing item for $ 129 or an American manufacturing version for $ 239.
“I am very testing it with real data and real purchases,” said Van Meer. “Do not ask customers, not an investigation, not even additions.”
“When someone has to pay for this, it's the real real data,” he added.
After several days and more than 25,000 visitors, he said that he had sold 584 low-cost shower potatoes and not a single purchase of a version made in the United States.
In a blush Post which has become viral, Van Meer described the results of “sober”.
“We wanted to believe that customers supported American work with their dollars. But faced with a real decision – not a survey or a section of comments – they did not do it,” he wrote.
Nowadays, Van Meer said that he spent most of his time trying to move China production to a country with a lower rate rate.
“Staying in China is not durable because even if they have an agreement, we don't know what will happen,” he said. “The United States is not an option either, because there is simply no installation that can do so.”
