How to announce a price increase to customers and update your website on the day
Raising prices goes badly when customers find out from a checkout page. It goes well when the people who already pay you hear first, with a date, a short reason and enough notice to plan. Then, on the date, the pricing page and the checkout change together, and the old version stays on file in case you need to show what was charged before.
Decide the terms first
- The effective date
- A specific day, far enough out that existing customers can plan. Thirty days is a common minimum for ongoing services; longer for annual contracts. Check your contracts and any rules on notice for subscriptions where your customers are.
- Who it applies to
- New customers from the date, and existing customers from the date or from their next renewal. Decide whether anyone keeps the old price, and for how long.
- The reason
- One or two honest sentences: costs, more included, the price hasn't changed in three years. Don't over-explain.
- What's new, if anything
- If the service improved, say how. If it didn't, don't pretend it did.
The sequence
- Prepare the new prices at your payment provider without switching them on: a new price or product in Stripe, PayPal, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Shopify or Whop, ready to replace the old one.
- Tell existing customers first, by email from your own mail or CRM tool, or personally for your biggest accounts. Anticode doesn't email your customers. Say the date, the new price, who it applies to, the reason, and how to ask questions.
- Note the current version of the site in version history before you change anything.
- On the effective date, morning: switch the price at your provider. If the provider gives the new price a new checkout address, paste it into Connectors as your payment link and publish again, then click a buy button on the live site to check where it goes.
- Update the pricing on the site. Edit the figures in place with the visual editor, or in a sentence: "change the Standard plan to 85 a month and the Premium plan to 140". Check every place a price appears: the pricing section, service pages, the FAQ and any comparison table.
- Run the release checklist and publish.
- Add a short note to the pricing section for a month: "Prices changed on 1 March. Existing customers were told on 30 January."
- Answer replies personally for the first fortnight.
A price increase email that works
Short, specific, with a date and a reply route. No "exciting news". If you offer anything to existing customers (a longer notice period, a lock-in at the old price for an annual payment), say so plainly with its own deadline.
One payment link, several products
An Anticode account has one payment link, shared by every buy and pricing button on every site in it. If you sell several plans or products, that link usually points at a page at your provider that lists them, and the price change happens there. In that case the site's link doesn't change; only the figures written on your pages do, and those must match the provider on the same day.
What goes wrong
| Mistake | Consequence | Prevention |
|---|---|---|
| Site updated before the email | Customers learn from the website | Email first, site on the date |
| Old price left on one page | Disputes at checkout | Search every page for the old figures |
| Checkout and page disagree | Abandoned purchases | Change both in the same hour and test |
| No record of old prices | Can't answer "what was I quoted?" | Note the version before; preview it in history when asked |
How you know it went well
Every existing customer heard before the date. On the day, the pricing page, the FAQ and the checkout all show the same figures. Questions were answered within a day. And the cancellations you feared, if any came, were few enough to count by name.
Limits
Anticode changes the site and keeps its versions. It doesn't change prices at your provider, migrate existing subscriptions, email customers or schedule the change; someone publishes on the morning. See showing service prices on a website, the pricing page builder and payment links.
Questions people ask
How much notice should I give before a price increase?
At least thirty days for ongoing services is common, longer for annual contracts, and whatever your contracts or local rules require.
Can I schedule the website price change for a future date?
No. There's no scheduled publishing. Prepare the wording in advance and publish on the morning.
Can I check what my prices were before the change?
Yes, while that version is in your history. Preview it to see the page as it was.