How Levain Bakery Optimized Its Pricing Strategy During Cost Increases

Raising prices is tricky, especially when every cent counts for your customers.

Levain bakery, a premium New York cookie brand, faced rising costs due to the tariff increase, so they needed to find the right price increase that wouldn’t hurt sales. Gustavo Cardona, VP of Technology, shared how the team navigated this challenge and discovered a price that worked for both the business and their customers.

Testing Process

The team ran two price tests to find the sweet spot.

• First test: They applied a larger price increase, aiming to cover rising costs. The result was clear, the Revenue per Visitor dropped, signaling that the increase was too high.
• Second test: They reduced the price increase resulting in a slight but positive increase in revenue per visitor, proving that customers were willing to accept the new price.

The first increase was too much, but the second one hit the right range. The data gave us confidence to make the decision quickly. — Gustavo Cardona

Behind the Success

ABConvert played a key role in making the price tests smooth and actionable. While many testing tools can feel complex or resource-heavy, ABConvert allowed Gustavo and his team to quickly set up experiments across all products, monitor results in real time, and make confident decisions based on clear data. Its intuitive interface and minimal overhead meant the team could run multiple scenarios, iterate efficiently, and focus on strategy rather than getting stuck in complicated setups.

ABConvert offers a good balance of cost and functionality, making it a valuable tool for testing without prohibitive standby cost — Gustavo Cardona

Insights and Approach

Several lessons emerged from the process:

1. Start broad, then fine-tune: Begin with a larger test to see limits, then adjust in smaller increments.

2. Test across all products: Revenue reactions can differ across SKUs and bundles. Testing everything ensures more reliable results.

3. Use actionable data for decisions: Monitoring Revenue per Visitor allowed the team to balance profitability and customer satisfaction.

4. Decision-making mindset: The goal wasn’t just increasing revenue, but responding to cost pressures while keeping customers happy.

Outcome

Ultimately the final price adjustment increased Revenue per Visitor slightly while keeping customers satisfied. The brand successfully covered rising costs without risking sales volume or customer trust.

Key Takeaways for Other Brands

• Moderate price adjustments can be effective if guided by data.
• Testing across the full product range ensures more accurate insights.
• A simple, low-cost testing environment allows teams to iterate quickly.
• Decision-making should consider both financial and customer experience factors.

‍