Beginning handmade soap makers tend to price their wholesale soap too high for the average retailer to take their product into inventory. Craft books typically point out all of the costs that the average soaper might not take into consideration when pricing a wholesale bar. The biggest cost is always going to labor. Not many crafters can afford to sell products below cost.
Whenever evaluating the cost of labor, take into account your own expertise and place a per hour labor cost on to this skill. Has this been your method of evaluating cost? The fallacy comes in the idea that you can arbitrarily determine the value of your skill set. It may be much higher than any objective evaluation would conclude. It might also be lower. The true detriment of you the value of your labor is what the market is willing to pay for your wholesale soap. If a retailer can get purchase similarly quality soap for $2.00 per bar from another vendor then why would they pay $3.00 per bar from you.
If you are running into this problem the first thing you should evaluate is the production methods you are using that drives your labor costs to the point where your natural soap is uncompetitive in an open market place.This is first and foremost place where you can get any type of advantage over your competition. If you are using a mold that produces 20 bars of soap at a time then maybe there is possibility that producing 40 bars in approximately the same amount of time with a larger mold. This would afford you the labor savings you need to sell your products at a wholesale level.
If you are using very labor intensive packaging material there is going to some room for improvement here. This is one of the areas where most soap makers can definitely find some labor savings. Don't get yourself in a panic, initially as you will get more efficient with each batch of handmade soap that you make. You must however always keep in mind that you are trying to improve your efficiency with every batch.
The one thing that consistantly drives crafters out of the soap making business is the labor commitment. Plan on improving with every passing day and you will find your productivity soaring. Remember the market will determine your pricing. Go into any retailer carrying your types of products and assume at least a 100% mark-up on that product. This will give you a starting point when approach them with your products. Resellers are looking for new products all the time. This is your advantage.Offer a new hot fragrance. This will help immensely.