New higher prices for Wyze Cam, Wyze Video Doorbell will include shipping
As the smart home’s low-cost leader, Wyze has baffled industry experts with its rock-bottom prices for top-level features. But it seems Wyze is wising up to the true costs of making great smart home products, announcing price hikes to its flagship product, the Wyze Cam V3, and warning of more to come.
In an email to users this week, Wyze’s co-founders explained that “due to world events, we are seeing huge cost increases on almost every material used to make smart products.” This follows on the news of a stock shortage of the V3 in January due to silicon shortages.
As a company operating on razor thin margins, this has been particularly hard on them, they say. “The cost increases are mainly driven by silicon chips, but also include memory, plastics, metals, packaging, and more,” continues the email. “We expect the cost of these key components to continue to rise over the next year.”
This means that starting May 18, 2021 the Wyze Cam v3 will now cost $32.99, a hike of $13 over its launch price of $19.99, and the Wyze Video Doorbell will clock in at $54.98, it started out at $29.99. That figures to 65% and 80% increases respectively (yes dear readers, we did the math).
However, these new prices now include shipping, making the increase less steep. Wyze currently charges $5.99 to ship a $24 Wyze Cam 3, meaning the increase is only $3, which is 10%. However, even with the shipping price calculated, in the doorbell has gone up nearly 60%. “Going forward, shipping charges will be included with product prices on wyze.com and we will offer ‘free shipping,'” says Wyze.
Subscribers to Wyze’s Cam Plus service will still get the special pricing discounts that come as part of their subscription, but they will also see the same increases.
This is only the beginning of price hikes, warns Wyze. “We expect our prices to be volatile for the foreseeable future as we try to keep up with fluctuating costs in the post-pandemic world,” says Wyze.
However, even with the increased cost, Wyze products remain incredibly good value for money. We just hope that with some extra cash flow Wyze will be able to keep stuff in stock more regularly – an issue that has been quite frustrating for those wanting to set up a low-cost smart home.
