What size bar, and the weight problem
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A size decision with a labeling consequence no other property in this estate has: the product keeps losing weight after you make it.
The sizes the category uses
A standard bar somewhere around 100 to 140 grams, which is what the category anchors at.
A larger bar, 150 grams or more, which reads as generous and costs more to ship.
A guest or sample size, which is an excellent low-cost entry product and a gift set component.
Standardize on one main size: the mold, the cutter, the band, the box and the case count all key to it.
Weight is declared and weight moves
The bar loses water for weeks, so it weighs less at sale than at cutting and it continues to lose a little afterwards.
The declared net quantity has to be accurate for the product as sold, which means declaring the cured weight, not the cut weight.
And declaring conservatively, because a bar that continues to dry in a dry shop must not fall below its stated weight.
Which is its own page in the selling section because it is the commonest labeling error in the craft.
Cut consistency
Every bar carries the same printed weight, so every bar has to make it.
A cutter with a stop rather than an eye. Weighing bars from across the loaf. Treating light ends as seconds rather than selling them at the standard weight.
A loaf poured unevenly gives a weight gradient along it, which is a molding fault appearing as a labeling one.
What size decides
The price point, and the perceived value against a supermarket bar.
Shipping cost, since soap is dense.
How long it lasts, which is what the customer actually judges.
And how many bars come from a loaf, which is the yield arithmetic the whole business runs on.
Sizes we stock, for the liquid in the range
