Comments on: Should You Disclose Your Prices Online?

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:36:43 +0000

Really great post, but I have some experience on both sides of this fence and I can safely say that the important thing is what you are trying to sell. If you are selling consumer goods that are freely available then I think it helps to display prices, when someone gets to your site and they know what they want to buy they can go through the whole process without any interaction needed from you and if a potential customer has to request pricing, there is a good chance that they will not waste their time but instead go somewhere else
I have also worked on another project, where the goods sold are very specialised with each model of the same unit does something slightly different and unless the customers know exactly what they need, problems can be caused for us on the back end, with customers ordering the wrong products, in the end it was taking up the sales teams time to look through the order double checking everything was ok, if not that would lead to issues with the payment.
In the end we decided to remove the pricing from the site, and since, queries have increased and it gives us the opportunity to offer the best solution for that customers needs, it also helps us to start building a lasting relationship with that customer
N

By: Maureen Ridley

Maureen Ridley — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:38:59 +0000

Not quite the same thing but … We run a business information service and our website contains articles and reports which we have indexed to give an idea of the range of resoruces we offer. We received a lot of enquiries for these but, when the enquirer was informed of the cost for document supply, we never heard from them again. An example of time wasted for both us and the customer. However, since we posted the estimated charges on the website in December 2010, we have never received any expressions on interest in document supply. I suppose too many people expect information to be posted for free on the internet these days …

By: Gareth Rees

Gareth Rees — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 12:18:02 +0000

Hi Gordon, this is a tricky subject and I think the simple answer it depends. For my own site, I don’t show pricing as each job is so different that it’s counter productive. One of my clients is a personal stylist, and we followed the industry norm and didn’t list any prices and had little conversions. We then tested the site with price at the top of each page. Even though the average price per customer is around £800, the conversion rate went through the roof. So it shows even for high end items, the searcher/ visitor is very interested in price as quickly as possible.

By: John Tripp

John Tripp — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 10:40:25 +0000

Hi Gordon, the issue you are raising is a vital one. Many people will feel put off if a site does not list a price.

However, most businesses make the error of creating a uniform price for their product and or service, which loses them even more money.

What do I mean by a uniform price. Fixing a price is an error because different customers have different needs and different perspective on the value of any product or service. Exposing a price will always leave some feeling the service is too expensive (those unlikely to buy), some feeling it is high but just about acceptable (those that might buy) and those who would have been happy to pay more (adding to those that might buy). Having a price listed can unintentionally create a uniform price and lose one the opportunity of a lot of Throughput. It also makes it very difficult to find out how much a service or a product is really worth to any particular customer.

We must also remember that the web is a fantastic market research tool for competitors. A competitor can always reduce price if they feel that it will take business away from you. Its much harder to do that if you have not listed you service or product price.

There is a simple process that can be used to answer the dilemma so that one knows when it is good to list a price and when it is good to reserve the price until the value of the service or product has been agreed with the customer. Have a look at my web site or Dr Eli Goldratt’s books and sites.

By: Sheila Averbuch

Sheila Averbuch — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:43:30 +0000

I’m struggling with this myself but am erring on the side of not listing prices. Our sell is a bit consultative — we write all your newsletter content in your own voice, which takes some doing — so I really need and want them to engage with me on the phone. The material I do publish about “Why ENN” or “why trust your message to a professional writer” should be enough to help them understand if I’m the kind of person they’re interested in working with. I may give a ballpark figure or just indicate that creating content for a basic email newsletter is not expensive, but price list? No.