It’s an age-old question: Should you list prices on your website or not? While it may seem obvious for some businesses, the lines become blurry when you start mixing in differing services and products.
We’ll explore both the pros and cons of listing prices on your website, how to go about deciding, and how to avoid some dangerous pitfalls.
List Your Prices? NAY!
If you’re in a service-based industry, you know the struggle. People come to your website to check out your prices, but your service may be too custom to price generally.
Which brings up the first point: Are your services custom? If you provide quotes or estimates before a job, avoid turning away potential customers and under-charging for your services by leaving prices off your website.
Custom pricing also runs into the problem of what an acceptable price looks like. You want to make sure your prices are competitive and that you’re valuing your business accordingly.
Consider providing a quotation tool on your website, and make sure it’s as streamlined as possible for your customers.
It may be good to list your “starting from” prices. It gives people an indication of the cost associated. At the same time, it keeps your inbox clear of unqualified leads that don’t match your client base.
Secondly, what’s the experience they’re paying for? Be clear about the level of expertise and know-how you’re offering. Explain why it’s important that you quote up the cost of your services rather than offer a flat fee.
Lastly, consider providing a quotation tool on your website, and make sure it’s as streamlined as possible for your customers. They don’t want to spend hours figuring out how to use it or writing an essay on the work they need. (Thryv can help by providing customized estimates to answer your customers’ questions!)
To recap, if your business requires custom pricing, it’s advisable to keep prices off your website. However, try to minimize customer dissatisfaction by adding in a “starting from” or price range. Make sure you communicate why your business works this way.
List Your Prices? YAY!
OK, so why would you want to put prices on your website? If your business is product-based, or you charge by-the-hour, then listing prices makes the transaction process smoother.
Listing prices helps with customer attraction by providing good customer experience. If you have to slog through pages on a website before finding out how much you’d be paying for a product, it’s likely your customer has already left and found someone else.
You’ll want to make sure you make the purchase process as smooth as possible for your customers.
Likewise, with the rise of delivery services, it’s probably a good idea to list postage costs early. This way, the customer doesn’t have to add something to their cart to check how much it will cost to ship.
Even an estimated shipping cost can provide a positive experience for your potential customer. They can then focus on which product they want to purchase, rather than chasing down a shipping cost.
For pay-as-you-go or hourly-rate businesses, giving people an estimated “time of completion” for jobs is the equivalent to listing prices on your website.
Ultimately, you’ll want to make sure you make the purchase process as smooth as possible for your customers. Let them book and pay online (again, Thryv can help)!
A smooth transaction process helps keep your customers on your website, and avoids them moving away from your services.
Some Pricing Advice
Finally, here are some general tips to consider when posting prices on your website:
Understand “charm pricing.” This old trick is popular for brick-and-mortar businesses. Instead of pricing something at, say, $40, you make it $39.99.
However, recent studies have shown that if you’re trying to upsell to your customers, this trick may actually backfire for you.
This is one that you should consider a little bit more carefully when utilizing.
Create lead-gen with a gated price sheet. If your business relies on lead generation, then it might be worthwhile placing your prices on a downloadable document that requires a customer’s email address to access.
This helps with marketing to them later down the track and is a widely used marketing tool. Businesses that hold events or have a sign-up process can use this style very effectively. Customers expect follow-up emails or communications after an enquiry into pricing.
Promotions are still king. If you’re looking to make quick sales or get some easy leads into your business, then putting a promotional offer front-and-center on your website is still a great option, especially if you are using social media or email to promote it.
Don’t forget SEO. SEO, or “Search Engine Optimization,” is what helps people find you when they type the product or service they’re looking for into their search page, like Google.
Think about how many times you used the “how much” or “near me” words during your own searches.
Have a pricing “page” (even if your prices are hidden) to attract people actively searching for your services (and getting a boost on your Google rankings to boot!)
Ultimately, deciding to add pricing on your website depends on whether you want a do-it-yourself process for customers, or you’d rather provide customized pricing with a one-on-one conversation.
