We’ve all been there.
You’re trying to find out information about a business or service so you go to their website and while there’s often a whole host of useful information about the business, the one thing you want to know, the only thing you need to have an idea of is nowhere to be found.
Why are businesses so reluctant to put their prices on their websites?
Let’s face it in every other aspect of life, price is everywhere. You go into a shop, price is attached, if you have queries or need help you ask a salesperson. You go into a restaurant, price is on the menu. You want to book a flight, hotel, concert ticket – price is right there, despite all of those options having complexity in their pricing.
So why is it that for many small businesses the notion of putting their prices and charges on their website or even their brochures is such an alien concept? Surely you’re running a proper business? One that creates genuine value for your customer? If so why are so many businesses seemingly embarrassed at the notion of getting paid for it? Why do they feel like hiding their prices?
I’ve heard many arguments against from “we don’t want our competitors to know!” (trust me, they already know) to “we need to explain the pricing to our customers for them to understand it” (think for a second about that one). The more nefarious answers range in the “we want to be able to upsell them” (really first contact and you’re already trying to upsell them?) to the ridiculous “Ah well, we want to give them a chance to haggle!”
In all cases, to me, it reads like nervousness and a lack of confidence in the value of your own service. If your service or product solves a real need or provides a real return on your customers investment then have the confidence to say so. In my own case, I deal with a lot of businesses and the one’s who I go back to time and time again and the ones who are upfront about pricing. It lets me get into a flow and rhythm of being able to make a rough estimate of what they’ll charge so Im more inclined to recommend them to clients.
A business with a proper business model that genuinely has its customers interests at heart has nothing to fear when it comes to pricing.
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Peppe Santoro says,
Nice piece but I thought businesses (small and large) hesitate from putting prices front and centre on their web pages because:
(a) it forces you to sell primarily on price (rather than value) because you can’t always communicate value online,
(b) it gives information to competitors too easily, and
(c) unless your product or service is the cheapest on the market putting price to the forefront simply increases the risk that customers will use your website to screen you out from further investigation.
Just my €0.02. Good article.
on 18 August 2011 / 1:36 PM
David Quaid says,
An interesting post about a long term discussion in the web industry. There are lots of companies who do put up their prices on the web.
What’s more interesting is that you compared a B2B Service industry to a B2C product. Consumers have to be quoted a price – its a law. The price is also fixed. The law weighs in heavily on consumers and are completely different when it involves B2B.
Even in a restaurant, even though its part of the “service” industry, its still B2C.
Too many web designers (IMHO) sell websites as products and too many businesses act like consumers when they buy them. If you think about it – most solicitors or accountants don’t list full prices (if they do, its often fixed price-fixed input services like conveyancing or swearing an oath).
Your proposal works only if all inputs into a website are equal. Is your definition of an ecommerce site the same as mine? Doubtful – we’re two different human beings with different aspirations and probably have different thoughts on what the web designer should be expected to provide.
There is nothing about confidence (or lack thereof) or otherwise untoward in not listing a price for a service.
How many companies list a per usage price, not a full price?
Do you get your mobile or phone bill as a single fixed cost?
I’ve seen some websites take over a year to complete, not due to functionality but due to clients arsing about. Should they not pay as they use?
on 25 August 2011 / 7:30 PM
DC says,
Hi David,
until you mentioned it in your post, I hadn’t really thought about this matter in relation to web design. The purpose of my commentary was really to encourage businesses to be more transparent as opposed to the notion of fixing or setting prices. Its my feeling that they’re only doing themselves a diservice in how they’re marketing their business to not at least give some indication of how they price their business.
Thanks for the comment, a lot to muse on
DC
on 25 August 2011 / 8:06 PM