FREE for only 5¢

A lot of what you see on commerce websites are examples of classic retail advertising that you see in your daily newspapers throughout the country. There are countless deep discussions concerning what works and what doesn’t work when composing commerce sites, but essentially the principles have been in use for decades and e-commerce techniques on the web are not unique to it.

Take the most common enticement in selling -“FREE”. It’s got immense powers. FREE to owner, Toll-FREE, Absolutely FREE, Buy one get the second one FREE etc. Sometimes FREE isn’t so good. Sometimes FREE, because of it’s nature, tells the buyer the item featured has no value or a less perceived value. I’ve gotten greater response from pricing an item for a nominal value instead of FREE. Ex: Buy one designer T-shirt and get the second one for 5¢. The public reacts to the absurd in this case. It is almost fun – a shirt for a nickel! 5¢ is better than FREE!

Another example of classic retail design is the implied cheapness on price. Now Only $9.95. For as little as $9.95. Just $9.95 – you get the picture.

Retail psychology tells us that round numbers are bad. People will resist $10.00 BUT snap off a nickel and they will react to $9.95, even when we know the tax will carry us over the dreaded $10.00 threshold. Some say 95¢, some say 97¢, others 98¢ – the point is it has to be under the round number. It APPEARS cheaper, it eliminates the sticker shock barrier.

Do you want to educate the buyer as to how big they are saving with this sale? Put the Reg. price smaller beside the sale price and put a red cross over it (but do not make it hard to see the original price). Put the sale price ($9.95) larger in red next to it and below state: YOU SAVE $00.00. This takes guess work out of the transaction.

RED, use RED as your color for selling. It works better than any other color as it expresses urgency. Don’t question why, just use it effectively on areas you want to exploit – headlines, sale prices, cross-outs, bursts etc.

Time sensitivity. BUY NOW. This offer is only good for today, Purchase by May 28th and save – time is a great motivator. We don’t know whether to trust this one, but we aren’t willing to chance it, if the item is something we desire. The time offer inserts anxiety into the sales pitch and helps break down our barriers to resist.

The dreaded tax. Taxes included eliminates the government in the transaction. We know that Big Brother will still get theirs, and the tax is built into the sale price. But the statement: “No Tax” appeals to the patriot in us. Thank Paul Revere for that.

Coupons are great motivators. Even if the vast majority of them are NEVER redeemed. It seems we like the idea of saving with them, but after making the purchase their value is lessened and our laziness kicks in. But you’ve got the sale and that is all that counts. Non-redemption just makes you more money – BONUS!

Speaking of BONUS. We like things for FREE! We want the upper hand. Buy this item today for only $9.95 and for only 5¢ more we will double your order. If you purchase in the next twenty minutes, we will also include this set of steak knives absolutely FREE. That’s a combined value of over $50.00. No tax! Of course everything has been calculated into the selling price, but how it is pitched is the trick.

Watch how Walmart, Sears, and drugstore chains do it in your daily papers and apply the principles to the web. What you see there is a cheap lesson in retailing that goes back 100 years.

Ed

P.S. The tips here are FREE – you pay with your participation in blogging and that builds traffic. Act now!