Listing Prices on Your Website
Should you display price information for pieces you display on your website? Business owners discuss the pros and cons. July 2, 2005
Question
What are other’s thoughts/experience with listing prices on their websites vs. not listing prices? I'm speaking specifically of furniture makers. I currently don't list prices, except for a few smaller items that I consider stock items. For larger furniture pieces, I have examples of pieces I've done, but I don't list prices because I want people to realize that I can build furniture to custom specifications. I'm starting to think I should list prices, just so people browsing the site can get an idea if my work is in their price range. Does anyone have any thoughts?
Forum Responses
(Business and Management Forum)
From contributor F:
I don't list prices on my site for a number of reasons. Material costs are constantly changing, so you would have to update your prices on your site. I just don't have the time to do that. Also, if someone wanted something they saw, but with changes, they would expect to pay what you advertised - even if their changes were going to cost you more. If someone sees a price on your site and says “wow, I can't afford this”, they may be mistaken because the opportunity to discuss specifics is lost. I guess my thinking is that more harm can come from posting prices than not.
Tim Schultz 1/10 [ #3 -- Re: prices listed on website? ]
From contributor T:
I think you should discuss prices, but you should do it in the context of ranges. People who select something that's made by a craftsman do so because they like the ethic of something special. They are not looking for lowest cost vendor. That being said, people still want to know if they are in the ballpark. I think you can be within 20% and still stay within this ballpark. Think of your own shopping experiences. How often do you hunt down the clerk if the price is not posted. If somewhere in the system you could find out that armoires cost between $3000 and $5000, you might be prompted to follow it up a little. Don't eliminate all the mystery, but don't limit yourself to just the people who don't care what it costs.
From contributor J:
I consider it essential to give some kind of indication of price range. This is partly to discourag price shoppers, but mainly to encourage those who can actually afford your type of price. People already know they can have whatever they want, the question is the price. You might be happy to get $5,000 for one of your products. However, if you don't show a price range, many people will assume that it is a lot higher or lower.
From contributor P:
I list prices on mine. It's what I want to see when I shop online, and I think that the site can be designed in such a way that is clear that changing design will modify prices. It eliminates tire kickers also. Maintenance of the site can be a hassle, but how many pieces do most of you have anyway? Most sites I have seen have maybe 20 or 30. If you have more (we have close to 400), then there are software packages that make editing product information easy.
