Pricing Strategies Fast-Growing Brands Are Using in 2018
The key to pricing successfully is to strike a balance between perceived value and the maximum a customer is willing to pay for a product or service. However, pricing strategies also have a psychological component that businesses are using to their benefit.
Selecting pricing strategies that work for your business can be time consuming and difficult. To make things a bit easier—try some strategies that fast-growing brands are using right now.
Pricing Strategy #1 – Tiered Pricing
The first strategy adopted by fast-growing businesses in 2018 is to use a tiered pricing model. Tiered pricing comes with a number of benefits. First, it widens the reach to your audience. This allows you to go after customers who are willing to pay different amounts for the same goods and services. As a result, you will be casting a wider net resulting in greater sales for the same products or services.
To accomplish this, think about what you could add to the base of a product or service to make a “premium” version. This can manifest in product bundles, enhanced services, premium support, self-service, and more. Alternatively, you can also look at the same product or service and create a “lite” version.
Say you sell cosmetics. Selling individual products allows customers to tailor their purchases to their particular desires. However, you can also sell bundles of the same products—especially if you know what product are typically purchased together or complement one another. For example: under eye cream, moisturizer, and toner. This enables your customers to compare options you have on your site, instead of going to a competitor.
Quantity discounts are also a great way to accomplish the tiered pricing strategy. Say you offer a single $10 item, but often times customers reorder the same product. Perhaps you should offer a discount if they order 5, 10, or 15 of the same item. The goal is to offer multiple price points for the same product to provide comparison within your site. This decreases the likelihood customers will shop elsewhere to get a better deal.
You need to compare the success of your strategy constantly. The best and more accurate way to do this is by relying on your ERP system. Systems like Versa Cloud ERP offer real-time business insights to deliver key insight to your pricing strategies.
Pricing Strategy # 2 – The Magic Number 9 Still Works
The journal Quantitative Marketing and Economics performed a study proving that prices ending with the number 9 outperform others—even lower price options. As a result, businesses who adopt this strategy will often an increase in sales and revenue.
The specifics of the study were around comparing the cost of women’s clothing. They found that between selling an item for $34 vs. $39, the price ending with 9 outperformed the other by 24%. That’s right, consumers we’re willing to pay more simply because of the psychological effects of the number 9!
This can also work for sale prices too. If the regular cost of an item is $45 and you discount to $39, just as in strategy #1, you are enabling your customers to do a cost analysis within your site vs. checking a competitor.
Pricing Strategy # 3 – Free Shipping Minimums
Free shipping options are ubiquitous in e-commerce these days. And they should be! Research done by the University of Pennsylvania revealed that approximately 60% of online retailers say offering a free shipping option is their best marketing tool.
Furthermore, a recent UPS survey revealed that 85% of consumers are willing to accept a slower shipping method if it is offered free. As a result, consumers are willing to wait five or more days for delivery (maximum seven), if they feel they are getting a deal by not paying shipping.
From Amazon to eBay it can be tough to compete with large marketplaces when they offer free shipping on basically all of their products. The best way to compete with these large marketplaces is by explicitly telling your prospective customers about free shipping options from the very beginning. This could be a banner on your homepage, sidebar, or pop-up modal.
An important part of this strategy is setting the proper free shipping threshold. However, this can be difficult unless you understand your perfect prospect profile and have key insights to your profit margins. i.e. what is the maximum order size your customers are willing to pay, and what are the effects on your bottom line.
Conclusion
The best way to accomplish all of these pricing strategies is by utilizing modern business tools like Versa Cloud ERP. Modern technology gives your business insights into understanding how pricing will affect the bottom line. Additionally, it helps to promote data-driven business decisions.
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about modern pricing strategies used by top brands. To learn the new rules of business in 2018 check out our new ebook! In it you’ll learn six Versa Cloud ERP rules for winning in the “Age of Amazon.”
