We were having a conversation with a client just a few days ago whose price point started at $2497 and then increased from there. They were concerned that they were too expensive for a website, they thought that the general online user was too price conscious and as a result wouldn’t buy high priced products.
This is a common misconception we run into when working with clients; due to all of the media around “price comparison sites” business owners believe high priced items don’t sell online. It’s not true, high priced items can sell online, just take a look at eBay and see the number of $5000+ boats, cars and motorbikes that are listed for sale and successfully sell.
With that said though there is an “art” to selling a high priced item via a website, and here are a two rules to follow:
Rule #1: If The Price Hurts Your Sale Then Don’t Show It
You’ve probably visited stores before where they display the product, the features, the benefits but no the price right? Art Galleries are famous for doing it as are other stores were prices are high. The reason they do this is to engage the potential customer in a conversation with the sales agent. The customer becomes interested in the product and as a result talks to a sales agent who then has the opportunity to explain and justify price.
This same principle translates to online shopping, if you’ve got a high priced item, then show the product, show the benefits, explain the features but with hold the price. Make the visitor work to see the price, take them through an extra page or ask them to submit a price request form.
By doing this you are making sure the visitor is engaged with you prior to showing the price and increasing the likeliness of a sale.
Rule #2: A Lead Is Better Than No Lead
Not all websites are designed to generate sales, sometimes it’s best to generate a lead rather than generating a sale. If you’re selling a complex item at a high price then you may need to generate a lead for you to call and follow up rather than a straight sale.
Don’t disregard a website because you can’t generate an online sale, you’d be amazed how many leads you could generate, and with a high priced product you don’t need to generate many sales to cover your costs.
As you can see, there’s no issue with selling high priced products online, all you need to do is change the strategy you are using to target these customers. Remember you don’t need to be confined to a single model with online marketing, you can get creative and test different ideas.
