LONDON – BUSINESS – Selling goods at a low price can be great for consumers, but if you aren’t making the profits you need, you may have to raise prices across the board. Here’s how to raise e-commerce prices strategically, without angering customers.
Raise Prices Gradually. Ever jumped into a cold pool of water or a hot tub? The change in temperature sends a shock through your body. Conversely, if you sit in a lukewarm hot tub and turn up the heat gradually, you hardly notice the change.
The same thing can be said for raising prices If you must, rather than increase prices 20 percent across the board, do it gradually, on select items, on a rolling basis.
Raise the Quality of Your Merchandise. Consumers are less likely to be angry about higher prices if they think they are getting more bang for their buck. An easy way to convince them of this is to improve the quality of your merchandise.
Post to your social media accounts or directly on your e-commerce website saying something to the effect of: “Pay for the quality you can see and feel” or “Better quality, longer lasting, sensibly priced.”
You might lose shoppers who prefer the cheapest merchandise available. But you might attract new customers looking for well-crafted products. The key is to introduce higher quality versions of your existing merchandise over time. This prevents sticker shock from scaring away your existing customers.
Raise Prices, but Offer Free Shipping. Another way to give shoppers more is to offer free shipping. Yes, you can include stipulations such as “Free shipping for orders over $50” if you need to. But the idea is to raise prices in a way that makes sense to your prospective shoppers.
Send out updates on the new pricing policies via social media or email. It should read to the effect of: “In an effort to provide free shipping on every order, we have modestly raised prices across our site.” This softens the blow with something that most shoppers really want.
Give Coupon Codes to Your Most Loyal Shoppers. If you are worried about disenchanting your most loyal customers by raising your prices, give them something in return.
You can offer 15-percent off coupon codes on select merchandise to shoppers who have made five or more purchases from your site. Send coupon codes to people who have followed your store on social media for six months or more. Ultimately, how you determine “loyalty” isn’t important. The key is giving back to the community that gives to you.
Offer a Wider Selection. Feel uncomfortable raising prices on your existing merchandise? Not planning on adding free shipping or giving out perks to loyal customers?
That’s okay.
If none of the above suggestion work for you, think about expanding your product offerings. You can set higher prices on these items to make up for the losses you are taking on other goods. If you are worried your site can’t handle more product photos, pages and web traffic, you should look into a new e-commerce solution. Services like Shopify offer an enterprise e-plus program perfect for online retail sites needing to scale quickly.
Hopefully, this guide has provided you with some strategies to raise your prices without angering your customer base. Remember that a wise entrepreneur understands that their business needs to adjust its strategies from time to time. With a little finesse and planning, you can overcome any obstacle.
