How do you market to the price-sensitive?

[ChrisHeggem]

A few months ago I did a study and saw that the top reasons why people abandon shopping carts were all price related. How do you market to the price-sensitive?

[jay 11]

There are a number of marketing tactics that will help push a sale along.. most of them have to do with language or playing with perceived values.

- "only X amount left in stock"
- "free shipping on orders over $20"
- strike through the retail value and show actual price. User perceives that they pay less
- price products below whole numbers. For example, $49.95

[ChrisHeggem]

jay11,

I like a lot of your ideas. The strategy, it seems, is to either incentivize by time-based call to action (e.g. X left, promotion only this week), increased value or increased perceived value.

Is there a particular business that you feel does this well?

[jay 11]

i think Amazon does a great job of sealing the deal (as well as cross promoting their other products and services).

They have many payment options, (credit card, paypal, etc) as well as options to bundle shipping of multiple products in order to save money. They also show the retail value on most products while allowing you to save, or at least give you the impression that you are saving by charging less than retail.

[ChrisHeggem]

Amazon does a great job of increasing average order values with cross-promotion. They get me every time they say "other people who bought this product also bought...".

[InsightsDigital]

I also think Overstock.com also have very good tactics - they adopted a little of amazon.com plus the one price shipping which is so recession friendly!

[jennypitts]

Chris and Insights... FUNNY but TRUE... I sometimes get suckered into the "people who bought this also bought that." And the 2.95 flat fee shipping from overstock is simply amazing.

However, I am not sure either one of these tactics would work for digital items or products.

[ChrisHeggem]

Jenny, you're right. Digital goods are a completely different. Care to take a stab at strategies for digital items?

[InsightsDigital]

With digital goods, since it is usually one supplier - prices are higher and people are willing to pay more - look at Zygna and how it sells digital goods via their facebook games.

[jay 11]

That's a great point. Marketing digital goods and services is certainly different. Some incentives that have worked for me are:
- volume discounts ie. 10 or more downloads/orders qualify for "agency" or "wholesale" discount. Or you could do it like "buy X, get one free."
- promotional discounts. Send existing users an "exclusive promo code" they can use and save on any online purchase
- And like InsightsDigital mentions... leak "special offers" and discounts into the social media realm.

[ChrisHeggem]

Jay and Insights, it looks like value is the best way to market digital goods. It makes sense though because digital goods have less overhead compared to physical goods. For instance, it is easier to discount software opposed to clothing. There is an inherent cost attributed to physical goods.