7 ms·

still cost less than a decent meal So many great things on the web cost less than a single cup of Starbucks. Yet, I myself am so hesitant to pay for them. On

still cost less than a decent meal So many great things on the web cost less than a single cup of Starbucks. Yet, I myself am so hesitant to pay for them. On my landing pages I design at work, I'm increasingly trying to communicate this via comparisons("less than a morning Starbucks trip"). Another one is showing a dollar bill to communicate that for less than a dollar a day, they will get _____. For a service that we were charging $10, we had 3% conversion rate. Then I showed an actual picture of a $10 bill to show how inexpensive this is and we doubled conversion to 6%. I increased the price to $30 and showed a one dollar bill, an equal sign, and what they would get for a dollar a day. The conversion rate is 3%. Overall, we make $30 more per 100 uniques to that page than at $10 price(we make $60 at 10, $90 at 30). It seems promising though not totally conclusive in terms of increasing conversion rates. The point is, spending a dollar on the web to me seems much more difficult than spending a buck on a Crunch bar. The efforts of my landing page experiments are to align online spend perception with retail. (numbers rounded to nearest % for purpose of this post)

sliverstorm 15y ago
This says things about the prices at Starbucks as much as it says things about the web. :) Also, with food, even if it is terrible you can still eat it. It's a no/little risk investment.
- eropple 15y ago
  even if it is terrible you can still eat it I see you've never been to Friendly's.
georgemcbay 15y ago
The reason I think long and hard before signing up for new web services isn't even the cost 99% of the time, but the uncertainty in how difficult it is going to be to cancel should I decide I do not want to continue. I've had it UP TO HERE with services that allow me to subscribe with one click and then make me go through a half-day long ordeal of phone calls to outsourced customer service people (who earn bonuses based on convincing you not to leave the service) in order to cancel. Making it obvious that I can leave at any time just as easily as I joined is a huge greasing agent for getting me to actually put down money to try your service. It is a shame so few sites/services do this and most go with the short-sighted trap-em-in model which hurts the industry as a whole (since it makes people like me far less likely to use any non-essential services just to avoid the potential of a cancellation PITA).
- AJ007 15y ago
  Cancelling a recurring service is generally no more difficult than saying, "please cancel my subscription quick so I don't have to charge this back."
  - georgemcbay 15y ago
    IME what you said is true, but only once you're talking to the manager of the manager of the person you originally waited on hold 25 minutes to talk to. And this is your second call because the first one got dropped randomly after 20 minutes on hold.
  - Joakal 15y ago
    Companies will find ways to delay you as long possible: http://i.imgur.com/G0qlu.jpg http://i.imgur.com/G0qlu.jpg
    - joelhaasnoot 15y ago
      Except when forced to by law. Illinois doesn't allow Microsoft to do that and Illinois residents can cancel with one click.
  - wbracken 15y ago
    Not exactly the case - documented the struggles for canceling Clear at: http://wp.me/p1CQDI-3i http://wp.me/p1CQDI-3i
- itcmcgrath 15y ago
  My thoughts exactly. $1-$20 a month might not be much, but if I sign-up to something and it takes me half a day of jumping through hoops such as making phone calls then it ends up costing me a lot more than that, not just based on time (and how much I think my time is worth), but also in raising my stress/frustrating levels. Let me know and can click 'cancel' anytime, no strings, no hassle and you'll probably get me on impulse purchase. Don't : Good luck getting my money.
- goodweeds 15y ago
larrys 15y ago
"less than a morning Starbucks trip" I wouldn't think that a comparison like that would work. For one thing there are many people who feel they are pissing away money on Starbucks, or feel some guilt (I myself spend about $4.00 per day and sometimes twice that. That's at least $1500 per year. I don't want to be reminded of that, especially when business is off.) (So you are making a comparison to a potential sore spot. You want a positive association. Comparing to Starbucks but without mentioning price might be an example but that wouldn't make sense for your product, right?) Now, to sell it's product, Starbucks (or any premium brand) doesn't make comparisons to what other things costs. They make you feel special in some way by the product or by the experience or create some value that justifies the price. Making comparisons is good though if you are saving people money. Have you tried raising the price and offering an unconditional money back guarantee? "Cancel at any time and owe nothing". That seems to work with many things I've seen that cause people to be fence sitters as long as the price is high enough. Seo book does that (p1 for seo and search engine optimization) http://www.seobook.com/ http://www.seobook.com/
tomkarlo 15y ago
I think it was the SmugMug guys who discovered that they had higher conversion rates at $12/year than $10/year, because people found it easy to think of as $1 / month. Response to pricing on virtual services can be tricky.
- rokhayakebe 15y ago
  It might have been Funny Or Die
Alex3917 15y ago
"So many great things on the web cost less than a single cup of Starbucks. Yet, I myself am so hesitant to pay for them." It's the same thing where if you add up all the things you are supposed to do each day that only take 5 - 10 minutes, you end up with like three hours worth of stuff. Flossing, meditating, abs, showering, etc.
Mizza 15y ago
Your web apps don't release dopamine into my bloodstream. Your iPhone game doesn't give me a headache if I don't play it. I can't take a girl on a date to your eBook PDF. The reason that digital goods _seem_ more expensive is because the result we get _is_ less valuable to us as human beings. It's hard to pay money for things that leave you exactly as you were before - sitting in a chair, looking at a screen.
- tomkarlo 15y ago
  Since when is how much we get from something tied to how it impacts us? Watching a movie doesn't change us physically, but we pay $12 for it because it entertains us, just the same as most digital goods. I don't pay $20 for a book because I want a stack of paper, either. If that was true, you'd get paid to smoke and eat fast food, since they have a negative impact.
- badclient 15y ago
  Yeah but if you bought my productivity app, you may have more time for your date. Or you may have less headaches from your finances.
mwexler 15y ago
It's the nickel and diming of modern services. Every service is just a buck, just a fiver, just a tenner. I used to get usenet with my ISP, now I pay for it. I used to get luggage for free with my flight, now I don't. We've literally turned pricing around: even $1.99 seem like too much for an iphone game... when you realize that too many $1.99s will turn into $20 or more dollars. But I agree, money for services online feels very different from money for product, whether a good deal or not.
philwelch 15y ago
So let's say you get a Crunch bar. You unwrap it and take a bite. It fills your mouth, and you taste chocolatey goodness. You chew on a little. Crunch, crunch. Your mind drifts off a bit and you swallow a mouthful before going to take another bite. This is exactly the kind of direct, physiological pleasure $1 can get you, and it's something we've enjoyed for billions of years, and spent all that time evolving new strategies to achieve. You know what doesn't have trouble selling online? Sex. Anything from escorts to live cam shows to porn. Why? Because that's another direct, physiological pleasure we've had for billions of years. Now tell me, what kind of web services compete with eating and fucking in terms of what people really want?

sliverstorm 15y ago

This says things about the prices at Starbucks as much as it says things about the web. :) Also, with food, even if it is terrible you can still eat it. It's a no/little risk investment.

eropple 15y ago
even if it is terrible you can still eat it I see you've never been to Friendly's.

georgemcbay 15y ago

The reason I think long and hard before signing up for new web services isn't even the cost 99% of the time, but the uncertainty in how difficult it is going to be to cancel should I decide I do not want to continue. I've had it UP TO HERE with services that allow me to subscribe with one click and then make me go through a half-day long ordeal of phone calls to outsourced customer service people (who earn bonuses based on convincing you not to leave the service) in order to cancel. Making it obvious that I can leave at any time just as easily as I joined is a huge greasing agent for getting me to actually put down money to try your service. It is a shame so few sites/services do this and most go with the short-sighted trap-em-in model which hurts the industry as a whole (since it makes people like me far less likely to use any non-essential services just to avoid the potential of a cancellation PITA).

AJ007 15y ago
Cancelling a recurring service is generally no more difficult than saying, "please cancel my subscription quick so I don't have to charge this back."
- georgemcbay 15y ago
  IME what you said is true, but only once you're talking to the manager of the manager of the person you originally waited on hold 25 minutes to talk to. And this is your second call because the first one got dropped randomly after 20 minutes on hold.
- Joakal 15y ago
  Companies will find ways to delay you as long possible: http://i.imgur.com/G0qlu.jpg http://i.imgur.com/G0qlu.jpg
  - joelhaasnoot 15y ago
    Except when forced to by law. Illinois doesn't allow Microsoft to do that and Illinois residents can cancel with one click.
- wbracken 15y ago
  Not exactly the case - documented the struggles for canceling Clear at: http://wp.me/p1CQDI-3i http://wp.me/p1CQDI-3i
itcmcgrath 15y ago
My thoughts exactly. $1-$20 a month might not be much, but if I sign-up to something and it takes me half a day of jumping through hoops such as making phone calls then it ends up costing me a lot more than that, not just based on time (and how much I think my time is worth), but also in raising my stress/frustrating levels. Let me know and can click 'cancel' anytime, no strings, no hassle and you'll probably get me on impulse purchase. Don't : Good luck getting my money.
goodweeds 15y ago

larrys 15y ago

"less than a morning Starbucks trip" I wouldn't think that a comparison like that would work. For one thing there are many people who feel they are pissing away money on Starbucks, or feel some guilt (I myself spend about $4.00 per day and sometimes twice that. That's at least $1500 per year. I don't want to be reminded of that, especially when business is off.) (So you are making a comparison to a potential sore spot. You want a positive association. Comparing to Starbucks but without mentioning price might be an example but that wouldn't make sense for your product, right?) Now, to sell it's product, Starbucks (or any premium brand) doesn't make comparisons to what other things costs. They make you feel special in some way by the product or by the experience or create some value that justifies the price. Making comparisons is good though if you are saving people money. Have you tried raising the price and offering an unconditional money back guarantee? "Cancel at any time and owe nothing". That seems to work with many things I've seen that cause people to be fence sitters as long as the price is high enough. Seo book does that (p1 for seo and search engine optimization) http://www.seobook.com/ http://www.seobook.com/

tomkarlo 15y ago

I think it was the SmugMug guys who discovered that they had higher conversion rates at $12/year than $10/year, because people found it easy to think of as $1 / month. Response to pricing on virtual services can be tricky.

rokhayakebe 15y ago
It might have been Funny Or Die

Alex3917 15y ago

"So many great things on the web cost less than a single cup of Starbucks. Yet, I myself am so hesitant to pay for them." It's the same thing where if you add up all the things you are supposed to do each day that only take 5 - 10 minutes, you end up with like three hours worth of stuff. Flossing, meditating, abs, showering, etc.

Mizza 15y ago

Your web apps don't release dopamine into my bloodstream. Your iPhone game doesn't give me a headache if I don't play it. I can't take a girl on a date to your eBook PDF. The reason that digital goods _seem_ more expensive is because the result we get _is_ less valuable to us as human beings. It's hard to pay money for things that leave you exactly as you were before - sitting in a chair, looking at a screen.

tomkarlo 15y ago
Since when is how much we get from something tied to how it impacts us? Watching a movie doesn't change us physically, but we pay $12 for it because it entertains us, just the same as most digital goods. I don't pay $20 for a book because I want a stack of paper, either. If that was true, you'd get paid to smoke and eat fast food, since they have a negative impact.
badclient 15y ago
Yeah but if you bought my productivity app, you may have more time for your date. Or you may have less headaches from your finances.

mwexler 15y ago

It's the nickel and diming of modern services. Every service is just a buck, just a fiver, just a tenner. I used to get usenet with my ISP, now I pay for it. I used to get luggage for free with my flight, now I don't. We've literally turned pricing around: even $1.99 seem like too much for an iphone game... when you realize that too many $1.99s will turn into $20 or more dollars. But I agree, money for services online feels very different from money for product, whether a good deal or not.

philwelch 15y ago

So let's say you get a Crunch bar. You unwrap it and take a bite. It fills your mouth, and you taste chocolatey goodness. You chew on a little. Crunch, crunch. Your mind drifts off a bit and you swallow a mouthful before going to take another bite. This is exactly the kind of direct, physiological pleasure $1 can get you, and it's something we've enjoyed for billions of years, and spent all that time evolving new strategies to achieve. You know what doesn't have trouble selling online? Sex. Anything from escorts to live cam shows to porn. Why? Because that's another direct, physiological pleasure we've had for billions of years. Now tell me, what kind of web services compete with eating and fucking in terms of what people really want?