Nothing is more annoying than a website that hides its prices. As a user experience designer, I would argue that this is a fundamental piece of information people want, and we should, therefore, make it available.
However, you will not find my charge out rate alongside my services. Even more controversially, if you go to buy either my course on Encouraging Clicks or Finding Clients, you will not find the price.
Why Pricing Is So Complicated
The value of somebody is never fixed. For example, it is not merely the cost of its raw materials and manufacturing. Many factors impact the value of something, most of which boil down to supply and demand.
However, even supply and demand is not black and white. Supply and demand isn’t a simple calculation, because perceptions alter it. If something is perceived as being in high demand, the value of the product or service goes up. The same is true if the supply appears to be limited.
Our perception of value is influenced by context and previous experience. Provide the right context, and you increase the price somebody is willing to pay.
Many companies use this fact to manipulate how much somebody is willing to pay.
How Companies Manipulate Our Perception of Value
There has been a lot of bad press about companies using the psychology of pricing to manipulate people into taking action and paying higher prices.
The most common way they do this is by exaggerating or overemphasising the scarcity of an item as well as the demand.
For example, Etsy talks about the limited supply (most of their items are one-offs, so stock is always limited) and also highlight how many other people are looking at that same item.
Although it is right to condemn this kind of blatant manipulation, we also need to be aware that it is impossible not to influence somebody’s perception of price.
We Cannot Help but Influence People’s Perception of Price
Every element on our website will influence a user’s perception of price, whether we mean it to or not. Design, copy, layout, all subconsciously influence how much people consider your product or service to be worth.
However, people are not just influenced by your website. They are also affected by your competitors, reviews, previous experiences and dozens of other factors.
Even the presence or absence of a price influences our perception of value.
The Impact of Showing a Price
One approach is to be entirely upfront about pricing from the start. However, this gets complicated as well because people bring their expectations with them.
Take my courses, for example. How much would you pay for a class on encouraging users to take action on your site? If you are an agency or freelancer, how much would you pay for a course on finding clients?
Your answer will depend on your previous experiences. If all of your experiences with online learning has been Youtube or a course on Skillshare, then anything other than free will seem expensive. However, if you have bought courses before, that will set your expectation.
As most people will not have paid for a course before, any price I publish will seem expensive.
Now, of course, my website should address that. My website should sell the benefits of the course and why it is value for money.
The problem is that price is such an influential factor that is often the first thing people look for on a page, without taking the time to judge its value within context. You can get the “What! I am not paying that amount!” knee jerk reaction that can be impossible to overcome.
So instead, in my case, I encourage people to join a waiting list that allows me to lay out the benefits of the course through a series of emails before I then talk about price.
However, as Antony pointed out, the downside is that it can raise red flags.
The Danger of Not Showing a Price
The problem with my approach to not showing the price for my course is that it makes people wonder why I am not showing it. It can potentially undermine trust. It looks like I am hiding something.
Some will presume it is a way to extract their email address or otherwise manipulate them.
Others will conclude that it is because the course is obscenely expensive, like a jewellery store where they don’t show prices. “If you need to ask how much, you cannot afford it.“
Now obviously these factors could put some people off. However, thinking the price is higher than it is can sometimes work in your favour when you then reveal it. That is because the actual price looks low compared to what people imagine.
Where is the line with manipulation?
You may consider all of this talk of holding off revealing the price as manipulative. The question is, where does that line lie? Is it manipulative to use positive wording to present a product in the best light? What about a design that makes a product appear better than it is? If we all have to start making our websites reflect the quality of the product, there will be a lot of terrible sites out there!
Now yes, there are blatant examples of manipulation, ones that almost all of us agree have gone too far. But there is a big grey area. So how do you know what is acceptable and what is not?
As you can see, it is a complicated business and one with no easy answer. So how do you decide?
How to Decide Whether to Show Your Price
As you can probably tell by now, I have agonised over this subject endlessly and yet after all that thought; I cannot give you a definitive answer.
However, to my mind, there are two factors to consider and one technique you can use to decide.
The Two Factors to Consider
The decision of whether to show the price is going to be primarily driven by your audience. Once again, the need for user research comes to the fore.
You need to know what their expectations of pricing will be. If your price is less than what they might expect, then it makes sense to show it. If not, then you should consider not showing it.
However, you also need to take into account how they will react. Will it undermine trust? Will they believe that you have gone too far? It is their opinion that matters.
It can be hard to know, but testing can help.
The One Technique to Decide
Pricing is such a complicated issue that the only answer I have found is to test. For me, the result was overwhelming. Too many people would abandon my landing page no matter how much I tweaked it when I displayed the price.
Now bear in mind my courses only cost $267. They are not insanely expensive by any stretch; especially when considering the potential they offer to bring in additional income. However, because of user expectations that courses are either cheap or free, the price stopped them looking any further.
However, as soon as I put the price at the end of an email series, I found that conversion skyrocketed because I had the opportunity to communicate the benefits of the course first.
Of course, the conversion rate is only half the equation. I also have to consider how badly I am damaging my credibility and trust by ‘hiding’ the price.
I will be honest; there is an impact. There is a small minority that I am severely alienating with this approach. But generally, it is bearable when compared to the gains.
But your situation might be different. The key is not to try and quantify the benefit of one approach over the other, but also to understand the cost associated with achieving that benefit. Only then can you make an informed decision.
Ultimately, and like so many things, deciding on how to approach pricing comes down to listening to your audience. It is that simple.
