Are Your Prices a Barrier to Sales?

We have an SEO client with an e-commerce website, who was concerned with his low sales numbers. It seemed like we were doing all the right things – we had increased traffic to his website over several months with content marketing and on-site SEO, we were running an AdWords campaign that was getting steady clicks every day, and we were also integrating Facebook ads. All these ongoing services were driving traffic to his site – over 2,000 unique visits each month, yet nobody was purchasing anything. Something was definitely wrong.

We evaluated his website, and made some minor design changes to build trust and make it easy for people to place an order, or at the very least call or email. We made his phone number more prominent on the top right of the website on all pages, added his Better Business Logo and Yelp seal, added some call to action buttons and some text to make the shopping process easier. Still, no sales!

We were perplexed. The site was getting visits, why weren’t people buying? We noticed that the bounce-rate was very high, meaning people didn’t stay on the website very long, often for just a few seconds.

We then looked at competitor pricing and found that his pricing was 150% that of his competitors! Bingo! Price was the barrier! No wonder people were leaving the site after a few seconds and no one was purchasing. Prices weren’t even close to what the market dictated.

I am not saying that your prices can’t be higher than others. If you can establish value and a reason for people to pay more, that is fine. This particular site wasn’t doing that. There was no higher perceived value….just much higher prices.

My client decreased all his prices, and the sales started coming in steadily. This was an important reminder for me. You can do SEO, social media, and get visitors to your site, but it still doesn’t guarantee sales. If price is a barrier, they will come, and then they will leave.