Prices On Ads

[Princess Verwood]

I've been debating with myself for a while now whether to put the item price on the ad picture for my in-world store for some time now. As a shopper, I've noticed it is very split. Some stores have the prices, some do not. Most shoppers know to hover over the item, or click on it to see the price if it is not listed on the picture. While I appreciate the price being listed, it doesn't necessarily deter me from wanting to shop somewhere if they do not have the prices. How do you feel about it?

As a merchant, do you list prices on your in-world ads?

As a shopper, does it matter to you whether a store has the prices on items?

[Sea Warcliffe]

I do not put prices on mine, for the simple reason that I might want to have a sale or just change the price. I've never had anyone complain.

[Arwen Serpente]

As a Merchant, when I began my business I did put the prices on the ad pics and after a while I was sorry I did. It meant redoing the pics whenever I wanted to do a sale or promotion of some sort. It also added unnecessary clutter to the ad pic. I don't put the prices on them any more. If it is sold directly from the box, I either type the price in the name line, i.e., XYZ Item $xyzL (this way a change for a sale is very easy to retype the number), or depend on the hover tips. I haven't had any problems with shoppers finding prices at all.  If it is sold through a vendor, I set the vendor hover tips to appear only when the shopper touches the picture so the price and other info appear.

As a shopper, even when I was a new, I really didn't rely on prices on the pics, I just clicked and discovered the price that way. The only thing that ever confused me was when I accidentally turned off hover tips. I asked in one of my groups how to turn them back on and got them back that way.

[Suella Ember]

It's a little bit of a catch22 and I've done both at various points (had price on my ads and had ads without prices).

However, I'm now largely of the opinion that it's better to not have the price on (and I don't mind that as a shopper either).

My reasoning is that the more space you can save for actually showing the product the better. An ad full of writing detracts from the actual product. The important thing is to get the potential buyer interested in the product first. If you can do that with an eye-catching display they'll want to then find out the price and, as you say, it's easy enough to hover or click to get the price. Yes, there might be the issue where a new user doesn't know to hover or click but, that being the case, they also wouldn't know how to click to buy either! That's a spearate issue about educating new user and I don't think you'd particularly lose sales as a result of not having the price on ads.

I also prefer the above as a shopper. I want to actually see the product in detail first. I want to get an idea of it's quality. If I like the look of it i'll then check the price and make a judgement on whether I think it is worth that price. 

[Tiffy Vella]

I never do, as I like the freedom to change without having to make new textures. Also, the price is really obvious to customers when they are buying from a prim set for sale, so there's not much point.

[Kylie Jaxxon]

As a shopper, doesn't bother me at all...as you said, I just hover

[Chelsea Malibu]

You really don't need to since you can also search the items that are set to search in any store.  I rarely look at them except in my own store to make sure all my items are listed uniformly.  But, all searchable items do show their price as well already.

[Claireschen Hesten]

when i first started out i used to put a price on the poster then when i uploaded the poster then i'd have second thoughts and decide on an entirely different price so i stopped putting the price on. in my store i have scripted vendors with all my items in that display the price and product name as floating text then i do have some boxed products set out for sale if you have hover tips on you can easily hover over and get the price or right click/buy for the price

i think there can be advantage to not having the price as part of the poster if i have to right click and select pay or buy to see the price i am more likely to buy if it's somthing i like the look of

[Madeliefste Oh]

I never use prices on ads. For the reasons already named, you can have a sale, or after a while you can come the conclusion that an item is not priced right and you might want to change it.

But apart from these practical reasons there is another reason. Putting prices on boxes doesn't fit into the image building of my brand. My strongest selling point is quality. My pics must show the quality of the products, every thing else is secondary information and it leads only from the statement I try to make with the ads.

But when you are a real pricefighter, and low price is your strongest selling point it might be worth to put the price on the boxes.

So think I it depends on the aims you have with your business and the image building of your brand.

[Zanara Zenovka]

I usually have prices on my product pics in world, but when I do the initial graphics in PS I save off and upload 2 tgas, with and without the price.

I use the unpriced one for the box packaging and for uploading to SLM and affiliate vendors, and also as the image for my catalogue and other promos, and any specials groups (60L Weekend, etc).

[Sassy Romano]

Personally as a shopper, I want to see price and critically, permissions.  Don't say "look at the content" that doesn't work for vendors, nor for items with no mod scripts in the content such as resizers (yuk) for example.  Even if the item is fully modify, if it has a resizer that's no mod, it'll show no mod.

I want to see price because I don't want to have to hover over each item just to get that information but i'm just one shopper.

As a merchant, I put price and permissions on the ad and i've never had anyone ask for a bigger picture to display "quality".  Possibly because the items are also on display in the main shop?

[Ziggy21 Slade]

I am surprised so many people don't use prices on pictures, i guess I need to do more shopping.

I have always put prices, prims and perms on my pictures. The price is one of the selling points of the product, provided you have priced fairly, so I think it's as important to advertise it as it is to show an image of the product, which is why I am surprised that people do sales and don't then advertise the price. Although I guess if your image is very High End this may be appropriate.

Most of my prices are preceeded by the word 'Only' and followed by 'Click here to buy', a reminder that it's a great deal and a call to action inviting the customer to part with his cash.

Interestingly there is some controversial research which suggests that the price itself has an effect on the image you present, prices ending in 9 suggest a good deal at a knock down price but possibly not good quality, numbers ending in 0 and 7 or even numbers suggest quality but possibly not the cheapest available. Other research suggests consumers ignore the last 2 digits anyway.

All of this theory is of course dependent on one overiding factor, the customer has to be relied upon to read whats in front of him/her and I have to admit that doesn't seem to happen too often!.

[Mac Shoreman]

Here is some ideas I got from reading about store ads and prices on them. Not perfect but a solution that might fit some ones needs.

 

• Make box and hollow it out.
• Apply the ad texture inside the box on the hollow face and tiled so the ad is fitted on each side inside the box on the hollow face.
• Highlight the hollow face texture and flatten the prim on the X or Y axis.
• Turn one or both flat X/X or Y/Y outside faces transparent* for now.
• Make a alpha texture with the price placed in a suitable corner, "SALE" stamp or what ever and put on the face that is made transparent but take off the transparent*. Use white text so it can be tinted in any color when on the board.
• Set the sales features on the prim and you have a one prim sales panel with one static ad surface and dynamic surface for pricing and other info.

The good thing is that price texture can be used over and over again. Negative features are that one need a price texture in alpha for each price and the ad should be made with the placing of price in mind. Also the hollow face side-faces show. This can be solved if using some kind of low prim shelf or wall frame setup for ad-boards to "over stretch & hide" it in.

Another more space needy way to do it is to cut a prim "Path Cut" B=0.125 E=0.625. This gives 2 surfaces flat from same view where you can put 2 textures. This takes more space but i use it for items I want 2 pictures for. Make a small hollow and make the hollow surface transparent and it looks like it is two different prims. Set the sales settings and you once again have a multi surface sales prim.

[Sassy Romano]

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Mac Shoreman wrote:

Here is some ideas I got from reading about store ads and prices on them. Not perfect but a solution that might fit some ones needs.

 

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Good idea for selling from boxes.  This is where a network vending system wins though.  Update one texture in the vend server, update product with new texture and price.  Click button to deploy to all vendors gridwide.

Different solutions for different needs.

 

[Mac Shoreman]

"Good idea for selling from boxes.  This is where a network vending system wins though."

Hmm No. I have to disagree. If you only need to sell some few items out "of box" then the über web based iPodificated supergrid control vendor does not win. :matte-motes-wink:

[Harm Xue]

I never put prices on my ads, for all the above mentioned reasons. As Sassy lifted that other skirt: permissions, yes.

As a shopper, I find it worse to buy an item with a poster ad price marked 'x' and then the actual price is 'y'. So I never relied on poster prices, always clicked to buy or simply hover. Again, as a shopper, permissions is a most to be on display clearly.

[Mila Edelman]

I used to put all prices on the adverts. It was a standard part of my template. However, after the first round of having to alter 150 product photos when I wanted to change prices, I stopped doing it. The only exception is the always-free items. I do have a special area in my product templates for marking when something is free. THAT does help it move.

Sales didn't increase or decrease when I removed prices. I do know that a few of my REALLY old original products (6 or so), which haven't yet been updated, are floating around with prices on them, but everything else, no. It's too much time to spend updating and reboxing if I want to change anything. Sometimes, I like to test out different price points when I launch a new type of item. It's just easier to not include it in the photo.