Believe in your customers... a little experiment

[Sassy Romano]

A little while ago, I finished a new lead product and thought i'd have a bit of fun, excitement and panic all rolled into one.

I put the product on sale with the price listed on the vendor @ L$695 and the vendor was set to offer 4 prices and an open entry field for user entered amount.

On the vendor was a big sticker saying "Pay what it's worth to you".

I discussed this a couple of times in the Commerce merchants group chat so if you know the answers please keep quiet but for those that weren't there.

I chose to put my faith at the mercy of customers in valuing what I created,  care to guess what happened?

[Ziggy21 Slade]

Cool Idea!

I missed the group chat, I am gonna guess they paid the highest price available?.

[Josh Susanto]

I'm guessing they mostly paid the suggested amount.

[Pamela Galli]

Based on my own inadvertant experimentation* I would say they paid the price on the sign.

 

*The other day I accidentally set my 6950 villa for sale for 0, and the customer who bought it turned around and paid me full price. Whew!

 

Not that that is the only example, I have lots of others!

[Maranda Barcelos]

the anticipation is killing me what happened

[Innula Zenovka]

My bet would that, in general, people paid at least the asking price, and many people probably paid more.   But my assessment is strongly influenced by the fact you have -- and rightly so -- a very strong and loyal customer base and that you and Rivan are very much part of the brand. People know that anything you make is going to be very good quality, imaginative and great fun, and they'll enjoy excellent customer support, and, in consequence, are generally going to be very unwilling to tell you, in effect, "it's not worth what you're trying to charge," if they paid less.    

So my guess is that, rather than be cheap, and cheap to someone they know, at least through your very active product support group, and whom they like, most people will either pay at least the price you suggest, or not buy it at all.

I'm not sure, though, that an unknown creator would have a similar experience.

[Mila Edelman]

This is so sweet. I'm dying to know!

Don't think this would work in my store, however. I've overheard customers (new to SL) complain, on occasion, and even to my face sometimes, that my store doesn't give away everything for free. It is their feeling that everything in SL should be free, and it's their RIGHT to have it. I wonder if they also walk into Saks and tell the clerks that everything there should be free.

I get the impression that they don't understand that us shopkeepers don't work for SL. We make our money by selling the goods we make. They don't get that this world is almost entirely user-created. And there's the uphill battle against folks who perceive that, if it's on the internet, it should be free. Information is almost always free; entertainment, however, will cost ya.

[Pamela Galli]

I told Sassy in the inworld group that we were all waiting breathlessly for her. She said "What for?"

Well I told her what fo, but that was early last week. :smileymad:

[JubJub Forder]

Well, i can tell you some answers - because i have run the same experiement over several months with many items, and branded as such - "Pay What You Want" (although my items maybe have not as much perceived value)

Basically setup is same as described above... buying an item  brings up a price popup with button options and default set to $50 - they can overtype and set their own price. Lowest button is set to $5.

Average Items per customer = 5
Average price paid = 9 ld
Largest price paid = 183 ld (100 is not uncommon)
why the odd number? I asked and it was intentionally paid - not mistype

20% of customers only pay $1 - and as ya might expect, some buy quite a few items at that price.

[Paula001 Goldschein]

bump?