We all know this country is having a pretty rough time economically. Even if your business is doing fine the increase in cost for food, gas and home items has gone way up.
Consumers are looking for a deal and consumers are looking at the Internet to research products even more because they spend less money on gas. Adding reviews to products to on your site is always plus, but I am sure you know that.
What I Look For When Buying Online
Well, I may be different than most, but there are many like me. I look everywhere before I buy and I typically go beyond Google Product Search, however I use it quite often. I was on the phone with a new client the other day and I told him if he wasn’t going to offer a lower price for his products than offer better shipping than his competitors. Shipping costs are a MAJOR factor for me.
The Three Main Things I look At After I Have Choosen A Product:
- Price of Product
- Shipping Costs
- Reviews of the store– and let me say it is often obvious when the store has reviewed themselves over and over.
An example, I need a new 12 hour laptop battery…
- Company A is selling it for $130 and only $5 shipping for every sale!
- Company B is selling it for $110, but the only shipping option is 2-3 days through UPS- +$30
- Company C is selling it for $130 and free shipping
I would look at company A and C’s reviews on Google Product Search. I also often pop over to Amazon to see if they sell products there and what their reviews are there. If reviews are good for company C I am going for it. I don’t care that it is only a $5 savings, I still saved. That is really all that matters.
Regarding researching products, I look at Best Buy, Circuit City, Amazon, Target, Walmart, KB Toys…I could keep going, I read everything first and I rule items out quickly
The Smartest Thing Walmart Every Did…
…is their Site to Store shipping option. Walmart use to have the most outrageous shipping costs and when 
you are buying game consoles for Christmas you want a deal and their $50 shipping costs made me run! Now they offer Site to Store, free shipping to a local store and you pick your product up in 7-10 days. I decided to test this system out.
I know I can go anywhere and buy the latest Lego Star Wars for DS. It is all around me, but it is a product that every store has so I wanted to see how long it took; they could just take one off the shelf, right?. Well, it was 7 days as they promised. As I sat with a woman I asked her what she ordered and she said furniture. I didn’t even know they offered furniture, but they do and a lot of it online. She made some fantastic points:
- The cost of kids furniture was dramatically less
- Her furniture was there in 8 days; compare that to a typical furniture store where you have to wait often a month (I just had this and they ordered the wrong thing!)
- She had to pay no shipping costs for a less expensive product- a win win for a mother of 5.
- She could read reviews of the furniture online and found that some items that were just $10 more had great reviews and the lesser had terrible reviews…she just spent the extra $10 and has some confidence that the furniture will hold up well. I spent a fortune on a couch at Havertys which started falling apart as soon as we got it home and they won’t fix it. Reviews would have been nice.
You may say that having it shipped means you get it in 3-5 days (as the site says) so it is worth the extra shipping cost. Well, I tested that too. My little one is into Superhero everything so I ordered a little lamp and 
it did say 3-5 days shipping, but guess what? That is after the processing time! The lamp came 4 days after I picked up my DS game… and let me just say that (yes I am a geek) Lego Star Wars rocks! I don’t care how old you are, if you haven’t played it you are missing out and FYI, Lego Indiana Jones doesn’t compare. We bought the game for the 360, I can’t say anything about LSW for Wii. If you don’t know the full level of my geekyness see my favicon.
So, What the Heck Was My Original Point?
If you want to keep making sales you need to give a little. I know many can’t afford to drop their prices because businesses have rising costs as well, but doing something as small as cutting them a deal on shipping can make the difference. Also, if you get a positive email from a customer reply nicely and say something like, “If you were pleased with our service please give us a review at…” and add the link.
I have seen a lot of businesses fail in the last 6 months. I know people are struggling and many can’t drop their prices, but try not to raise them too much if you can avoid it. I admit if I see a product is much higher or a service is much higher than it was before I walk away. I know many feel the same as me, no matter how much money you have you should be concerned with saving money. No one knows how much worse it will get; we can only hope for the best.
Melissa – SEO Aware
