- Video
'Put your prices on your website' — A really short story
A banana marked POA, a disco ball behind a Zoom call, and cheese you can’t buy. My debut short film. It’ll be at Cannes next year.
▶Play the video: 'Put your prices on your website' — A really short storyWelcome to Craig’s e-commerce emporium. Stock is a bit thin. There’s a banana, a disco ball and some cheese, and you can’t find out what any of them cost.
It’s a sketch. It’s also most business websites.
The banana: price on application
The banana says POA. Price on application. How much is it? You’ll have to apply to find out. How do you apply? Fill in this form.
Nobody fills in the form. Not even for a banana. They just want to know how much it is. A form standing between a customer and a price isn’t a sales process. It’s a wall.
The disco ball: book a call first
The disco ball’s sign says to book a 20-minute Zoom call first. Why? Because the shopkeeper needs to understand your financial situation and qualify you as a customer. It’s not about whether you choose to buy the disco ball. It’s about whether he chooses to sell it to you.
That’s the “book a discovery call to find out” approach, and it’s exactly as daft from the other side of the counter. The customer wanted one number. They’ve been handed a calendar link and a test.
The cheese: display model only
Then there’s the cheese. Display model only. On back order. Not for sale. It doesn’t exist. Imagine it isn’t there. So why’s it in the shop? He forgot to take it off.
Every website has some of this. A product that’s out of stock forever. A service you stopped offering two years ago. A page that’s still live because nobody remembered to remove it. If you can’t sell it, take it off.
Why hiding prices doesn’t work
POA, “book a Zoom call to find out”, back order. Whatever you put on your website to put off the pricing conversation, it’s there because you’re too chicken to have it.
Put your prices on your website and people work out, in the quickest way possible, whether they can afford to buy from you. The ones who can’t, leave without wasting your time. The ones who can, buy. It’s the quickest, most efficient conversation you’ll ever have about money, and you don’t even have to be there for it. If it’s a shop, let them actually buy the thing.
It’s not revolutionary. I’m not an e-commerce expert. It’s still the advice: put your prices on your e-commerce shop and let people buy things. That’s it.
If you want the longer version, I wrote about whether you should put prices on your website. We do it ourselves on our pricing page.
P.S. I made that banana and disco ball work hard.
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Read the full transcript
Hello and welcome to Craig's e-commerce emporium. Hello, your shop's looking a bit sparse. I mean, times are hard, mate. Look. So, what have we got here?
I'll be honest, all I've got is a banana, a disco ball, and some cheese. Okay, so why does that banana say POA? Price on application, mate. Well, how much does it cost? Well, you have to apply to find out the price.
Right, so how do I apply to purchase that banana? You fill out this form. Yeah. Yep, I'm not filling that out. So, how much does the disco ball cost?
Look at the sign. Book a 20-minute Zoom call first. Why should I book a 20-minute Zoom call? I just want to know the price. Yeah, but I need to understand your financial situation and qualify you as a customer.
Why though? I just want to buy the disco ball. No, no, no. It's not about whether you choose to buy the disco ball from me. It's about whether I choose to sell the disco ball to you.
What a load of balls, a ball rather. Final chance with the cheese. How much does the cheese cost? Can't you see the sign? It says display model only.
That's because it's display model only. It's on back order. But, how much does the cheese cost? It's not for sale. You can't buy it.
We have no cheese. We are cheeseless. Okay, I get that, but how much does the cheese cost? The product doesn't exist. Imagine the cheese isn't there.
This is a cheese-free zone. Apparently. Okay, I get all that as well, but how much is the display-only cheeseless cheese I am not allowed to buy? I haven't got the cheese. So, why have you got the cheese in your e-commerce emporium then?
I'll be honest, mate. I forgot to remove it from the shop. Okay then, here's a tip for you before I leave your e-commerce store without buying a thing. Go on. I know it's not really going to sound revolutionary and I'm not really an e-commerce expert, But, go on.
Just say it. Put your prices on your e-commerce shop and allow people to buy things. That is it. Oh, yeah. I never thought of that one.
That is a good one. I'm going to write that one down. You know what? You should be a marketing on e-commerce on a website expert or something like that. Yeah, I might give it a try.