4 ways to show value online…
Another Seth item today. Too many companies focus on price alone, causing their customers – potential or otherwise – to do the same. He wants to know what, besides price, you’ve given them to care about. There are at least four key things that customers look for when shopping for products and services online:
- Design – Apple hasn’t sold 100 million iPods solely because of content. Does your design stand apart?
- Convenience – Are you making your customer’s lives easier? Are you letting them know that you are?
- Location – Are you closer than your competition to where your customers want to be? Even if you’re not, do you make it easy for your customers to find you?
- Choice – What options do you give your customers? Do you provide more choice than the competition?
There are probably dozens more. What do you use that I’ve missed?
What about quality?
In my business we have many conversations about price, but ultimately its about quality.
Chris, I think focusing on quality makes tremendous sense. But, like “value,” quality can prove difficult to define for many companies, particularly online. What defines quality for an online retailer like Amazon.com? The product, the shopping experience or the combination of the two? Consumers tend to define the price/value equation – in which quality plays a huge role – more by their experience with the product after the purchase. The obvious exception is when the entire experience is online, such as with social networking sites like LinkedIn, last.fm, and MySpace. I definitely agree that companies need to ensure perceived quality of the entire experience. Focusing too narrowly though on quality in just one part of the equation – online or offline – won’t necessarily close the sale.