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Follow these 5 Simple Steps for Product Pricing

Tag: Pricing

Follow these 5 Simple Steps for Product Pricing

Follow these 5 Simple Steps for Product Pricing

Do you know that 61 percent of online buyers say that extra high costs is the main reason for cart abandonment? This clearly indicates that if product pricing is not accurate, you may lose more than half of the sales.

The product pricing mechanism lays emphasis on the cost price, profit, taxes, product value, and other variables. This means you have to consider various factors while determining the perfect product price. To assist you, we have compiled a list of five simple steps of pricing a product. Let us guide you through these.

What’s the Pricing Objective?

One of the foremost considerations in product pricing strategy is determining the company’s objective. You have to decide what you wish to achieve and where you see the company in the near future. When you are clear about your objectives, you get clarity about the product pricing.

For example, if you are in the nascent stage and you are entering a market, you can adopt survival pricing strategy wherein you are focused on establishing your presence and covering your expenses. Profit is not your foremost consideration. There are other objectives that influence the product price:

  • Maximum market share
  • Maximum market skimming
  • Product quality leadership

Demand-Price Relationship

While identifying the right market price of a product, it is crucial to study the demand curve. Often, there is an inverse relationship between the price and the demand. If the price is higher, the demand will be low, and vice-versa. However, this is not true in all the cases. We mentioned product quality leadership in the previous section. The demand and price both could be high if you are a leader in the segment in question.

Nevertheless, you can conduct surveys, initiate a project pilot, or perform a statistical analysis to determine the demand in the market.

Cost Estimation

Evidently, costs and target returns influence the price of the product. There are various fixed and variable costs associated with the product. To determine these costs, you can adopt activity-based costing (ABC) system to identify the exact cost based on all the activities, right from procuring raw materials to delivering the products to the retailer.

Also, if you prefer taking payments online, the customer can pay via multiple payment modes like credit or debit card, net banking, digital wallets, and so on. You can install a payment gateway to process these payments. The important thing to note is that the customer might incur payment processing charges, and you don’t have to include these while pricing your products.

Finalize a Pricing Method

The company’s objective influences the product price and the pricing method decides the pricing structure. And up to a certain extent, the pricing method is also dependent on the company’s objectives. Let us look at the pricing methods:

  • Markup pricing – The product price is determined after adding a profit percentage on the cost price.
  • Value-based pricing – The product price is influenced according to its value for the customers.
  • Target return pricing – The pricing is influenced by the target ROI.
  • Going rate pricing – You price the product as per the standard pricing of similar products.

Peek into Competitors’ Pricing Policy

Competition is almost everywhere. In some cases, you may face little or no competition. Here you can set the price as per your discretion after analyzing demand and customers’ willingness to pay. But if you operate in a niche having stiff competition, you must scrutinize your competitors’ objectives and pricing policy. This will allow you to customize your market offering in a way to gain an edge over your competitors.

The Bottom Line

With the right product price, you can grab a larger portion of the market share. But in addition to the price, you must create value for the customers, adopt innovative marketing strategies, and keep an eye on the market trends to remain a step ahead of your competitors.

How to Set the Right Price for your Product or Service

How to Set the Right Price for your Product or Service

Placing an appropriate price tag on a product or service is a sensitive task. To generate sufficient profit, you have to set the right price. At the same time, you cannot exaggerate it because this will keep buyers away from your store. The following set of recommendations will help you in optimizing the pricing strategy for your e-commerce business.

Cost Analysis

Right from manufacturing to the delivery of the product, everything is driven by money. There are various costs involved in a business, directly or indirectly associated with the product or service. The market price depends on the costs and expenses incurred. The profit is what you get after deducting costs from the market price.

The direct costs are associated with the manufacturing the product or conceptualizing a service. The overhead costs include fixed and variable costs like rent, salaries, administrative expenses, warehouse maintenance, advertising costs, payment gateway charges, and so on. After considering all these aspects, you can determine the right selling price.

Market Evaluation

You should be aware of the consumer behavior and industry trends to accomplish the task of market evaluation. Identify and segregate your customers on the basis of demographics, buying trends, and so on. Work on determining the amount of money they are willing to pay for your product or service. You can conduct surveys to gather complete information.

Competition Analysis

There is a rare chance that you don’t have competition in your niche, and therefore, you should be prepared to perform competition analysis. The procedure involves evaluating their business process, analyzing products or services, identifying their tie-ups, and understanding their pricing strategy. You have to offer a superior product or service, at a competitive price, to gain prominence in the market.

Value Proposition

The value proposition is an art, and if you can master this, you can reap maximum benefits. Finalizing a price depends on the value of your offering. If you are dealing in premium products or expert services, you cannot set a low price. You have to maintain a suitable price to maintain its value proposition.

In addition to these, you can also work on user experience. For example, you can install a payment gateway for smooth and swift online payments. Customers are sensitive, and they are willing to pay more if you enhance their shopping experience.

Marketing and Promotions

Understand buyer’s psychology to mark the correct price of your product or service. During marketing stints, utilize tactics that will attract the buyers. For example, when a buyer sees a “SALE” tag, he or she develops an urge to check out the product. Similarly, odd numbers in the price tag can rake in more sales. Instead of a boring 500, simply mark the price as 499. Although there is no significant change in the price, it will definitely attract more onlookers.

Paid promotions can add up to the overhead costs. Whether you opt for social media promotions, search engine promotions, influencer marketing, or affiliate marketing; prepare an estimate and consider it at the time of pricing.

Pricing Options

Some of the pricing methods that you can adopt include:

  • Penetration pricing – This is suitable when you plan to acquire a market share in the initial stage. Initially, you can offer a low price and increase it later when you have established your presence.
  • Pre-emptive pricing – You have numerous competitors in your niche. To disrupt their monopoly, you can offer similar products or services at lesser prices.
  • Premium decoy pricing – When you plan to boost sales of a particular product, simply increase the price of other products so that customer opts for the product with the lowest price.
  • Price Leadership – When you established your brand and customers vouch for your product or services, you can set up a convenient price, without worrying about market trends and competitors’ presence.

You can deploy any or all of the aforementioned suggestions to finalize the product or service price. Your ultimate aim should be to maximize revenue and minimize expenditure. You can also innovate and apply pricing strategies or experiment with different combinations of pricing methods to obtain best results.