[OldWelshGuy]

If identical products (or seemingly identical products), can be bought cheaper, then it is a factor. not a deal breaker necessarily, but a large factor.

[UKSBD]

For me trust is the number one factor.
If I can buy the product in a local shop it has to be at least 10% cheaper
on that shops website for me to buy it online, or I will buy it in the shop.

If a well known website is selling something for £100.00 it would have to
be a minimum of £90.00 at an unknown website or I would prefer to pay the extra £10.00

To sum up.
If a product is £110.00 in a shop it would have to be £100.00 in a known
website or £90 in an unknown one, otherwise I would buy from the shop.

[Arleigh]

I think, even it's a commodity or not, price is always a basis.

Originally Posted by SBP

It all depends on whether you are selling a commodity or not

[Louise]

Apart from food shopping, which I do locally (or not so locally in the case of my eggs ), price is my main consideration really, as I'm careful with money and really love getting a 'bargain' (other half usually mutters something about it 'only being a bl**dy bargain if we needed it in the first place )

If it's a particular item I want (last thing I bought was a wine frigde where I knew the size I needed but didn't care about colour/brand) then I'll spend a couple of hours online comparing price including delivery, minus any cashback/discount codes I can find.

I pay barely any attention to the look/design of the site, and very, very rarely bother to read their 'about us' page (on the off chance their USP is that they pride themselves on customer service etc etc). I literally just compare the price. Maybe I'm unusual in this respect, in terms of taking a risk with unknown shops - I dunno? I've certainly become a new customer of many, many different online shops in this way, and never had a bad experience yet (touch wood). I will, however, make sure to go back once I've used them to check their price if I'm looking for something else, and if the price is the same across the board, give them my repeat business.

[Alvin]

Louise I belive you represent the average UK shopper who couldn't care less what a site looks like and goes for the bottom line Price for a given product,delivery time,service in that order.

Anyone who thinks different should try Kite flying .

Alvin

[IP2]

Well Al, I will pass on the Kite flying thanks mate I believe it was our chat that sparked this thread off so I better contribute to it I suppose.

You stated: "Price works for 90% of online business" after I queried whether someone always used price as there USP after they wrote ....."We are so competitive on prices that we say to all our clients if you can find what you’re after cheaper elseware we will not only match the quote but also we also offer you a further discount"

(Thought you would all love the background to this )

To clarify, I do agree price is a factor online, but not necessarily to 90% of business online. There is also the level of service, quality, professionalism and a vast number of people that simply don't want to buy "cheap".

To exasperate the point lets assume if price was everything there would be only a handful of printers all working for nothing attempting to be even cheaper than each other, the OP in question of the other thread implied that he will "always" price below the competition, if he was a printer he would therefore be undercutting the other printers regardless of whether he was making a profit.

Ultimately if Price is the only USP you have, you are on a hiding to nowhere someone else will always come along and try and do it cheaper. Being the cheapest is a sure fire ticket to being out of business. It lacks the entrepreneurial skills to pitch your products correctly, market them affectively and create a lasting business model.

[Alvin]

Hope this helps John.

Alvin

[freelancer]

Personally for me price will only factor into things over £100 ish (unless by a HUGE difference like £30)

I select items on

1. postage. Whos it sent by, what class of post (i.e overnight, can I track it? e.t.c) and is it free?
2. Payment method. I love PayPal, because I am lazy.

I just bought an iMac which was £769 ( I think) from Amazon, with free postage, and from Apple it was £799, plus postage (I think), hence amazon won out, as I could get it cheaper, plus I already have an account with them.

[Sheffy]

I would imagine that most sites selling consumer goods have to make the prices really competitive. If you are selling something that people can buy from another site they will shop around. That goes for postage and packing costs too.

[in2town]

What you need to do is to look at your competition, see what they are charging and see what you can offer what they do not, this could be anything from free p & p.

These are very hard times so maybe have a lower price and highlight it on your site that these prices are low to help your customer beat the credit crunch