If you’ve ever bought a car, you’re acquainted with the fine art of haggling. Plenty of retailers scoff at the idea of letting customers haggle. It’s unfortunate that they do; haggling gives you the ability to capture sales that you might lose otherwise.
It may sound like a difficult task to accomplish for an online store, but it’s actually becoming a more prominent part of the ecommerce environment. For instance, you’ve probably seen Priceline’s highly promoted “Name Your Own Price” campaign. It’s a high-profile example of what haggling can do for your business.
It’s easier to put into action than you may think. Here at Shift4Shop, we’ve put the concept into play with our “Make an Offer” feature. The feature is simple to implement in your online store. You can apply it to the products of your choice.
Letting your customers haggle offers great benefits:
- Offload last season’s stock: When products are replaced by newer versions, shoppers tend to look for them. That can leave you with extra stock. Instead of taking the hit, sell that extra stock by letting customers name their price.
- Convert more sales: It never hurts to add extra incentives to buy. Giving customers the opportunity to name their own price allows you to convert sales that may have been lost based on the price.
- Build a great brand reputation: Haggling is exciting. Pump your shoppers up and offer them a great experience. It’ll help the reputation of your brand, driving more shoppers to your store and…
- Get more return customers: A great experience makes your store more memorable, encouraging more customers to return.
In Shift4Shop’s feature, you get the ability to set a barrier for automatic sales. For instance, if a customer names a price inside of your predetermined lowest price, the sale goes through automatically. If they name a price lower, you can set an automatic notification where you can decide whether to accept or reject the price.
Plan your ‘Make an Offer’ strategy carefully before you get started and you’ll be on your way to getting more sales.
