Poor product pricing for new markets may be costing brands. We look at the key pricing concerns that affect conversion for cross-border brands.
To optimize conversion, online retailers should research pricing and aim to hit a price point that is sustainable in individual countries. The returns that can be generated in short tail markets can justify the resources required to gain in-depth pricing knowledge on each region to build out local strategies. In long-tail markets the investment is less easily justified.
- How prices are displayed can lead to confusion, with something as simple as the Dollar sign being interpreted differently leading to cart abandonment. A Canadian retailer selling into the US market needs to either offer US dollar pricing, or if not, make it clear that prices are in Canadian dollars. Shoppers will make the natural assumption that the dollar sign means USD, unless told otherwise, and depending on the exchange rate, a Canadian dollar price may seem expensive if it is interpreted to be USD.
- Embedding additional costs like customs and shipping into the product, or having the fees displayed early in the process, reduces cart abandonment. This requires a degree of insight into buyer preferences in different countries, as some shoppers will prefer to pay customs themselves upon the arrival of the product in their country. Knowledge around the expectation in each country will improve conversion.
- Displaying duties and taxes alongside product prices gives transparency to the shopper, builds trust, and leads to conversion improvements of between 23% – 66% once the shopper goes to the checkout – an enormous uptick in success rate.
- Slow load speeds on cart pages can be a huge issue, because the worst place to create doubt with a shopper is the payments page. It’s key that they’re sure the payment was successful; the price was right and that the order has been received by the merchant. They need to know the goods are on the way, so fast loading of an order confirmation page is vital (along with the triggering of an email).
- Struggling to manage payments and prices across a range of products in different markets. If a retailer has a long list of products, then the management issues multiply exponentially. That’s why retailers must first assess the products being launched into a new market, and focus on managing the pricing for a core group of pre-selected products.
- Product prices need to be published to a local Customer Distribution Network, a pricing platform that contains a localized catalogue of the retailer’s prices. Retailers can then manage these prices through the platform – controlling special offers, how taxes and duties are to be presented, and the way shipping will be included – manipulating the prices to offer localized content with faster loading speeds on the retailer’s online store.
