As Shakespeare once said, “To display price, or not to display price? That is the question…” Or something like that.

In a salesperson’s ideal world, the sales pitch would always come before the price. In a customer’s ideal world, the price would always come before the sales pitch. When it comes to B2B websites, however, you can’t have the best of both worlds. Or can you? In this blog, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of each argument and offer advice on how you can find the balance between your buyer’s desire to know the price vs your business’ desire to communicate value.

Reasons to List Prices on Your Ecommerce Site

Establishes Brand Integrity & Builds Trust With Your Customers

Perhaps the most beneficial reason to list prices on your Ecommerce website is the trust it builds with your customers. Full transparency often accelerates the sales process and improves productivity. If you aren’t upfront with your customers regarding product offerings, they may go searching for someone else who is.

Gatekeeping prices can also spur the belief that no price = high price. Many people won’t want to use time talking to a sales representative only to find out your prices won’t work with their budget. Listing prices can prevent creating friction with your customers at a critical time in the buying process.  

Saves Time & Simplifies the Buying Experience

In a world of self-checkout, online ordering, and no-contact deliveries, people expect to get what they need as quickly and as easily as possible, and with the least amount of interaction necessary. Making prices public on your website can weed out the bargain shoppers and tire kickers—saving valuable time that might otherwise be spent nurturing leads and improving sales efficiency.

Attracts Your Target Market & Helps Buyers Better Understand Your Product

Any business owner knows that pricing is a major strategic marketing decision—not only for your revenue and sales, but also for your branding. Your fees are an indication of how you position yourself amongst your competitors. Customers want to know how the solution you offer them is going to affect their bottom line. Whether that’s low cost or high value, choosing to not display pricing means you could be missing out on a beneficial marketing opportunity.

Pricing can also be an opportunity to communicate value. Take an industrial filtration company with a line of pleated filter cartridges that offer 15 times more dirt holding capacity than standard models. In this case, many customers would gladly pay the extra $100 to save even more on maintenance costs overtime. In the same breath, pricing can also let your target buyers know whether they’re in the right category. This is especially true for companies offering professional grade products as displaying industrial prices can weed out retail buyers.

Reasons to Not List Prices On Your Ecommerce Site

You Offer Custom Rates or Specialized Products/Services

Many B2B businesses provide customizable services or products. For example, a metal fabricator may provide a custom quote based on a client’s specifications for material, size, part complexity, whether or not they require secondary or finishing services, etc. This obviously presents a challenge when it comes to providing price transparency, as the price of a given project is determined by a multitude of different factors.

Displaying prices may also come as a challenge for many distributors when you factor in regional pricing or manufacturer restrictions. Many manufacturers can prohibit you from publishing prices on your website if you sell below their MSRP. In this case, you can often strike up an agreement with your suppliers to display prices for logged-in customers who have an existing customer account.

You Risk Exposing Your Cost Structure to Competitors

A common reason for not publishing prices may be a concern that your competitors will find out how much you charge and adjust their prices to undercut you. While this is definitely a possibility, gatekeeping your prices won’t stop your competitors from finding them out. Whether they have someone pose as a potential customer or they simply ask around, it’s difficult to keep prices hidden from those motivated to uncover them.

Your Business Operates on a Longer Sales Cycle

Sales cycles that last longer than it takes to click around a few times on a website are usually designed that way for a reason. Many B2B businesses prioritize 1:1 relationships with their buyers, which are most commonly instigated after a they request pricing information.

This is especially relevant for custom or service-based companies wherein a consultation is needed before the project can be quoted. Oftentimes, this process gives businesses the opportunity to learn about the buyer’s needs and add them to their sales automation system. However, this is only beneficial for both your business and the customer when you have the capabilities to provide what they need, and they have the budget to pay for it—otherwise you’re just wasting each other’s time. To prevent this, it’s important to ensure the content on your website provides enough information for the customer to establish whether you fit the bill before they make that initial contact.

Online Pricing Strategies for B2B Ecommerce Websites    

Making pricing information public on your website does not mean you must disclose the individual price of each item in your inventory. Depending on the type of business you have and the products/services you offer, there are several options when it comes to displaying prices:

• Push wholesale pricing and bulk discounts on large orders
• Require users to enter their name & email to access pricing information
• Provide downloadable catalogs or create a separate pricing page
• Give users a general idea of where you lie on the pricing spectrum with phrases like, “ranging from” or “starting at”
• For modifiable or engineered-to-order products, include a feature that calculates price based on the specifications entered by the user

Take Control of the Price Conversation with Ecreative

We understand pricing is a challenge for many B2B companies, and making it public may not be the best option for every business. Whether you choose display pricing or not, you want to be sure your website effectively communicates your value—both in content and user experience. Trust a team of B2B web development experts who can help you take control of the price conversation and find the best solution for your business. Check out our full Ecommerce website portfolio or contact us today to start the discussion.