How much are your customers willing to pay for convenience? Do you lose your potential clients to competition, because you aren’t there when they are ready to buy?
I had a bad night. 2 wanderers kept me awake most of the night. The morning didn’t improve things.
I went shopping for the oven, because it broke down and I’d rather buy new one than go through aggravating process of finding someone to come and look at it only to tell me I need new oven anyway.
Before you accuse me of wasting money unnecessarily, I did unscrew the back cover to have a look inside. All the insulation stuff was black and burnt. I figure, that isn’t healthy sign at all.
So, I went shopping for the oven since I wouldn’t be able to focus on work. (No sleep, remember? )
We had to pay extortionate parking fee for 0-3 hrs (and they are wondering why people shop online!).
There was no staff available to ring the sale. (see note above.)
When we finally found someone, he politely explained that the model we chose is gone, they just forgot to take it from display. (ditto)
We asked if he can check nearby town store. He did, they had it in stock but we couldn’t pay here and just go to pick it up (to save us on finding staff to ring the sale at the other store). NO, they are the separate store, and we need to complete transaction in store. Despite being national brand, not some small town chain.
Needless to say, we got fed up and decided to order online. Even if it means waiting for delivery man and not having my new oven today.
I would have paid for convenience gladly, just so I don’t have to think about it and schedule things again.
TAKE AWAY: Make sure you make it easy for your customers to buy from you.
Than I went on shopping spree to lift my mood and since my little girl needed new clothes AGAIN – I had my perfectly plausible excuse. I love buying things for my kids even more than shoe shopping for myself, which says a lot.
Than I was passing the bookstore, so I went in. I bought 4 books, because I liked how they feel in my hand and they are business expense anyway. Over £50. At first I though I misunderstood, what she said. EVEN THOUGH I BUY BUSINESS BOOKS ALL THE TIME online, somehow handing over that much seemed, well, too much.
You see, when you buy online you have those raving reviews to convince you are making the best decision ever – not so in the bookstore.
I had buyer remorse, hence the article that I’m writing now. I just HAD TO check how much cheaper they would have been on Amazon.
If I had bought those books online, I would have them delivered for free, and save £13.
But I have paid for convenience of browsing, choosing the book from the bookshelf and weighing it in my hand before buying.
I also bought 3 novels, sadly not a business expense.
In one day, I have been badly disappointing by in-store experience and chosen online shop instead and chose the convenience of the bookstore to satisfy the impulse.
People think that impulse purchases don’t amount to much.
Well, an oven, a complete autumn wardrobe for the 2 year old, 4 business books and 3 novels. That’s my impulse purchase for today. That’s 2 weeks salary from the job I held 5 years ago, too, to put in the perspective, and it wasn’t even that badly paid job.
Amazon empire was built on impulse purchase: others also bought this and this prompt, in case you are wondering, caters to exactly that – impulse purchase.
The thing is, while you are absolutely adamant no one would pay more for the same thing – you are losing your customers to competitor, who offers greater convenience or better experience.
It’s almost never about the price, but about the value. People willingly pay for convenience (even borderline obsessive price sensitive customers like me, who just had to check how much they have blown by not being patient enough to order thing online.)