|
|
|  |
Thursday, 13th May 2010, 10:04AM
BigOffers.co.uk Pricing Thread
Hi everyone, as you know I am heading up BigOffers.co.uk and we`ve recently changed the pricing structure to make the site more relevant and appeal more to our current user-base. From looking at a couple of threads on the forum here I see that some people want it to change and aren`t happy.
So this thread is all about feedback on the pricing so we can get it right for everyone, because at the end of the day if we`re going to do it we might as well do it properly!
So over to you, what changes/suggestions do you have?
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Friday, 14th May 2010, 12:34AM
My biggest issue is the £4.99 postage even if you order a low value item. There`s an item I have my eye on but only one item so the postage almost triples the price of it. I`d rather pay fair postage for what I want rather than the flat Bofferesque payment. I know the site is designed to encourage traders but remember the saying: `Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves`. 
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Friday, 14th May 2010, 09:03AM
amcdermo wrote:
| My biggest issue is the £4.99 postage even if you order a low value item. There`s an item I have my eye on but only one item so the postage almost triples the price of it. I`d rather pay fair postage for what I want rather than the flat Bofferesque payment. I know the site is designed to encourage traders but remember the saying: `Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves`. |
Thanks - we`re looking at postage changes at the moment, moving towards a multi-pricing structure from free postage, depending on order quantities etc.
What is the value of the product and what would you expect to pay p&p out of interest?
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Friday, 14th May 2010, 12:19PM
Iwould like it if you didn`t have spend a mininum of £10. I often see something i would like but then have to buy something i didn`t want to make it up.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Friday, 14th May 2010, 12:25PM
angela76 wrote:
| Iwould like it if you didn`t have spend a mininum of £10. I often see something i would like but then have to buy something i didn`t want to make it up. |
£10 minimum spend has now been removed
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Friday, 14th May 2010, 04:46PM
Tommy wrote:
|
£10 minimum spend has now been removed |
A great move. 
The item I was interested in costs £3. Maybe I`m spoiled by free postage at all the other sites I shop at but I wouldn`t want to pay more than a couple of pounds for postage on a £3 item. There`s some items like the stickers at 7p that cost £4.99 for postage. It eats up the savings. Postage should be tiered so something as light as stickers would be ~50p to post. (It`s only a envelope+stamp). A computer though could be £10 to post since that`d be a courier. If it was like this I`d likely order a lot more as I`m not a trader so I`d order things as and when I`d need them. You wouldn`t get the same large orders but it`d add up over time.
A `super saver` delivery option would be good. I don`t mind waiting longer for a lower postage cost.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Friday, 14th May 2010, 05:46PM
amcdermo wrote:
| A great move.
The item I was interested in costs £3. Maybe I`m spoiled by free postage at all the other sites I shop at but I wouldn`t want to pay more than a couple of pounds for postage on a £3 item. There`s some items like the stickers at 7p that cost £4.99 for postage. It eats up the savings. Postage should be tiered so something as light as stickers would be ~50p to post. (It`s only a envelope+stamp). A computer though could be £10 to post since that`d be a courier. If it was like this I`d likely order a lot more as I`m not a trader so I`d order things as and when I`d need them. You wouldn`t get the same large orders but it`d add up over time.
A `super saver` delivery option would be good. I don`t mind waiting longer for a lower postage cost. |
this would make me even more interested as the £4.99 postage often makes it no cheaper
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Friday, 14th May 2010, 06:03PM
Thanks for the comments - will have a look at making changes to the p&p in the near future
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Friday, 14th May 2010, 09:46PM
Hi
Now I know you cant please everyone but I like the flat postage charge. I think working out the individual weight for all BigOffer items and price accordingly would be an incredible waste of time and effort. The flat postage rate certainly encourages me to spend more, which after all is what you want surely ?
The thing that bothers me is the ever changing prices ! I may order something at £0.79 and order 2 or 3 as a sample. If I like them, I`ll come back to buy more and find out the price is now £1.50 ! If a price is a special offer, I would love to see something that says Introductory price until 30th May, or Half Price for this weekend only, or 15% off for this month..... I hate the not knowing from one week to the next what the price will do !
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Saturday, 15th May 2010, 12:32AM
benson69 wrote:
| Hi
Now I know you cant please everyone but I like the flat postage charge. I think working out the individual weight for all BigOffer items and price accordingly would be an incredible waste of time and effort. The flat postage rate certainly encourages me to spend more, which after all is what you want surely ?
The thing that bothers me is the ever changing prices ! I may order something at £0.79 and order 2 or 3 as a sample. If I like them, I`ll come back to buy more and find out the price is now £1.50 ! If a price is a special offer, I would love to see something that says Introductory price until 30th May, or Half Price for this weekend only, or 15% off for this month..... I hate the not knowing from one week to the next what the price will do ! |
There doesn`t need to be an individual postage price for every item just a series of realistic postage levels.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Saturday, 15th May 2010, 09:50PM
I thought once the trader section went live all I would have to worry about is where to store everything in the mean time and beating others to ordering items, but I haven`t placed one order yet. It`s been a disappointing start so far, nothing has changed quite simply and in the time that passed between when the trader accounts where first mentioned and when the trader section went live it appears things just went downhill on the site anyway and the prices slowly raised and orders slowed significantly as a result of the ever changing price structures.
The main thing which is obviously off putting on the site now, which I don`t understand how you need pointing out, is the hiked up prices, pointed out a few people, which are still random and higher than before. Whether they were cheaper from previous promotions, or whether it was cheaper last week, or from pre xmas, or from when bigoffers first launched - it doesn`t matter, the items were still cheaper from you at some point, so basically when the items are more expensive it feels like we`re being ripped off. There are examples of items on the site now that have all been cheaper, so unless you are only banking on new customers that haven`t seen the items available at a lower price before to make sales from, then surely the prices can`t continue to be experiemented with, it doesn`t only effect your margins, but it effects ours - that`s if we are to be traders. It effects us mostly if the prices suddenly get increased or decreased day by day so what you are creating is lot`s of different sellers selling items at different levels and in addition to this you are also selling items by bulk on ebay, it`s out of hand! Some clarity and consistency is definitely needed - the better the service we receive then the better service we can offer to our potential customers... which will hopefully lead to a long and successful supplier/trader relationship, which will mean more orders of bigger bulk and higher quantities in the long run, meaning you shift items and clear the warehouse quicker, which was the point after all, right?
When placing an order, before committing to buy I have now learnt on bigoffers to always compare my invoice receipt to previous orders, checking the prices against my last prices for any items which I have purchased at a lower rate, and if I find any then I remove them from my order - but recently when doing this I have been left with very few items left to order, and certainly not enough to justify placing an order in the end. If the price levels were just kept consistent then I`d have placed a lot more orders, and I`m sure others would have too.
If there were more of the items available at the lower rate I`ve bought them at before all at the same time then I would be placing huge orders and more frequently, but at the moment I`m being limited on what I order, when I order it and how many of them I can order and even then I never have full confidence that my order will arrive complete or that I have got the best deal possible either.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Saturday, 15th May 2010, 10:09PM
Don`t think I was being too clear there, but my main disappointment over the trader section changes is the fact that nothing has really changed other than the format of how they are being displayed to us; orders are still limited by quantity on specific items, the two-tiered price difference is minimal, meaning that unless there`s going to be further discount codes released then there isn`t a great deal of profit or difference in not being a trader and the actual price difference is due to the normal prices rising compared to previous prices, rather than lowering the trade prices to become better value than before. There is no incentive to purchase in bulk or place larger orders than before, it isn`t even possible to build up an inventory of some of the more profitable items due to being limited in quantity whenever they go on promotion. It also appears that when some items are lowered in price to attract an order then in return to balance this out other items across the site are increased in price, meaning it`s impossible to ever place an order of ALL the items that are of interest at any one time.
Here are my suggestions-
1. Consistent prices that don`t go up, down, on promotion, up at a higher cost, on promotion at a different price than before etc, etc - or at least some kind of warning over when to expect price changes or how long they`ll last for. Due to disappointing previous orders, I too like to trial items before committing to a larger order, which just isn`t possible when prices are changing all the time, I have previously received incorrect items, items not as described, short orders, orders cancelled due to low stock or the website not updating that it was out of stock etc, so you can excuse the pessimistic approach and having to trial out the items condition before ordering in bulk. So a bit of consistency in the pricing levels is definitely needed, in addition to some time to make a return purchase before the lower price levels get changed again or some warning/idea of how long pricing levels will last either way.
When I`ve made a purchase of an item at one price and tested it to ensure I`m happy etc and then return to make a purchase of a higher volume of that item then I don`t expect to see that it has risen in price within days of my last order. I need a supplier that is consistent and trustworthy so that I can forecast some kind of long term plan at least. Likewise, even when a price seems attractive it feels too risky to commit to a bulk purchase just in case it gets reduced once again or there is a promotion, meaning it suddenly becomes available to everyone at an even cheaper rate, rendering the initial purchase worthless, as everyone can afford to sell at a lower price and make the same profit as you.
2. Stock level indicators are needed for obvious reasons, can tell if a favoured item is coming to the end of the line and when to stock up, and know whether it`s best to place an order sooner rather than later. Likewise to be able to order items on the page by price, discount, most recently added to website etc would also be handy.
3. Due to the current prices not improving since the website update, or more importantly the difference between the 2 prices for each item being so minimal, there needs to either be more incentive to purchase in bulk by the use of discount codes such as 25% extra off X spend etc, or pricing levels on the specific items to make it more worthwhile to purchase more, so that you can get lower prices and further discounts per item (an increase in % discount) for purchasing in bulk, OR you need to at least offer the items at the same lower prices they have been offered previously, as the customer doesn`t forget.
Currently the price levels have not improved greatly and the price difference on some items is nothing, what has happened is the standard price has increased so that it appears the trader price is better value, but in some cases it is nothing anyway and the majority of items have been available at a lower price previously.
If items have to be locked to 1 item per order when on promotion, then there needs to be an incentive to place lots of orders such as free postage, even if you placed 2 orders a day for a week ((which is way too much effort by the time they are actually dispatched and delivered based on the return you get) then you would only have 14 items to sell on, this would cost you £70 just in postage the way it is currently set up. My point is at the moment some items are limited to 1 per order when on promotion, and are usually only worth purchasing when at the lower promotion price, making it very hard to try and build an inventory of that item, so how can you offer them as trade items or have separate pricing structures when you aren`t allowing the trader the control over the quanitity of their orders, which in turn means managing the supply and demand is not possible. Also, due to the prices changing around so much, it`s impossible to ever come back and make a return purchase in order to build up an inventory of items as ALL the items wanted are never available at the same low price at the same time. It`s so unpredictable and inconsistent!
Postage - I`m personally happy with the fixed postage price AS LONG as my order quantities aren`t being limited to just 1 of some items per order, whether they are on promotion or not. AND as long as the promotions aren`t set up in such a way that all the other items on the site that are normally worth buying suddenly get more expensive in order to balance out the cheaper promotion prices. Limited quantities on orders are currently applied to the few items that are actually discounted enough at any one time to make it worthwhile buying, which forces me to put other items in my basket which I don`t want, but have to add to my basket in order to make the shipping costs worthwhile (which has unfortunately now become my main concern on the site in recent times when placing an order due to placing smaller orders than before) which usually leads to me not placing an order at all once I`ve then gone on to compare all the prices of the items in my basket compared to previous invoice prices for the same items.
I know I`ve mentioned a lot of points here and repeated myself, but there are a lot of areas where improvements could/should have been made. I appreciate you giving us the opportunity to highlight the areas which we feel need addressing and I hope I`ll return to make a purchase in the near future. Regards
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Monday, 17th May 2010, 10:20AM
Thanks for the detailed reply and suggestions, in summary then ways for improvement...
1. consistency in pricing & promotions
2. stock levels on product listings
3. a pricing that gives discount based on quantity
4. incentive postage based on order
Any other thoughts to add in here?
Appreciate all your feedback
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Thursday, 10th June 2010, 08:18AM
The postage costs do not bother me as I usually buy in bulk so £4.99 a delivery is Good... (Even though the occasional 99p delivery emails that we used to get once a month of Lauren seem to have dissapeared).
My annoyance is with the recent price hikes... for a company that was targeting the trader, some of the items I used to buy for my online electronics / computer shop have gone up from 59p to £4.. or from 30p to 99p, or 9p to 59p it may not sound like a lot but at times it makes buying from you totaly unviable as people who could afford to stock up at the lower price a few weeks ago are selling your products on the likes of ebay at a cheaper price than you are now selling them to the traders... once you list an item at a certain price it should be left there till you run out, not sold cheap to get people interested, then as soon as they start selling put the price up, thats one way to quickly loose your customers as it looks greedy......
The other annoyance is with the trader prices which we were prommised would be cheaper than what the prices were at the first instance, you only invited 200 people to join as traders... what happened to that... it seems that every single member (not just the sleceted 200) is now classed as a trader as soon as they log in (and unless you are paying by paypal you have to log in to make a purchase)... All you have done in effect is increase the prices across the board and started showing 2 prices to give the false effect to NEW customers that by registering you are getting a cheaper deal, when infact they are not as everyone using the site is in effect getting the trader price and only them using paypal without logging in which will be a very very small percent are paying the full price..... and now on top of that nearly all of the new items you list are the same price for both standard and trade...????
Changes need to be made back to the old pricing structure / bankrupt stock prices before you start loosing a lot of your long standing customers, (the customers who have been faithfull to you since the site opened and will probably make up about 80% of your business...)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Thursday, 10th June 2010, 07:57PM
TheCaptain wrote:
| The postage costs do not bother me as I usually buy in bulk so £4.99 a delivery is Good... (Even though the occasional 99p delivery emails that we used to get once a month of Lauren seem to have dissapeared).
My annoyance is with the recent price hikes... for a company that was targeting the trader, some of the items I used to buy for my online electronics / computer shop have gone up from 59p to £4.. or from 30p to 99p, or 9p to 59p it may not sound like a lot but at times it makes buying from you totaly unviable as people who could afford to stock up at the lower price a few weeks ago are selling your products on the likes of ebay at a cheaper price than you are now selling them to the traders... once you list an item at a certain price it should be left there till you run out, not sold cheap to get people interested, then as soon as they start selling put the price up, thats one way to quickly loose your customers as it looks greedy......
The other annoyance is with the trader prices which we were prommised would be cheaper than what the prices were at the first instance, you only invited 200 people to join as traders... what happened to that... it seems that every single member (not just the sleceted 200) is now classed as a trader as soon as they log in (and unless you are paying by paypal you have to log in to make a purchase)... All you have done in effect is increase the prices across the board and started showing 2 prices to give the false effect to NEW customers that by registering you are getting a cheaper deal, when infact they are not as everyone using the site is in effect getting the trader price and only them using paypal without logging in which will be a very very small percent are paying the full price..... and now on top of that nearly all of the new items you list are the same price for both standard and trade...????
Changes need to be made back to the old pricing structure / bankrupt stock prices before you start loosing a lot of your long standing customers, (the customers who have been faithfull to you since the site opened and will probably make up about 80% of your business...) |
Totally agree with you.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Thursday, 17th June 2010, 07:29PM
I see you have listed some bluetooth dongles.. at £1.99... just a quick heads up on the price you have listed them at... you can buy these from china for 85p (which I think is where you got these as the description on the chinese site is exactly the same wording as yours..)
Poundland were selling these for , yep you have guessed it, £1 last week, and people are already selling these on eBay for £1.65 - £1.85 delivered... so no one, especially a trader, is going to buy them off you for £1.99.. and no individual buyer is going to buy just 1 and pay £4.99 delivery for it...
Sorry...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Sunday, 20th June 2010, 04:43PM
I see you have changed the priceing sructure again..... and used the new web site as an excuse for another price rise and to take the ”Traders price totally away on nearly all the items...
The only stuff you have with lower prices is for buying in quantity... but only on certain items, none of the popular items seem to have quatitiy discounts available...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Tuesday, 22nd June 2010, 11:24PM
England vuvuzelas in the Honesty box.
RRP £1.99
so you offer 1p for it but P&P is £2.99
so you pay £3 for a £1.99 item?
errrr am i missing something?
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Tuesday, 22nd June 2010, 11:58PM
ladydoe wrote:
| England vuvuzelas in the Honesty box.
RRP £1.99
so you offer 1p for it but P&P is £2.99
so you pay £3 for a £1.99 item?
errrr am i missing something? |
Exactly... even better is the video tape, they were only 19p to start with as they left the price in the description 
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Wednesday, 23rd June 2010, 12:00AM
ladydoe wrote:
| England vuvuzelas in the Honesty box.
RRP £1.99
so you offer 1p for it but P&P is £2.99
so you pay £3 for a £1.99 item?
errrr am i missing something? |
Cheaper than buying it at £1.99 and then paying another £2.99 on top to get it delivered I guess.
__________________
revenge is a sweet as a kestrel stuffed with 53 fruit pastels.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Wednesday, 23rd June 2010, 12:08AM
Argos has them at £1.50 if you can find stock.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Wednesday, 23rd June 2010, 12:15AM
ladydoe wrote:
| England vuvuzelas in the Honesty box.
RRP £1.99
so you offer 1p for it but P&P is £2.99
so you pay £3 for a £1.99 item?
errrr am i missing something? |
The price is £3 only if you order a single honesty box item *and nothing else*
On BigOffers, the postage charge is one charge per order, not per item.
So if you`re ordering several other things, you pay the £2.99 once for the whole order... and you can choose to add on the honesty box items for 1p each if you want.
__________________
I am the light in the dark, I am the match, I am the spark
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
