The Effects of "Call for Pricing" Pricing Structures

[bcarp88]

I have a wholesaler who sells great products but they have an internet pricing policy that states we cannot show prices online and that we must have a "call for pricing" or "request a quote/price" button instead because retailers are losing sales due to lower prices online from other retailers.

I know, I know.. They are out of their mind. I have already told them that they should have online MAP pricing requirements to protect their retailers but they refuse to even set an MSRP! I've been looking for some articles to show the statistics of customers lost from not having a price on your site.

Does anyone have any information or suggested links on this topic? and the final question is if I was to remove the prices from my website, would that in turn affect my rankings?

[NakulGoyal]

I worked on a B2B with a similar problem sometime back. The business decided to implement a Request for Quote system. And there was no impact on the rankings.

[Boodreaux]

Big companies hire computer savvy guys to run scripts and  to take pricing from thousands of products from hundreds of competitors so they can undercut them or at least be competitive with them and use their strong brand name.  This might be one of the reasons for this practice.

[bcarp88]

Yes, but in our industry we have a set MAP Pricing policy with all other product suppliers which sets a legal limit on online pricing, normally about 20% below MSRP.

I personally will not call for pricing on most products. I assume it means that the price is too high. I can't imagine how many other people feel the same way and how many customers they're/we're losing from it.

[bcarp88]

That's good to know but did it affect sales? It seems that less people are likely to call than are to just go ahead and check out.

[NakulGoyal]

I am sure they did, but we were never able to have a read on it because price data was never added to the site. We just started measuring the Call to Action / Conversion as a successful RFQ or a visit to the contact page from these product level pages.

[Everett]

I would imagine it would affect sales. There's probably no way around that. If they do this make sure call tracking is implemented so they can see what it does to their conversion rates.

As for rankings, Nakul Goyal gave the best answer so far with a first-hand account. He said they didn't change. But I would also imagine that you'd lose some sales from other channels that you can no longer participate in without pricing, such as Google Shopping, Amazon, and price-based comparison shopping engines.

There are other ways to block people from scraping your site for pricing besides requiring customers to call, so I wouldn't say that issue justifies this strategy on its own.

Good luck!

Everett

[PatrickGriffith]

Personally, if I can't find a price I hit the back button.  This applies both to things I'm ready to buy right away and to things where a consultation is needed.  For example, when searching for a company to do an animated explainer video for my site I only requested official quotes from companies that listed rough pricing estimates.  And I only submitted my contact information to companies that didn't request a phone number.  I have a fear of getting endless high-pressure sales calls.

Does my mentality apply to other people as well?  I don't have stats on it, but probably, at least to people around my age (24).  I want to do things when I want to do them.  Usually that's at 3am. I don't want to call and leave a message and have somebody call me back at 8am when I'm sleeping.  If I've made up my mind to buy something and I'm not allowed to buy it (reminds me of Apple forcing you to wait in line even if you already know what you want) I'll move on to the next vendor.  If I need to get a quote, I want to do so by filling out a form.  I'm also fairly introverted, and would rather not talk on the phone unless I'm in the mood to do so.

Additionally, when I have to call for a price I feel like it's going to be like buying a car.  I don't feel like wasting my energy and emotions in a bartering process.  I don't feel like being judged for how much I can probably afford and being charged accordingly.

Sorry I don't have any numbers, but that's my gut feeling.