I have just a very simple question for the community. How does pricing affect you? Do you wish to pay more?

The reason why I ended up asking this question is, some experience I had overtime with my own sales and looking at sales of others. For example when i price a product over 13-14 dollars people tend to buy more, however when I price a same quality product under 10 dollars, it really surprises me but people some how think too much before buying.

1. Shall I try to stop thinking that I should try giving a better service for cheap price and take everything up to 20-30 dollars?

2. What does price mean to you?

3 )Do you feel scared for buying something priced cheap?

1. Does high pricing impress you to buy it because it looks big money?

I think this is the right place to ask this question. After all there is no product advertisement made. I am simply trying to learn and understand what you guys think.

Best regards,
Umut.

Message edited on: 01/16/2005 07:16

Generally, I buy what I like. Price affects my decision to a certain degree - I'd think very hard about buying at V3 character for $20 when I could buy 2 or 3 for the same money. Since I joined this community a couple of years ago, I've noticed a drastic reduction in pricing, probably due to the enormous amount of competition there is now. Even those merchants I would class as the 'creme de la creme' are only charging between $8 - $15 for a complete character set. In short, a cheap (or expensive) price-tag won't persuade me to buy anything. As I said, the product itself must have that "Wow - Buy Me!" factor when I see it in the MP or I'm just not interested.

Price is not an issue to me when I know the merchant and the quality of the product that I am getting. If it is something that I really want and must have I pay the price, I do however try to not to spend more than $20.00 on one product, but if it is something I really want I will buy it regardless of the price. The highs or lows of a product to me would depend highly on the merchant, just because a product is low in price does not always mean it is low in quality, the same goes for a higher priced product. It is kinda of like the saying bigger is not always better, it is just bigger.

Price does matter to me. I buy quite a few products and I'm trying to keep a lid on in the spending that I do on virtual products. That doesn't mean I won't spend $20 or $30 on a product if I really like it, but I won't buy it on impulse. I generally put these types of products in my wishlist and think about it for awhile. If your product is higher priced and someone else has a similar product of equal quality for a lower product, I'm going for the lower priced one, and I don't think I'm that different from other people in that. The best texture for the Daz MFD that I ever bought cost $2.50, and I have several textures for that dress that cost $20 a pop. That taught me a lesson. Price depends on your competition; if you know that a good-quality merchant is pricing much lower than you, you might want to take that into consideration. But, hey, if you can sell it for a higher price and the quantity of your sales doesn't suffer, go for it. You're a merchant. Certainly, no one is going to think any less of you for getting the most profit possible. In the end, the quality of the product is what is going to influence sales. Just my 2 cents worth.

Pricing does affect on whether or not I buy it. But, again, it depends on what is included and (like the other posters) whether or not it says "wow!" to me.
What can I use this for? Can I use it for more than one piece of art? Is it needed for the type of art I do? What additionals are available for this item? Can I morph what I already have and come up with something similiar? Can I create this myself?
Once I come up with all the questions, I then take a look at the price. If it's above $20, I place it in my wishlist and wait for a sale. Under $12, I'll snag it. The inbetween pricing, I do nothing (unless it's a sale item), just keep browsing. Odd practice, but how else can I budget myself?

What should you do, in my opinion? If you see it necessary to up your pricing, do it. When I come across your item and it looks yummy to have, more than likely, it's going in my wishlist and not my cart. I'm worst than a woman... if that high-priced tag for those new pair of pumps isn't reduced more than 30%, I won't snag it. But... having that higher price comparitable to the sale item makes it look like a steal, unlike having it already priced at the low-end. Weird marketing idea, but it works. If you raise your already priced $8 item to $20, and two months down the road have it on sale for $10, what have you lost? Nothing. In reality, you still made a $2 profit because it was initially set at $8, but I would buy it at $10 simply because it is half off the upped price.
Marketing... gotta love it.

I timed out on the edit, so I'll add it as an additional reply. Sorry for taking up so much space, just wanting to help you out:

EDIT=additional information When it comes to having a new item posted, set the initial high, but have it on sale for a month. You will get more sales in that first month because people have something to compare the sale price to. This will also allow you to see if this item is profitable, and you may see how pricing effects people's buying habits.
Or, set a high initial pricing in one market for the new item with a sale price, and sell it also at another market at the intial price set at the sale price (but not on sale) and see what occurs. You will more than likely (based on statistics) get more purchases on the sale price than the same item with the initial price set at that same sale price. If you have ever worked for either a retail or grocery store, they use this same method.

I work for a Fortune 500 company (intimate apparel division) and that's what we follow on new items. We market a new item at (let's say) Wal-mart with a low initial price. We also market this new item at (let's say) Goody's at a high initial price, but compromise a sale that is set just a few cents below Wal-mart's initial price which is not on sale. We find that Goody's sells more of that item, and after a few months, the item is discontinued from the Wal-mart stores. The purpose is to see the consumer's buying habits. If people continue to buy the item at the high initial pricing at the store that previously had the sale, we discontinue the item at the low-end store. But, if we see a profit being made at the low-end, we drop the high-end and up the price a percentage and sell it till we discontinue it after a few months to a couple years.end EDIT

It also matters WHAT it is. If it's say a prop there may be 3 others like it. And thats all. If it's a V3 skin, there are 500 of. THAT is the biggest consideration here. Competion is fine, but excessive competion lowers desirablilty.

If I don't like it or can't use it, I won't buy it, no matter how cheap it is. If it will be more trouble than it's worth, I might not even download it at zero cost. (I still haven't downloaded V3 and M3... but might if it will make clothing conversion easier... no other reason.) If I like it and want it and need it for an image, I'll find a way to buy it, no matter what the price. IIRC, I paid $80 for the original Zygote dragon, untextured. I don't need sex toys, bondage gear, or lace stockings with lines up the back (ho-hum), no matter how well crafted. I do need authentic props and clothing... but they damned well better be accurate before I'll pay top price. Saying that it is "Mayan" or "Chinese" doesn't make it so. It must be accurate in construction and proportion as well as texture. I'll also buy fantasy items if they are original or if I can use them in an original manner. I'm in the market for good animals (not high-priced disasters which need to be put of of their misery or something that I already have). In the real world, price often equals quality of contruction and scarcity of materials... and this affects how long an item will be usable. A well-made silk blouse or cashmere sweater will still be handsome 20 years later. In the virtual world, pricing is totally unrelated to anything except what the maker thinks he can get for his product after the brokerage fees and value of his time, etc., is determined. Another thing to consider... a texture or item of clothing for a human will only really be exploitable for a few months, and for the faddish characters less than that... except to a few hold-outs like me who avoid fads. A musical instrument, landscape feature, animal, boat won't be rushed by the masses, but should sell, and be appreciated, for years. Yes, the world is full of stupid people who see the word "sale" and think they are getting a bargain, so it must be good. But I suspect that computer artists have been exposed to so much hype that we might be a bit warier than the crowds in the mall. Carolly the Opinionated

Thanks for all the answers and great suggestions. It's just that latelu I have been trying to give a service for a little lower pricing than I usually did. My main idea was to get more people to be able to try my products for more reasonable pricing. However now I get complaints about questioning the quality of the product because of the low pricing. I think FuneralLaugh's method is a very clever way. I am very thankful for all the suggestions. I wish you all a wonderful day!!! Best regards, Umut.

I want to underscore a few things that some others have already said.

Yes, price is a factor, but it isn't the factor. The main factor tends to be -- as others have already stated -- what I like.

In addition to this, I think that the Poser market has tightened up. Top-tier character packages can now be had for under $15.00. Many such premium packages are selling for under $10.00.

For this reason, I am highly unlikely to spend $24.95 on a character. No matter how good it is. There are simply too many superb characters currently available at lesser prices.

So....to repeat myself: price is a factor, but it isn't the factor.

BTW -- I think that market forces are driving the current price structures. Under present conditions, anyone that throws a $30.00 character into the marketplace would be highly unlikely to see very many sales. If any. Unless if the character was something very, very exceptional.

I suspect that I know some of the reasons why V3 and M3 are being given away for free these days.

After reading through the thread, I'd like to add to my original post.

While FuneralLaugh made some good points, one comment in particular stood out:

If you raise your already priced $8 item to $20, and two months down the road have it on sale for $10, what have you lost? Nothing.

Actually, you'd have just lost ME as a customer both now and in the future.
I hate it when merchants change prices regularly, it smacks of desperation, not really knowing what they're doing, or pulling a fast-one.
If I'd seen an item for $8 go up to $20 and then put on sale for $10 a month later, it would irritate me enormously.
Regular sales are ok. We (as consumers) understand them and enjoy the 'getting a bargain' feeling. Any other messing around with prices is seen by me as not quite right.

One other point which I don't see raised but is all part & parcel of the selling/marketing concept, is the presentation of product pages.

While this may seem minor in comparison to the product itself, it IS important that the product is presented well. A badly-done product page can make a great item LOOK cheap, and obviously, vice-versa. If a page looks tacky or messy, I probably won't even bother to look at the product itself which may seem shallow, but in my case, true.

Message edited on: 01/17/2005 02:56

Dear Lilybelles, I think either I wasn't able to explain my self or you got me wrong. I never said anything about "ohh yes I should put my products to a higher price" I was trying to say that, instead of releasing products at a bottom price, releasing them 3-4 dollars higher but starting with a big introduction sale is a good idea. Ex: Instead of having the product at 9 dollars, starting with 12-13 dollars and having the first month with a 30% sale. Because once I set the product 9 dollars which hould actually be 12-13 dollars I can not put a huge sale and drop it to 6 dollars. People like buying things when they are on sale and when you price a 12-13 dollar product 9 dollars, they don't get the idea that the product is a bargain to buy. I hope that I have been able to explain my self. Best regards, Umut. PS: I think that you should know that I am not a money hungry merchant. I try to be very giving for this community. I always give gifts as much as I can and I never give out something which I see as a non worth selling item. PS2: I gave out a full clothing set for free with this months Renderosity news letter, do you know how many thank you messages I got? Only 1. Even that doesn;t put me off from giving out. So I guess you should already know that I am not a person who would raise the current pricing of my products.

Lilybelles--
I know you weren't attacking me, so I hope you don't think I'm doing the same:
Excuse me for using such an extreme pricing jump. It was only an example.
And, yes, you are right. He may lose customers if he used such a drastic pricing increase. Perhaps he should keep his already posted items alone (or put them on sale), but with upcoming items (only as an example, not saying that he will) the new pricing should take affect.
Either way (increasing new or old items), he may or may not lose valuable customers. But, if his items are hot, it may not matter. He may have some loyal patrons. If so, if I were him, I would advise his past patrons of such, and/or give them a voucher for their next purchase.

In the market (doesn't matter if it's selling bubble gum or cheese on a cracker), it's about making a profit. If he believes his time is worth such-n-such amount, I say let him. All successful businesses have done it and continue to do it.

...it smacks of desperation, not really knowing what they're doing, or pulling a fast-one...
True. But, if he contacts me, a past patron, I will be disappointed, yes, but understanding. He wants the profit. Who here wouldn't? I'm paying for his services. If I believe his items are hot and useful, I'll buy it from him. He explained it to me, he gave me a voucher for the inconveniance, I'm still a satisfied customer, simply because I love his stuff and appears to be an honest guy. And seeing that he came here for help on the situation shows this. If I was him, I would compare my work with others and see if up'ing the price would be a good idea; quality, quanity, complexity, and time-spent should all be taken into consideration.

And your comment on the presentation: strongly agree. I want information, I want renders (non post work), and I want variations of them. Most of all the products have the same layout. But, what bugs me most are the Promo Images. A dark image against a dark backdrop, highly post work done on all of them, selling a charater texture but cover the texture up with clothing... nuh-uh. I don't bother going any further to clicking the merchants name for more items from them. edit It appears, somehow, that UMUTOV beat me to posting a reply! And by reading it, I can see he is an honest person, and I'm sure he will be as loyal to his recent customers and they have been to him. Good luck, Umu.

Message edited on: 01/17/2005 04:13

A little thing which I would like to add is Lilybelles super comment about presenting products. I agree with you all the way. Products should be presented in a good way for good sales. However, I would never postwork a product render to make it look better than it is. Even with my V3 renders, it is a poser fire-fly renderer bug. What happens is when you use TEXTURE FILTERING it will create a distortion on the arms with what ever texture you use. I put my renders the way they are rendered. Go and have a look at the products in the marketplace. 50% of them are postworked from Monday to Friday. Anyways, this is a very important issue but it is out of the aim of this post. I would like to say thanks for all of the suggestions and the time you guys took for sharing ideas. Best regards, Umut.

FunerlLaugh and Umutov: I wasn't referring to any particular merchant in my second post. Umut wanted customer feedback and so I gave him my own personal opinion of MP selling policies IN GENERAL. I also agree with FL's addendum to his last post. I hope I didn't cause any offence - non was meant :) Have a happy (and profitable!) day everyone :) ali x

Thanks Lilybelles, I just though when you used the term "YOU LOST" I took it personally. Sorry for that but even if it was like that, after all it is a free world and everybody is allowed to have their own opinion. Jesus I sound like G.W.Bush. I am not going to say God Bless America as my last sentence. :) Best regards, Umut.

Hi Umut :) No, I was replying hyperthetically to FL's hypothetical comment which I quoted in the line above. God Bless America AND Umut :)

I'm mostly with hauksdottir on this one, but I just have to utter some more fancy words (please don't take this personal, this are just some general observations).

Money is not a factor in my buying decision (as long as a package is in the usual Poser price range, say from $5 to $35).

The following factors are much more critical:

First the bad:

• Poser products are different then food or clothing. You have to get food and clothing, but Poser products are optional. If I'm not in a buying mood no amount of price reduction or advertising will make me buy stuff.

• No package ever is a "must have", if a vendor or store puts me off I usually don't buy their products. For me all the "Renderosity exclusice" products have to overcome this additional hurdle.

• The first package I buy from a vendor is critical. If it is only so-so, then I usually don't buy from this vendor again.

• Hype and "In Your Face Advertising" put me off.

• I don't need a 27th caucasian female V3 texture (no amount of tattoos and eye colors will change this). There are too many nearly identical texures based on the same "merchant resources". And too often I put a texture in my wish list and 3 days later it is unavailable because of copyright issues. Oh bother!

• If the download size of a package is too big, then I reconsider if I want to burden myself with it. Simple props with ten times the polygons of the unimesh or 1024x1024 (highly pixelated) V3 eye texture maps are just pure bloat. My Runtime folders are too big already.

• If a texure artist can't be bothered to anitalias his promo images, I can't be bothered to buy his stuff. This is just plain bad craftsmanship.

Now the good:

• Some vendors (like BATLAB) update their products with adaptations for new figures. This means I get additional use for older stuff at no additional cost. I'm much more inclined to buy from those vendors.

• If a package meets the following two criterias, then I add it to my wish list:

1. I have a use for it (no girls with +3 Plastic Lips of Pouting for me).
2. The package has a high "Omph" factor. This means unique design and high quality. Sometimes I buy a package right away, but this happens only 2 or 3 times a year.

As a long time Poser-stuff-buyer I became very jaded, so there are some further restrictions:

• I'm not an impulse buyer anymore (in the past I brought too many packages, which just lie dormant on my hard disk because I never use them). So even if a package is in my wish list, it isn't a given that I buy it. Usually I let it simmer until I either need it or it goes on sale. If it goes on sale, I reevaluate the package, sometimes I buy it, sometimes I remove it from my wish list. So sales force my decision, but not always in favor of the product.

• In the long run it is cheaper not to buy not-yet-needed products on sales. If I need a product at a later time, then I might pay more for it, but very often someone else comes out with a better product and I get that instead.

As you can see I have many more reasons not to buy a product. Only if a package can sail around all of those obstacles, I am ready to consider it. But even so there is still enough quality stuff left, so I can spend about $200 a month on Poser products. ;)

Well there is no picky thing about the way you do shopping. It is the normal way of how to do shopping. I don;t think any merchant makes a product for making something bad. We as merchants really work hard for the products we make. Some of us are not good at making promo images and that is a totally different art. Or some of us dont postwork our promo images from Monday to Friday. Anyways, I think this post has been very good for all of us and once again thanks for your participation. Best regards, Umut.

Pricing does make a difference in HOW MUCH I'll buy at any one time. Like Angelfire, I'll put higher-priced products on my wishlist and think about it, make sure it's something I really want. Since I buy items to use in several scenarios - 1) product promos for my music products, and 2) my Poser comic projects - I also try to buy items that can provide many/repeated uses instead of just one. That having been said, even for one-time use, if it's something that is really killer, but at a high price (the RDL7 set from Sanctum Art comes to mind) then I'll spring for it if I know it will be used where it counts. Here's a situation from my offline purchases (if this helps): yesterday I visited the local Media Play. I stumbled upon a shelf of computer books for .99 cents each. Now, these are books normally costing $30-$50 each (.NET, ColdFusion programming, etc.). Since I'm a programmer, and always taking more programming classes, this was great. I walked out with 20 books for $20 + tax. I would never have done this at full price. Same here. Since I often need "quantity" of products for many of my projects, I try to buy the same way. I think a lot of folks will choose to buy more products at the same price as one product, depending on the situation and if they need/want it bad enough. Speaking as a merchant, I also think you should price products enough for you to make at least your money back, and then a profit. Try to keep the price fair, but charge what it's worth. I have no problem paying $15-$20 for a really good skin texture/character, but it needs to be done well. Hope this helps! --Donnie

I don't think that we have enough caucasian female character packages. Especially of the "supermodel" or of the "beauty queen" variety. We need to see a lot more of them.

I buy quite a few such packages. And based upon the listings in the marketplace, I suspect that the majority of other customers tend to buy a lot of them, too.

A word of advice to merchants --

Be mercenary. Make things that sell. Don't let yourselves be shamed into making things that might sell 5 copies -- on a good day.

What shame attaches to being original? As an example, in the computer games market, there are thousands of games which all look the same: fist on the bottom of the screen sporting a weapon with bloody splatters on the background. How many of those games sell? A handful. All that time and talent squandered on same-old same-old. Unless it is one of the top 3 names, it won't sell, and probably won't even get finished. If you make a look-alike game, you've wasted the investment because the customers won't even see it in the marketing hype for the next generation Doom or Quake. When a game costs a million dollars to build and 25 million to market, you know just how skewed the system is. Those people who managed to bring something new to market, over the hurdles of the producers, have established new franchises: SimCity, Myst, Civ. If those designers didn't have confidence, we would all be poorer for the lack of variety in the marketplace. I'm not interested in the same character packages which fill the galleries. In fact, seeing a costume/texture/background pack extensively hyped by the merchant's friends is such a turnoff that I avoid purchasing anything by any member of the group. Saturation is a real problem. BTW, if a merchant's ads jump, wiggle, and flicker, I will actively avoid him as a nuisance to humanity! If you are going to sell a temple, a sword, or a caucasian skin texture it had better be a WHOLE lot better than what is out there already. Not bloated. Better. I'm smart enough to know the difference. If you make something original, it doesn't have to be superb. Just good. Example... any horse brought into this market must be better than what we already have. Much better to justify a superior price tag. A badger or ferret or ermine would just need to be good. What shame would attach to being the person who FINALLY makes us a badger? Carolly

About saturation, you are 100% right. My best selling product is an original morph for V3 which no one has ever made before. So yes, in that are I had my own little monopoly. ABout doing the same things over and over again. I usually pack my Clothing sets with a character or 2 characters for V3. THe characters textures might not be very unique but the way how I see it is, you need a character to promote your clothing, so why noit give it out with the product? I don't see anything wrong with that. Back to saturation, in this marketplace any product can be sold. There is no standard set for minumum quality. So yes the MP is flooded with V3 skins. IT IS CRAZY. I don;t think that no one would be interested in another character set within a couple of months. So for me characters are nothing but what I give out with my clothing sets. Best regards, Umut. PS: Unless he character sets textures are something extremely good, they don;t mean anything. I think that is a better way of saying it.

I have to agree, to many caucasion V3 textures that all look the same, as in using the same texture set on all just morphing the face. In a way it's a good thing, keeps my spending down somewhat. I also agree with Carolly....more originalty PLEASE. We can only have so many temples/swords/lingerie/spiked-cloggy shoes. Real life/everyday type items are a joy to see and so are animals.

I am all for originality. Let's see lots more originality!

The more, the merrier. I have no objections whatsoever to the creation of new and different items. My hat's off to any merchant than can come up with something unique.

However, I would point out that simply being "unique" doesn't mean that the item will sell. An excellent new model of an aardvark would be a good thing: and I'm sure that the 5 or 6 people that would purchase a copy of the model would be very happy with it.

In the meantime, the un-original grist mill of those superior Victoria character creators will continue to churn out their un-original character packages. And they will continue to out-sell the aardvark's of the marketplace by wide margins.

Real life/everyday type items are a joy to see and so are animals.

Yes, I agree. Real life items are top of the list on my own purchasing priorities.

However, I am realistic enough to admit that 'toon characters and sci-fi/fantasy items often sell tons more copies than many of the "realistic" items ever do.

Likewise, an excellent V3 character will most likely sell far better than the best aardvark that anyone ever comes up with.

Have at it -- be original. Or be mundane and un-original.

Just be aware of the fact that certain types of items will consistently sell far more than others.

Shame only occurs when a merchant is persuaded to make things that won't sell -- just for the sake of fitting some sort of imposed template. PC or otherwise.

P.S. -- If certain character packages aren't selling, then compare them to the character packages that do.