Tips I have learnt from restaurants:
1. They don’t use dollar signs.
I’m sure all of you foodies have noticed how the top end restaurants tend to round costs and remove dollar signs. There’s a very good reason for this.
Studies have found that removing $ symbol and even the word dollar make people spend more money.
How should I display my prices on my website?
For most of our businesses it’s hard to not show a dollar sign when mentioning prices. It’s okay for restaurants but it might not apply to a plumber. However, the underlying principal still applies.
It might be a matter of shrinking the $ and enlarging the 90.00, putting it in bold.
2. Using cents.
Other studies have shown that adding .99 to a price shows value but not quality.
In comparison, adding .95 tends to feel “friendlier” and rounded prices feel very “clean”.
3. Descriptions.
The University of Illinois has discovered that products with short well written descriptions increase sales by 27%.
Leveraging brand names in these descriptions also increases sales.
4. Connect food to family.
What a lot of restaurants do is they include words like Aunt or Grandma. The nostalgia effect kicks in and this pushes the customer to spend.
This might not apply to Uncle Bobs sink unclogger but there are ways where we can include family and homely terms to get customers thinking with emotion and the quality of your product rather than thinking about price alone.
5. Expensive products.
They use expensive products to push you to a “fair” priced product.
Restaurants will often display a dish that’s twice the average price of their menu and this makes the rest of the menu look like a bargain.
6. Offer two sizes
From the book “The myth of fair value”: Bracketing is a trick restaurants use to mark up their prices. For example, offering a small dish for $15 and a large dish for $30 most people would probably pick the small dish. As customers have no idea of the actual portion size they tend to pick the smaller option feeling it offers better value.
7. They use our reading patterns
Restaurants know that we read left to right and top down so, they tend to put a higher priced product near the top and quite often on the right column. They know that if we see a expensive product first the rest will seem fairer in price
8. Limiting your choices.
Creating try all samplers or packages removes the decision making process. This tends to help the people that get confused or stuck with making a choice.
9. Set the mood.
Restaurants use music effectively to increase sales. Service and décor all play a role. Likewise, the images and web design play a similar role as it needs to match your clientèle.
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