is the Net becoming a flee market?

[sloanjim]

Hi,

I am shocked sometimes to see what people consider "high ticket items" Software going for say $99 and people are like"

Wow man....that's a lot of moola. I'd better think long and hard before I buy it"

$99 is a lot of money? OK I am not saying throw $99 away on anything but if it does as it says has amoney back guarantee and is not run by a scammer e.t.c. I can't see how $99 or $49 is a lot of money.

I just had to pay my accountant $1,000 for what I guess was about 2 hours "work"

I needed a small job doing in my house by a tradesman cost me $500 Time.. 1 hour 40 minutes. Not bad

Dentist.......LOL just spent $500 on some work I neede doing.

Went to the movies yesterday with my wife and all in it cost me about $48. Tickets, drinks, parking etc.. (watch Sherlock holmes..loved it)

My point is we will spend $4 on a cup of coffee at Starbucks. $80 on a pair of jeans but when it come sto buying a product on the Net....all of a sudden $99 is a lot money.

I knew someone who had to see a work tribunal lawyer in London. His fee? £500 per hour...about $800 per hour! I nearly chocked. That to me IS HIGH PRICED....yet he obviously doesn't think so and gets business. Again his market is wealthy, high earning, not surfing facebook/ forums all day long.

Imagine if he was on the Net trying to sell ebooks on his legal advice/services. $49...100% money back guarantee...and then you would still get people saying "wow...$49..that's a lot of money I'd better see if I can get it cheaper first"

So....is the Net a bit of a flee market? I know high ticket items can be sold by the right person to the right marekt but generally all I see is low priced info and software as the main seller. Someone once told me if you want to sell big on the Net price your products less than $50. Anything above $50 needs a lot more "work" to get the sale. $50.... ?

It's starting to look like a flee market to me. Any thoughts?

[thehypnoman]

I can see your point, however I have had better results with some $7 products than high ticket ones.

[Tasso Pepi]

Great post man...

Gee when you do the comparisions with other fields of expertise you soon realise how under priced some of the high value products can be...

I think that when you look at IM and see the amount of education and money a lot of people put into there IM career you soon realise that it is like a degree in itself..

You probably will spen $1000's of dollars on internet marketing education over the years educating yourself and when you develop a product of high quality and knowledge, people think tht $47,$97 is too much...

I agree I think the net is becoming a bit underpriced and undervalued in certain ways...

Good post..

Take Care.

Tas

[ArticlePrince]

Ha it's probably because people know they won't use what they buy on the net (95% of the time)

[TheNightOwl]

Originally Posted by sloanjim

It's starting to look like a flee market to me. Any thoughts?

I agree. Everyone's running hysterically, throwing small children behind them.

[Dave d]

I agree with you. The issue is that more and more people are coming online and more people are becoming more internet savy. This has resulted in competition becoming more fierce and cut throat.

There was a time when ebay was easy and still is with a bit of out of the box thinking but ebay buyers have become savages over the past few years.

[mithil]

But I don't see any harm in it. As long as it is safe and secure one should have no problem doing purchase or sell online.

[NK]

You have to realize that while $99 can be considered a small amount by some people, it could also mean a whole month's salary working 10-12 hours a day to others.

People are more willing to fork out $80 for a pair of jeans because they get instant gratification. They spend money on the jeans expecting to be able to wear it right away. They like it, they pay for it, they get it. It's physical, it's there, it can be shown off.

When it comes to investing in their own business, however, they become scrooges. People who hesitate in making such investments are usually:

1. Those who do not believe that they can actually make money online
2. Those who do have just started off and do not have much capital
3. Those who are clear in their goals and knows what are their needs and donts

Unfortunately, only a minority are in the 3rd group (which is really where we all really need to be). Depending on your situation, you may find that you don't want to spend money on something you don't really believe in or you do believe in it, but you just don't have the money to fork over.

Again, $1 may be peanuts to some, but it could be a whole lot of money to others.

But I believe it all boils down to the actual offer. If you have a really compelling and irresistable offer that does exactly what it claims to do, it's very likely that people will still buy from you regardless of their situation.

[Heuristic]

One area where I think we do pretty good is the price of e-books. The average diet, acne, 6-pack abs, get your ex back ebook over at Clickbank is 60-100 pages.

They sell for around $39 dollars.

And once it's created, there are no publishing or distribution costs - unlike a physical book selling at Amazon.

And that book at Amazon would have to be a top-notch hardcover with a lot more than 100 pages to sell for $39.

I suppose people are willing to pay a higher price for an ebook if the sales letter can convince them that they'll receive information that isn't available anywhere else.

But, yeah, I agree there are many things selling online that should have a higher price. The problem is that anyone can come in and drastically undercut the other guy because there are no production costs once the item is created. Before you know it, everyone is doing the same and the product's value plunges. It's not like they have to buy it wholesale and try to sell for a profit.

I guess the solution is to stay ahead of the curve and keep selling unique products that people can't get anywhere else.

Steve

[MichaelHiles]

Huh? $99 is high ticket for software?

Last time I checked, Adobe Create suite was over $1000.

[Letterman]

Yes. The WWW is many things and a fleamarket is just as valid as any financial, medical, political, ecological, or other analogy you would care to paint.

The dentist, accountant, tax consultant & the tradesman you mention all provide professional services & represent to some extent a known quantity. Adobe is a premiere software provider that is known to produce quality products which are supported & upgraded. The expense for purchase/use of any of these is usually justified.

Everybody wants something that delivers as advertised. The $500.oo per hour blueprint that can't miss; does miss. Chances are that the software launch you just saw promoted on a You Tube infomercial is probably worth much less than the limited time special price offer they made.

Could one reason some may refer to $49-$99 range software as high priced be because that what they really mean to convey is that it is probably over priced and/or over valued?

Take your Hype-O-Meter for a spin & investigate some offers just for fun.
Find out Which Mega-Offer is going to explode like a cash bomb in your mailbox today!

[jazbo]

It is all relative and in the eye of the beholder.

My friends father recently moaned to me at being "ripped off" by a company who charged him £1000 for a website (it was not a rip off, he just did not perceive its value well enough), then a week later his son told me how his dad had taken 8 of the family to see Cirque du Soleil at the Royal Albert hall in London for £80 a ticket.

It's all about what is important to you.

[digigo]

the problem is the medium itself.. it is almost impossible to sell sophisticated high priced product over the internet.. very difficult to communicate without face to face conversation...

I help my customers sell cars over the internet.. is it high priced enough? that is tangible products you can see.. but for legal service.. there is no substitute for legal consultation.. not $50 DIY ebook.... keep that in mind.

lawyers and plumbers can charge that much because the complexity of the job and the training it takes to be good at what they do... so yes.. $99 ebook or any information product is a big ticket item.. it is not like you are selling a secret formula.. or nuke blue print...

[Matt Maiden]

One reason the prices keep coming down on the Internet is the desperation that comes about when they don't make sales.

They are probably not making sales for a number of reasons like bad copy, wrong traffic, not matching the offer to the market...but the inexperienced marketers automatically think it must be the price. Therefore, they start dropping it.

Now the experienced marketers that know better find themselves in a "price war".
Add the "recession" and you get desperate marketing.

On top of that, you have everyone trained to believe that everything on the Internet is supposed to be cheaper.

Look at the television ads for hotels, eBay, and similar. So people offline that see a big price tag at their local store immediately run online and look for the cheap price.

[DogScout]

Take the same software, price it at $1099 and it would probably sell better

[DogScout]

Originally Posted by digigo

it is not like you are selling a secret formula.. or nuke blue print...

Nuke blueprints are free at the library

[Michael Oksa]

Rather see it be a "flea" market than a "flee" market!



~M~

[duncanb]

In this case perhaps the value of the software is not being communicated strongly enough to the prospect buyer.

People buy a pair of jeans for $60 and they know exactly what they are getting in terms of quality, but in fairness you just don't know what you are getting on the net!

[Dennis Gaskill]

I'm not disagreeing with the premise of your post, there is some validity to your observation, but you're comparing apples to oranges with your analogies. A dentist performs her work once, a carpenter performs his work once, and while you perform your work once in creating a product, you can sell your product over and over while the dentist and carpenter can only sell the work they performed once. If they want to make another sale they have to produce more work.

[Taylor French]

$99 is a lot to me these days. Before the economy got so bad it wouldn't have been that much, but these days I think long and hard before spending $9, much less $99!

[fraktal]

You also can't really compare a service to a product. A top notch programmer or consultant in the USA will cost as most as a lawyer or other professional.

I think anything that can be mass produced (ie. software) can eventually become a commodity. Walk into any dollar store and see how far a dollar can go these days.

[neodarth]

If I were the one who is selling the product (ebook, software, trainning course, what-ever-you-are-selling), of course I would try to charge for all the knowledge, the effort, and the time I put on it, but the people who buy doesn't care about it, the only thing that is important for them is "how much this is gonna cost me? and what else you gonna give me if I buy from you".

The market is full of products every one claims to be the best of his kind. Some are undervalued and other are way too much overvalued.

I work with resell rights products and I see how some of my products that I sell for $97 in other sites are selling for $0,99. How unfair is that?