Does Not listing the prices on my website hurt?

[rpaiva]

Hey Mozers,

I currently run a catalog type website and there are no prices listed.  Would you happen to have an article of some sort that could back up why not listing prices is bad?

I'm trying to express the importance of listing prices on the website.

Can anyone help,  The more articles the better!

[JVRudnick]

without a price, how can I determine if you are making the best offer...this IMHO is so important for commodity products...

[DonnaDuncan]

Agree,

Use your own client's data to support this theory.

• Compare his or her site data to industry average conversion and bounce rates.
• Survey the site's top competitors. Note how many do and don't show prices. Point out that the top ecommerce sites all list prices.
• Suggest a customer survey or A/B testing to understand why people don't convert.
• Look at your client's and competitor reviews and site mentions using Moz's own Fresh Web Explorer. What are prospects and customers saying about your client and competitors's sites? Are prices discussed?

Build a case for what seems like common sense to the rest of us.

If your client is like the one Lee describes (fuel, with fluctuating prices), then you should at least provide something helpful like "We don't list prices because they fluctuate daily. Please refer to X to gauge industry pricing."

[MonicaOConnor]

It is definitely better to advertise with the prices. It is suspicious when sites don't have their prices up and extremely frustrating for the searcher. What is good for the searcher is good for the search engine.

[LeeC]

Hey,

I don't know about the benefits, but I do know that when ever I'm looking for a product I like to see the price.

A genuine recent example;

In November I wanted to purchase some calor gas for heating , I searched locally for a supplier and none of them listed a price, you had to call for a price - in hindsight this is probably to do with fluctuating gas prices. Anyhow I didn't buy from any of them. I asked a neighbour who they bought from and how much they charged and I purchased from their supplier. For all I knew the other suppliers were cheaper, but I didn't buy because I didn't know!

Its a matter of understanding modern internet users, my experience is that people have a low patience thresh hold and if they can't find what they want, they'll move on and search elsewhere, its a lot easier to click back than pick up the phone, I also think that seeing the price is an important piece of information, but that's just me,

Sorry I know this isn't the technical answer you were looking for, but I saw your question and was reminded of searching for gas last month.

Cheers, Lee