In 2024, mastering how to sell high-priced products is a strategic dance between value and perception. It's not just about the price tag; it's about conveying the unique benefits and experiences that justify the premium cost. From luxury watches and jewelry to cutting-edge technology, understanding how to position and market high-priced items effectively can be the key to unlocking unparalleled success in the competitive market.
In this article, we strip away the mystique surrounding selling high-priced products and dive straight into the core strategies that drive sales in this exclusive domain.
By dissecting the psychology of consumer behavior, exploring effective pricing strategies, and highlighting the power of storytelling, we aim to equip you with the tools and insights needed to elevate your sales game and thrive in the world of luxury and high-end products.
Outline Special Features
Many shoppers will associate the high price with high quality. However, they’ll still be looking for a cheaper option. Start by showing them the unique features and functions of this product. Go further by explaining what those features offer, that a customer won’t be able to do with the cheaper product.
The goal is to create a bit of a difference between the two products that do the same thing.
Show Available Accessories
While both high-quality and low-quality products may come with accessories, it is still important to highlight them. Especially if the higher-priced product comes with more accessories.
A good example is versatile power tools like cordless drills that also serve as screwdrivers or angle grinders that do both cutting and grinding. Others include cake mixers and blenders.
Sometimes, they require a change in some parts to do a different task. Show the different blender accessories that can grind nuts and those for juice. Do the same for mixers, showing the parts for pasta scenarios and those for ice cream.
Where the package comes with more units of certain accessories, make it known clearly.
Display Color Options
In many cases, manufacturers of high-quality products tend to make them in a variety of colors. Have pictures showing the different color options available. If other custom print designs are available too, show them.
Use previous shopping data from your store to determine which segments of your customers pay more attention to color. Where there are more color options but with some out-of-stock, try to retain the customer.
Let them know that they can opt for a slightly longer delivery period as their color option is being sourced. Or that they can leave their contact details and be informed when it’s available. With a good store theme, you can easily add apps that enhance product image viewing with slides and carousels.
Download the free Debutify theme to achieve better product displays using apps and other add-ons.
Use High-End Photography
Common product images for Shopify are usually neutral, with decent picture quality. If you want to sell expensive eCommerce products, consider a change in photography. Hire a product photographer rather than an all-rounder. Where possible, get someone who specializes in a particular product category.
Look for other pages online selling products of similar price and quality. Find out who shot them. Get them to take photos for your high-priced products. Do some research on the type of customers that are likely to buy these products. Find out some details about how they live.
The kind of living rooms, dining rooms, and kitchens common to people in their income bracket. Create a set of pictures using staging.
Place the product in a setup similar to what these shoppers are familiar with. Take photo versions that show these high-quality products in equally high-quality rooms. Get different angles of the product. Enhance the lighting.
Here’s how to hold a quality photo shoot for your Shopify store.
Create Support Resources
For your more high-end products, make use of other media to show their value. Record a variety of videos. These can include unboxing, tutorials/how-to/demonstration videos, and even purely promotional product videos.
Make these videos easy to access when studying the product. You can even create comparison videos where you rate the products against lower-quality versions.
Partner With Prominent Personalities
From kitchenware to sports gear, there is a wide range of celebrity chefs and athletes to pick from. Look for successful public figures with large followings.
Negotiate a partnership with them. Invest in the campaign by conducting quality photo and video shoots. Record audio ads with these people endorsing the product where necessary.
Circulate these materials through major advertising channels. Many people always want to say that they use the same products as their favorite celebrities. If your high-priced products are associated with highly successful personalities, some people are more likely to buy them.
Rely On Social Proof
Gather ratings, reviews, and testimonials from different buyers of the products. Display them near the product. Carry out a campaign in which people can share their experiences using the product. Where available, show pictures of customers using these products.
Here’s how to use social proof on your Shopify store.
Learn more about How To Effectively Use Social Proof To Boost Sales In Your Shopify Store here and get sales to your Shopify store.
Try The Upsell
Sometimes, these high-priced products are upgraded versions or new models of an earlier product listed. Redesign the product pages of these older models. Include a small section showing the higher-priced product. Make the new specifications very clear. Use persuasive copy to convince the shopper to buy.
An example is “Get more storage space for only $20 extra”. Emphasize other positives, like the warranty period.
Throw In Discounts And Competitions
While these high-priced products are still newly listed in your store, they offer occasional limited-time discounts. Announce on the store and its social media when the window for a lower price will open and close.
Make sure you display the original price with a strikethrough (canceled) and the new price right next to it. Use different colors to make the new price more pronounced. Another option is to run product-related competitions. Here are two examples of how you can go about this: one is to offer the product as the grand prize in a contest.
This is primarily to create more awareness about the product's availability. Some people will opt to buy it rather than engage in the hassle of unnecessary shopping choices just to be eligible to win. The other method is to award points or attach gifts to each purchase of a high-quality product.
This one is more about directly generating more product sales. Do not make these offers too common. This can leave you with only shoppers who are always waiting for a price cut.
Offer Excellent Phone Support
The higher the product price, the more likely a customer is to be hesitant. Before buying an expensive ring or other jewelry, a person may want to speak to someone first.
Make sure you have clearly displayed phone numbers with people dedicated to answering them. You might have to do more than just have a “Contact Us” page. Some product page designs allow you to place contact information close to other product details.
Ensure that the person answering the phone is well-informed about the product. Just because someone is polite on the phone, doesn’t mean they can sell expensive ornaments. Strengthen other customer support areas, too. Make tracking numbers available.
It helps put the customer at ease, knowing they can track where the shipment has reached and who to call. Another related area that enriches the shopping experience is checkout. Provide as many payment options as you can. People with more money usually have it scattered across various accounts.
You don’t want to miss out on a sale because you didn’t have the option a customer is more comfortable with.
Get Approvals
Customers are only willing to buy many high-priced eCommerce products from specific retailers. These are the ones who they know have established a relationship with the manufacturer. They are known only to sell the original product.
Find out whether the customers you’re targeting behave like this. Contact the manufacturers and find out what it takes for them to endorse you. Steadily push your sales of their product up and get good reviews from buyers. Increase your operational funds so as to make larger stock orders where necessary.
Do everything possible to show these brands that you’ll sell their products fast and properly. Once you qualify, they can give you a mention and link in the authorized dealers section of their website. Where available, get a stamp or seal of approval that you can display on the product pages.
These badges instill more confidence in potential buyers. Here’s how to get authorized dealership status.
Polish Your Brand
It’s hard to convince someone that you’ll make them a lot of profit while you’re in torn shoes. The same goes for selling other products. You need to “look like money” to get people's money. Start by studying your customers according to how much they spend. Put them in different categories.
Find out what extra requests or complaints are common with each group. List all the other brands they support. Observe those brands’ operations—their logos, packaging, website user experience, etc.
If you’re selling products in the same price range as theirs, try to step up in those other areas. Remove restrictions on account opening for these cases. Offer extra functionality like saving and sharing carts. These are helpful to people who are looking for engagement rings, for example.
They usually want to explore different options and also share or consult with other people.
Make your store’s site look more attractive, from buttons to background images and even navigation menus. Adopt a sleeker and glossy look for any area of the store where these products are featured. Rewrite some of your copy to reflect the high value offered. Use phrases like “Get More Style” for the fancier clothes category page.
Another example is “Try Our Exclusives”, for products only available in your store. Do the same off the store. Use glamorous setups for your social media campaigns. Join groups and forums that curate and discuss such products. Interact with members and build a reputation for retailing these items. Share your product listings with members.
Consider changing to a theme with more design options to give your store’s site a proper facelift. From typography to colors, Debutify will give you multiple design combinations.
Bring In A Charity Angle
Remind customers that you follow sustainable/eco-friendly practices in making products available. Tell them that a portion of your profits go to a charitable cause. This can be planting trees or buying scholastic materials for underprivileged kids.
Whatever you can get involved in.
Use Shopify’s apps to manage these donation processes. Customers may be more motivated to spend a lot of money on a product if they know it benefits many others, too.
Present At Events And Join Award Competitions
For many high-quality eCommerce products, associations bring together different businesses in the space. Do your research to keep up with exhibitions and award nomination periods. Book a stand on time.
Submit your materials for consideration by judge panels. Get your name into any of these spaces where buyers of these products meet. A good example is the world of art paintings. You can’t just rely on good-looking pictures online.
Lean on experiential marketing opportunities to give potential buyers a good memory to hold on to.
For example, try participating in a cook-off if you have scratch-proof non-stick pans. You don’t have to compete as a chef. Find a way to convince some competitors to use your products. Have all your materials on hand. From QR codes to POS (Point of Sales) devices, and even media kits.
The goal is to ensure that once people have a good experience trying out your products, the next step is easy. They can quickly make a purchase or get your contact information to follow up.
The advantage of events is that they gather your target customers in one place easily. Awards also help to boost your reputation amongst these communities. So whether you win or not, even a mere nomination can get you more attention from the right crowd.
Add Free Shipping
It’s no secret that products with high markup tend to be good candidates for free shipping. Consider adding free shipping to the high-priced eCommerce products you sell. If you can’t afford it, reduce the product price slightly and tuck the cost into the total.
The higher the price of the product, the more you should try to limit the calculation done during checkout.
Send Post-Purchase Videos
Post-purchase videos are good for establishing a deeper connection with a customer. They can also be used to deliver extra information that wasn’t available on the site. An example is whether a buyer’s signature will be required on delivery or not. They also help the person to relax.
Instead of them logging on to different sites and entering tracking codes to get shipment progress, they can rely on you. You can also use them to showcase your operational standards, such as damage-proof packaging.
After-Sales Services
Some high-priced eCommerce products require setting up after purchase. Examples include electronic entertainment systems, above-ground pools, bounce houses, etc. Many people who buy these products lack the tools and skills to set them up correctly.
Try partnering with technicians in the delivery zones that offer these services. This way, customers know that once they’ve bought the product, they can rest. There’s no need to call other teams to do the extra work.
This can also help you sell some extra accessories. Examples include wall-mounting metal studs for TVs, air pumps for bicycle tires, soccer balls, swimming floats, and other inflatables. You can show the customer how to use them so they can do some of the simpler tasks themselves in the future.
In Conclusion
A general rule for those who want to sell high-quality eCommerce products is to offer more. Even if the high price is largely driven by the cost of production, other store points have to be revamped, too.
An important practice is customer research. People who are into high-end eCommerce products tend to be fussier about issues that may seem minor. They believe that their money should afford them as much convenience as possible. Make sure the shopping experience is as smooth as possible for them. Another thing to keep in mind is your other product listings. Do not be misled into quickly pivoting to a strictly high-end product store because of the profit per unit.
Comparison is an important part of pricing. The other cheaper eCommerce products you sell can help drive more traffic to your store. To get the most out of your traffic, not just the richer segment, you need a solid theme. This is partly because it can come with features like showing old and new prices.
It can also improve the presentation of product benefits. All these details are key when it comes to the psychology of price. A theme like Debutify will help you do all this and even help you extract sales from the segments you least expected to buy.
Download Debutify, the free high-converting Shopify theme, to move more units of high-priced eCommerce products.
