Price Culture Pt 1, The Slide-To-DM Gang. How It Affects Business!

Pricing is very key in the retail business. Price can either increase your profit or drag you to the lowest. On another hand, social media has undoubtedly changed the dynamics of the retail market. It has today given retailers a chance to compete even more with price. While the people offline have to pay bills such as rent, utility bills, etc. A person selling solely online only needs to convert their garage to a warehouse. With that, they can connect with customers all over the world. By reducing their fixed expenses, they have a better chance of selling at a more friendly price. Causing a great spike in the number of sales. Unfortunately, many online sellers are not thinking like this. When you attempt to shop on either Facebook or Instagram market today, be sure to meet these 6 categories of sellers.

The 6 categories of sellers.

1. The slide into DM for price geng: These ones are time-wasters, they never put a price on any product they post.
2. The sold-out geng: Always posting pictures of sold-out goods.
3. The 3x price sellers: These ones sell at ridiculously high prices; looking for victims, not customers.
4. The sabi ones: These ones want to sell quickly, so they offer good prices.
5. The scammers: These ones never deliver your goods after making payment.
6. The reposters: If you have ever been to Balogun market, you know those always standing on the road, holding cards and calling you to come to their shop, but really, they have no shop. This is the online version. These ones just want to make cash from reposting original sellers’ products and adding their own little on it. It’s really no big deal if they don’t overprice.

For this article, lets explore slide into DM for price gang and 3 effects it has on your business. While we discuss that, check out Online business – content creation as low capital digital marketing. Here are 8 effects the Slide-to-DM-for-price culture has on your business that you probably aren’t aware of.

1. Leave out price and remove convenience
2. You leave space for potential customers to consider competitors.
3. Poor customer experience due to delayed response
4. Overcomplicating purchase process
5. Poor brand image makes customers see you as scammers
6. Block chances of customers returning
7. Low sales
8. Low financial returns

Leave out price and remove convenience

Here is the thing, every time you post those beautiful clothes on your WhatsApp status or Facebook timeline and leave that caption “Slide into DM for price”, you remove one fundamental of online purchase, convenience. People come online to buy because they perceive it’s more convenient and saves time. When you say they should slide into DM for price, the vibe is, “l want to stress you”. 

According to a discussant, “whenever I see Slide into DM for price, I feel the seller is not ready for business”. Another discussant says “I don’t have the luxury of time to be coming to your DM first to get a price, na only you dey sell”. What all of this means is, people hate it, when you are doing hide and seek with how much you want to sell a product. Just name your price.

You leave space for potential customers to consider competitors

Congratulations! You just left another space for that buyer to consider your competitors. You see that statement from Discussant B, “I don’t have the luxury of time to be coming to your DM first to get a price, na only you dey sell”. Yeah, exactly, that one. That is the statement that takes them to other vendors’ pages. When you say DM for price, you are inadvertently leaving a space for your potential customers to consider competitors. 

Truly, you are not the only one selling online. Why then really should anyone stress to travel to your DM before getting to know how much you want to sell a product. Take an impulse buyer, for instance, it’s probably your price that would inspire their immediate purchase decision.  But you, you said noooooo, they must come for a private price giving session. Really? This is a digital age, people don’t take forever before they cancel you.

Poor customer experience due to delayed response

Come to think of it, there are days you are rushing to the park to deliver a package. On those days, you may never have a chance to catch online enquiries, which in the first place wouldn’t have been necessary. Something like, how much is the denim jacket? For a customer that experienced a delayed response, he/she may have lost interest before you responded. Even days you are able to respond, ‘It’s 2k’ and they respond again ‘N1500 last’. Really, isn’t that stressful? Are we in Oshodi market again, where you go back and forth with price? This is a self-created problem, and it’s avoidable. 

I didn’t tell you earlier, to arrive at this article, we had to put together a group of 50 discussants, and get their views on the Slide into DM culture. In a future blog, we would be hitting on the remaining 5 points. Be sure to subscribe so as not to miss a pinch, when part 2 drops.

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Thank you for reading to the end. 

Cheers,

Joadre Editorial