“It’s too expensive.” “It’s out of my budget.” “I can’t afford it.” Online stores that sell high-value products such as luxury bags, jewelry, watches, and designer clothes, often lose sales due to the high pricing. For such brands, it’s not only important to garner an online shopper’s interest, but actually get them ‘interested’ in making the purchase.But the roadblock to pricing of high-end products is difficult to overcome.Wait a second…It's difficult, not impossible.We’ll tell you ways in which you can bring in actual sales, no matter the price of your products.

10 ways to get more sales for expensive products

1. Talk about the value of your product

A lot of shoppers might be interested in your Shopify Plus store’s high-ticket products. Many might browse and check out these products for hours. Half of these people might even add products to their carts. But, when it comes to actually entering their credit card details, few would do it.One way to improve the prospects of sale is telling shoppers how your product would add value to them. But bear in mind, only sharing the features and details of the product is not going to cut it for you. You’ll need to take this a notch higher.Here’s how:

• Understand the shoppers’ persona. What are they looking for? What is their pain point?
• Then, tell them how your product would solve their problem and add value to them
• Set up an exclusive page for each product/collection where you can highlight the value of the product and explain why it carries that price tag
• Use data from your customers’ past purchases. It will help you understand each customer’s motivation, interest, needs, pain points, etc. By using these insights, you can have an edge while you approach them through personalized promotional messages
• Include clear explainer videos about your products
• Include social proof on your product pages. In other words, normalize your the price of your products by showing that others have bought it

2. Create a sense of exclusivity

Your brand may not be Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Rolls Royce, or Tesla, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be exclusive.You can achieve exclusivity for your brand with the right strategy. Here are some ways:

• Create the right kind of content - visual and text. Craft visuals and copy that brings out the exclusivity factor. Your brand’s visual elements are often the first impression of your brand. Craft it carefully to create an exclusive experience!
• Offer perks to your customers. For example, Rolls Royce has a members-only invitation club where their customers gain access to events, experiences and connect with other Rolls Royce owners. In short, make your customers feel special.
• Create exclusivity through marketing campaigns such as social media, advertisements, email campaigns, etc.Position your brand on high levels of differentiation. Meaning, tell shoppers why your product is different from others, why you stand out. Remember, put equal focus on the positioning of your products as well as your brand

3. Offer products for pre-orders

A pre-order is when you allow shoppers to make a purchase before the product is launched or available. It could also be applied when the product has not even been created yet.A pre-order strategy works well when products go out of stock on your site. Shoppers that are genuinely interested in the products would definitely sign up to get notified when the product is restocked.You can also activate the pre-order button when you’re launching new items. It helps generate a buzz. Moreover, if you add a sense of scarcity and FOMO to your pre-orders, your chances of closing sales are higher.You can use pre-orders when:

• You’re launching new products on your store
• You’re offering exclusive discounts on existing products/collection
• When items go out of stock
• When you’re entering a new market, or a new geographic location

You can use a good Shopify pre-order app such as Appikon Pre-order Today. The app helps you automate the entire pre-order process with advanced features.Here’s an example from luxury brand Neiman Marcus. Before displaying their new arrivals, they display items for pre-orders.

4. Nurture the interest shown by site visitors

Once you start promoting your products through social media, paid advertisements, etc., shoppers will land on your site and browse products. There will also be other shoppers that reach your site organically. You must gather data and nurture the people who show initial interest.How do you do that?

• Set up retargeting campaigns to reach shoppers who have visited your Shopify store via your campaigns. For example, those who asked questions or requested for more details, etc, are definitely highly interested. Don’t let them vanish.
• Reach out to them with the help of retargeting campaigns on email, SMS, web push, and social media.
• Set up remarketing campaigns to reach visitors who showed interest in your products. The cookie-based technology follows people who visit your website to wherever they go on the Internet. It can bring back 96% of these customers.
• Nurture interested shoppers through offers and deals. To bring back interested customers, offer them limited-period discounts and deals. Entice them to buy by creating the idea of scarcity.

5. Engage and interact immediately

With so many online stores and brands, customers are spoilt for choice. They might browse your product and forget about it sooner than you think, if you don’t care to reappear in front of them.Hence, do this:

• If a shopper browsing your Shopify store is an existing customer, you might have their contact details. Reach out to them once they leave your site with offers, deals and communication that nudges them back to your store.
• If the visitor was new and you do not have their contact details, use remarketing to track them and reappear in front of them so that they remember your brand. Chances are, sooner or later, they will go back to your store if they’re really interested. Run remarketing campaigns that share more and more details about the product, driving them slowly to the product.
• Use a live chat option on your site and interact with the visitors in real-time. Ask them if you could answer their questions, recommend other similar products, upsell and cross-sell in real-time, etc.

6. Offer deals and discounts

Discounts and deals work but they’re tricky for high-value products. You should offer discounts only if you’re competing with another brand to close a sale. If not, refrain from offering discounts.As a store owner, you might not want to offer discounts because you know the real value of your products. But if you absolutely have to, it’s okay to offer a deal to a potential customer.However, remember these tips:

• Offer discount only to high-intent buyers.
• If the potential buyer is comparing your brand with an inferior brand, refrain from offering a discount because you don’t want to compete with those brands.
• Offer a discount on the next purchase.
• Make the discount offer time-specific. Say for example, ‘20% off only this weekend’.
• Personalize the discount offer to increase the chances of closing the sale. For example, don’t put a discount tag on your website. Take that conversation on personal chat or a phone call only with that particular client.

7. Remove the $ sign

A study by The Hotel School Cornell reveals that diners at high-end restaurants are likely to spend more when the price didn’t include the dollar sign. Instead, the price was either spelt or in numbers only. The study concludes that scripted format prices draw higher sales.You might have seen ‘Price on Request’ on many luxury products. For example:

By doing so, you’re creating an opportunity to engage with interested shoppers. When they get in touch with you to enquire about the price, you have the opportunity to entice them to buy the product.How?Tell them more about the product - features, differentiating factors, why your product is valuable and why it’s priced high. It’s obvious that shoppers who are interested in your products have the capacity to pay. It’s just that they’re hesitant. So, if you can create an opportunity to help them make a decision, why not?

8. Create an excellent customer experience

Secure the sale by offering an excellent customer experience. Make it easy for interested shoppers to make purchases. Send them reminders, quick buy links, ask them if they require more information, etc.Give them options to log in through different channels, payment method options, etc. To sell your high-end products, you don’t need to grab everyone’s attention -- just your most ideal shoppers’ by providing top-notch experience.Customers stick to brands and support them because of the overall experience they provide, apart from good quality products. And when they’re paying a premium price for products, they expect the highest level of customer service. They’re two sides of the same coin.

9. Gather contact details of interested shoppers

It’s a no brainer - when people visit your Shopify store, you must do everything to get more information from them. Try tactics to gather their email address, phone numbers, etc. It will help you personally reach out to them at different occasions, such as,

• To remind them about the product they were interested in
• To notify them about restocking or launching of the product
• To inform them about offers and discounts on the product
• To push them toward making a purchase

10. Create a perception of luxury on your site

Imagine buying a $1000 pair of shoes from Amazon? There is a 99% chance that you won’t buy it from Amazon. But you’re more likely to spend on it if the same pair was sold on a luxury brands’ site. Right?And why is that so?The answer: your visual perception of the online store.It’s hard for shoppers to buy luxury products from sites that look cheaper and inferior to luxury sites.Now, luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton and Tiffany might not need to put in too much effort to evoke a perception of luxury. Because they already are luxury brands. But if you’re introducing a luxury product for the first time or getting into the luxury brands market, you’ll have to create the vibe and perception in your Shopify Plus store.And so, engulf your site visitors in luxury through top-notch photography, video, virtual reality and such visual experiences. It will make it easy for you to close sales.

Over to you - how will you make expensive products come across as good deals on your Shopify store?

If you’re selling high-ticket items on your Shopify Plus store, you can try out different ways to make it look like your products are a steal. From adding social proof to normalizing the price tag to allowing pre-orders on the product - there’s a lot you can do. You’ll need to think smartly based on your customer demographics and then apply strategies.