Market Research - I need ya help...

[TonsOfFun]

If you was shopping online - for anything, and if a shop advertised pay by cheque and get a 5% discount, although credit card facilities and everything was there:

So the question is: Would you be put off by a site that discriminates against those who want to use credit cards? Or not bothered either way and if you had this option, you'd just use whatever you wanted to. Or if you was gonna use credit card but saw the discount, would you go through the inconvenience of sending a cheque and be ok with the item not being sent for 2 - 3 days while the cheque arrives etc?

I'll put this in a poll and hopefully it'll make sense.

Or reply with something else

[Rancid_Beasties]

If you was shopping online - for anything, and if a shop advertised pay by cheque and get a 5% discount, although credit card facilities and everything was there:

So the question is: Would you be put off by a site that discriminates against those who want to use credit cards? Or not bothered either way and if you had this option, you'd just use whatever you wanted to. Or if you was gonna use credit card but saw the discount, would you go through the inconvenience of sending a cheque and be ok with the item not being sent for 2 - 3 days while the cheque arrives etc?

I'll put this in a poll and hopefully it'll make sense.

Cheque's are shit. Unless theres a debit card/credit card option I wont buy something online. Even if its a 5% discount, I just don't like the idea of sending people cheques, I mean you can never trust the postal service :rolleyes:

[enree erzweglle]

If you was shopping online - for anything, and if a shop advertised pay by cheque and get a 5% discount, although credit card facilities and everything was there:

So the question is: Would you be put off by a site that discriminates against those who want to use credit cards? Or not bothered either way and if you had this option, you'd just use whatever you wanted to. Or if you was gonna use credit card but saw the discount, would you go through the inconvenience of sending a cheque and be ok with the item not being sent for 2 - 3 days while the cheque arrives etc?

I'll put this in a poll and hopefully it'll make sense.
I wouldn't be put off by that at all. Although I would think that you'd want to give the discount to people who were paying with a money order rather than a check. (Because checks can bounce but money orders can't.)

There's a store near me and throughout the 90s, the owner would assess a 5% fee on credit card transactions. This store was independently owned and she (the owner) told me that she was just passing along her costs, that the credit card places charged her 5% of the sale price to process the transaction. When I shopped there, I just always paid with cash.

(I don't know if that's still her practice because I noticed that she doesn't do that now. Maybe she just jacked the prices of everything by 5% but she doesn't charge 5% for credit card transactions--everything's the same cost regardless of the method of payment.)

People who pay with credit cards, I think, are more likely to buy more and buy things that are more expensive. To a lot of people, putting things on a credit card feels less like they're spending or spending cash. So from the perspective of the store owner, it makes sense to make it easy for people to use credit.

[TonsOfFun]

^the same for me. I dunno if to just swollow the costs, but things would be much better if I received cheque or money order/postal orders/anything that doesn't charge me that 5% cus it'd keep costs down.

[enree erzweglle]

The other thing about a check is that you'll probably want to wait to ship the item until the check clears. Doing that, though, will really slow down your shipping time and you might get disgruntled customers.

(None of this is easy, is it, but it's nice that you're thinking it through and are trying to get a sense of what people want so that you can deliver that or come close to it.)

[TAL]

I think we stopped using cheques here in the late 80's, that's when I last saw one anyway. You can still get them at the bank if you really need to send one for payment outside Finland.

[enree erzweglle]

I think we stopped using cheques here in the late 80's, that's when I last saw one anyway. You can still get them at the bank if you really need to send one for payment outside Finland.
I was just talking about that with a friend. I was behind a woman at the grocery store and she was paying with a personal check. The cashier didn't know how to process it.

And when I went to Zurich last month, I had to go into a bank to get swiss francs. That was a weird, weird experience. It still smelled like a bank in there and the tellers looked very happy to see another warm body. :D

[TonsOfFun]

I never use cheques but it's easier to accept them. As for cheques clearing, I used to work for a bank and I know that most cheques have a cheque guarentee card (even if not shown or the number copied down), so if the cheque does bounce and it's less than £100 then it'll clear in the payee's favour and the bank would charge the idiot who wrote the cheque. Anything over £100 I would wait to clear.

You see, I would discriminate but without raising prices 5% across the board or swollow the costs in high handling charges and shipping - which is not what I want to do. But to get a 5% discount on a £10.00 item is only 50p - is it worth it?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, well I've got until 1st October before I plan to launch the site.

[Mustangjen808]

Tons~ Ok becuase I am in Marketing Research and this what I do all day long,I can tell you people prefer the choice of convienece. Most people this day and age carry only credit cards on them for the fear of being robbed. However on websites,the seller wants the convience. Why would a company wait to get money to wait to send a product. The product would arrive 3 months later if everyone had to wait for something to do something else about it.

If you wanna holod focus groups for real to find out more about your site,let me know. My company has 14 facilities across the world =)

[TonsOfFun]

^ I'm not paying for market research - Beastie Free is FREE and has a wide range of peeps to help me :D

But are you saying, just make as many available as possible - which is what I planned to do anyway. And still go ahead with the discount because it's an option.

The ultimate question is whether to offer the discount or not? Some people like cheques, but if I can encouage it without causing too much trouble or people feeling left out or pissed while they wait a few extra days for what they have ordered.