List what you stock under the model numbers printed on the box, show the same price as the shelf, and say what that price includes, so the shopper at your shelf has a reason to buy there.

The phone at the shelf

A customer stands in your aisle with a box in one hand and a phone in the other. They have typed the model number from the box into a search and are reading the results.

Big online retailers. A shop in the United States, priced in US dollars. And quite often your own website, because they added your shop's name to see whether you sell it for less online.

What they find in the next thirty seconds decides whether the box goes to the till or back on the shelf, to be ordered online tonight.

On many shop websites they find nothing useful: the product not listed, a price from last year, or the words call for prices.

What they are checking

The second is entirely in your hands, and it is the one most often wrong. A website price below the shelf tag starts an awkward conversation at the till. One above it makes the shop look careless.

Show what is on the shelf

The website does not need to sell online to answer this shopper. It needs a page for what you stock, with the price.

Name each item the way the box does. People type the model number printed on the packaging, so that number belongs in the page title and the heading, not just a friendlier name.

Say whether it is in stock in the shop. If the website cannot know that from minute to minute, use the words usually in stock and give the phone number.

A shop with thousands of lines can start with its best sellers and the items people most often ask about.

One price, everywhere

Mismatched prices usually have a dull cause. The till gets new prices every month, and the website gets them twice a year, when somebody remembers.

The fix is to make the website follow the till. Many point-of-sale systems can export a price list that a website can read, and where that is not possible, a weekly update by one named person does the job.

If you do run online-only prices, say so on the page in plain words, and decide in advance what happens when a customer shows one at the counter.

Say what your price includes

The cheapest result on the phone is a bare price. Yours comes with things the shopper may not have weighed, and the product page is where to list them.

The item today, in their hand, rather than next week. Returns and exchanges at the counter. Warranty problems handled by a person they can talk to. Setup or advice, if you offer it.

Cross-border prices deserve a sentence too. With the lower Canadian dollar, a US price looks smaller than it is, and shipping and brokerage charges can arrive with the parcel.

None of this needs to be a sales pitch. Three plain lines under the price are enough.

A worked example

A printer repair technician runs a small shop in a business park: repairs at the back, and at the front a wall of ink and toner cartridges, paper and a few refurbished printers.

Customers would often take a toner cartridge off the wall, look at their phones and put it back. The shop's website had a Supplies page with a photograph of the wall and the words call for prices.

The mechanism was simple. The search showed large retailers and a US site with lower-looking prices, while the shop's own site gave the shopper nothing to compare and no reason to stay.

The shop added a page for each family of printers it supports, listing cartridges by the numbers printed on their boxes, with the shelf price and whether each is usually in stock.

Under each price went three lines: remanufactured cartridges are tested before sale, empties are taken back, and a faulty cartridge is swapped at the counter the same day.

A card on the cartridge wall now says the website and the shelf carry the same prices, with the short address of the cartridge pages.

Put price matching in writing

Many shoppers checking in the aisle are building a case to ask for a better price. If you match prices, write down when.

Which competitors count, whether the item must be identical and in stock, whether online-only sellers are included. Put the same words on the website and at the till.

Staff then apply one policy instead of deciding case by case, and the shopper can read it on the phone already in their hand. If you do not match prices, say what you offer instead.

Make the page work in the aisle

The shopper is standing in your shop, often at the back, behind metal shelving, where the signal is weakest.

Pages need to load quickly on a poor connection, with the price visible without scrolling and no pop-up asking for an email address first.

Offer the shop's Wi-Fi, with the password posted near the shelves rather than behind the till.

And make sure the site's search finds model numbers typed with or without their dashes and spaces.

The counter-case

Some shops face little of this. Handmade goods, own-brand products and items nobody else stocks cannot be compared on price, and their pages should spend their words on what makes them different.

Some manufacturers set rules about the prices retailers may advertise. Where they do, list the item anyway and say the price is available in the shop or by phone.

And where advice or fitting is the real product, the price check matters less than showing the service.

For everything that sits on a shelf with a model number, the advice holds: list it, price it to match the shelf, and say what the price includes.

Starting at the shelf

  1. Search your best sellers on a phone, in the shop.
  2. List them under the model numbers on the box.
  3. Show the shelf price on each page.
  4. Match the website to the till every week.
  5. Write three lines on what the price includes.
  6. Put price matching terms in writing.
  7. Post the Wi-Fi password where shoppers can see it.

Step four is what keeps the rest believable. A website that disagrees with the tag in front of the shopper undoes every other line on the page.

If the search ends in an order on your own site instead, the checkout has to accept a Canadian address, as covered in checkout forms that reject Canadian postal codes.

Frequently asked questions

Why do shoppers check prices in the shop?

To see whether your shelf price is fair, whether your website agrees with the tag, what cheaper options really cost, and what happens if the item fails.

Does a shop without online ordering need prices?

Yes. The shopper in the aisle is not trying to order online. They want to compare, and a page with no price gives them nothing to compare.

What should each product page show?

The model number as printed on the box, the shelf price, whether the item is usually in stock, and three plain lines on what the price includes.

How do I keep website and shelf prices the same?

Make the website follow the till. Many point-of-sale systems can export prices, and where they cannot, one named person updates the website every week.

Should I explain cross-border prices?

Briefly. With the lower Canadian dollar a US price looks smaller than it is, and shipping and brokerage charges come later. One sentence on the page is enough.

What if a supplier restricts advertised prices?

List the item anyway and say the price is available in the shop or by phone. The shopper still learns you stock it and how to find out.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Customers checking prices at your shelves?

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