Playbook, fashion retailer
Three numbers on one swing ticket and none of them is wrong
A price in this trade is a ladder rather than a figure. There is what it launched at, what it was marked to, and what it may be marked to again next week, and the shopper asking about the price is really asking which rung applies to them today and whether a better one is coming. The number itself is printed on the page. Everything they actually need is not.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for pricing questions holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The price is a sequence rather than a value, an original, a first markdown and often a further reduction, and a customer asking about a price is usually asking whether to buy now or wait a fortnight.
- A further reduction after somebody has bought is not a price drop in the sense any matching rule means, it is a line being cleared, and shops treat those two completely differently while the customer sees one number falling twice.
- Discount codes in this trade nearly always die on reduced lines, and the exclusion is discovered at the final screen after a basket has been built, which is why this arrives as an argument rather than a question.
- One size out of a run can sit on clearance while the rest of the line holds full price, so two people looking at the same garment see two different figures and neither has misread the page.
How it arrives
- is the sale price the final price
- does my code work on reduced items
- why is one size cheaper than the others
- it was reduced again the day after i bought it
- is the extra discount taken off the original price
- do you do student discount on sale lines
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The markdown ladder, explained as a sequence | What the crossed out figure refers to, what a further reduction is taken from, and whether a line that has been reduced twice can be reduced again. Customers read three numbers on a ticket and assume one of them is a trick, and a paragraph fixes it. |
|---|---|
| Code exclusions, by line status rather than by category | Whether codes work on reduced lines, on sale lines, on outlet lines and on the pieces in a promotion, since those are four different states and a shopper reads them all as sale. Write it as a table of states, not as a paragraph of exceptions. |
| Your position on a further reduction after purchase | Whether you refund a difference, for how long, and whether a clearance markdown is treated differently from a promotion. If the honest answer is that clearance is excluded, write that, because a silence sends every one of these to a person. |
| How a multibuy or bundle price displays at the basket | What the customer sees when the offer applies, and what the offer requires. Keep this to the display side and let the returns material own what happens to the money when the set is broken up, so the two documents are not both half right. |
The reply
I would rather not quote you a figure, because a catalogue moves and a markdown can land overnight, so the product page is the only number worth relying on. What I can tell you is how the ladder works. The crossed out price is what the piece launched at, a further reduction is taken from the current price rather than from the original, and a line that has been reduced twice can still be reduced again on a clearance rail [1]. Codes do not apply to anything already reduced, which is why one works on a full price piece in the same basket and not on the other [2]. If a size is showing cheaper than the rest of the run, that size is on clearance rather than the line being mispriced. On a reduction the day after you bought, that is a decision somebody makes case by case, so leave your details and they will look.
It declines to quote and gives the reason, which is a property of a markdown rather than a policy, so it reads as competence rather than evasion. It then answers the arithmetic question underneath, since nobody types this wanting a number they can already see. The single cheap size is addressed unprompted because it looks exactly like an error and produces a message either way.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor asks for a difference to be refunded after a reduction, for a code to be forced onto a reduced line, or for a discount that is not published.
I cannot apply codes or agree a price, and I do not want to guess at something that costs you money. Leave your name, an email, the piece and what you paid, and somebody who can make that call will come back to you.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never quote a figure for a garment out of indexed content, since a markdown can land overnight and the customer will hold the shop to whichever number was lower.
- Never say a line will be reduced further or predict a sale, which turns a sale today into a customer waiting until the size has gone.
- Never agree to apply a code to a reduced line, because the exclusion is set in the promotion rather than by anybody in a conversation.
- Never say a price difference will be refunded after a reduction, which is a goodwill decision made by a person with a margin in front of them.
Questions
- Should we index the product pages so it knows prices?
- No, and fashion is the clearest case against it. A catalogue turns over several times a year and markdowns land overnight, so an indexed price is wrong within days. Index the rules, which change once a season, and let the page own the number.
- Can it tell somebody whether an item will be reduced further?
- No, and it must not guess. Nobody outside the buying team knows, and a hint costs the shop a sale today and the customer the size they wanted. The honest reply is that reductions are not announced, which is also true.
- What is the cheapest thing to publish here?
- The code exclusion, written by line status rather than as an exception buried in terms. Almost every angry pricing message in this trade is somebody who built a basket and met the exclusion at the payment screen.
Keep reading
- Everything for a fashion retailerFit is both the most asked pre-purchase question and the biggest cause of returns. Here is what a clothing retailer can safely automate.
- Handling pricing questions in generalPublished price versus the price for this buyer. Bands, ranges and from pricing, and why a firm number for unscoped work is the damaging failure.
- Cancel it and the size goes back on the site within the hourOn a seasonal line, cancelling hands the size to somebody else for good. Pre-orders and stocked pieces cancel on different terms.
- The document they want is the one with the price removedThe commonest paperwork request here is for a document with the price taken off, and it has to be decided before the parcel is packed.
- Ecru, oatmeal and stone describe nothing on their ownEcru, oatmeal and stone are not descriptions. Drape is shown on video, and fastening questions are product facts rather than site ones.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.