A few weeks ago, I was searching to buy new snorkels. So I started on google, and once I’d decided on the one I wanted, I ended up on a big-name retailer’s website.
The website I ended up on is sometimes the cheapest place to buy many products.
I was very close to purchasing from them. But after a bit more googling, I found the same product available at another retailer for far less money.
It made me think about the perception we build about a brand and how it influences our interaction with them in the future.
I, like many others, had in the past found that products in their store were a lot cheaper than elsewhere. This made me believe that if they stocked the product I was after, this would always be the cheapest place when buying online.
In days gone by, we had price comparison websites such as Kelkoo. I can’t remember if they searched ‘whole of market’, but it (and others) were the go-to places to find a good deal online.
Nowadays, a brand can often gain loyalty by providing a good enough service for long enough that users no longer bother to check the competitors.