Surcharge > Does it worth, or just make our headaches?

I think it’s really a matter of perspective. The prepaid-credit price is actually a discounted price. Each transaction costs money; the $2 covers that charge site-wide at a flat rate. The discounted price is offered for users who make deposits. Encouraging users to make deposits promotes repeat business, and that’s good for us as authors.

I don’t think the “surcharge” deters a significant number of buyers. I think the current system is fair – and in any event, prices are already so low, I see no reason to lower them further.

Sevenspark… How can be something discounted, when an item has an obvious pricing X amount, then an another obvious statement says: ADD $2 if you are not using prepaid credits. If the price would be X amount and the statement would be REDUCE $2 if you are using prepaid credits. That would be a discount.

dekurvajo said
Sevenspark… How can be something discounted, when an item has an obvious pricing X amount, then an another obvious statement says: ADD $2 if you are not using prepaid credits. If the price would be X amount and the statement would be REDUCE $2 if you are using prepaid credits. That would be a discount.

My point is that you can call it whatever you want; if the item were sold for a single price only, it’d have to be the higher one to cover transaction fees. But I agree that for psychological/perception purposes, it should be made clear that you’re getting a deal by using credits and not being penalized for buying one-off. I think it could certainly be clearer, and would make a positive difference. The truth of the matter is, there is a price difference between the two payment methods – and whether that difference is considered a discount or a surcharge is simply a matter of perspective.

Note that just because you are seeing “obvious pricing”, it doesn’t mean it’s not a discounted price. When you go to the grocery store and milk is on sale if you have a coupon, it says “Milk $3” in big letters. If you don’t have a coupon, you don’t get the discount, and you pay $4, which is probably listed in small type (aka add $1).

When you see a car commercial, they advertise that you can lease it for ”$200/month for well qualified buyers”. They don’t say “Hey this car costs $500/month, but if you’ve got good credit we’ll give you a discount”.

Businesses of all sorts advertise their lowest price, for obvious reasons. Qualifying for that price often requires some sort of condition be met. I think the bar is set pretty low here in that regard – just a simple deposit. But Envato is kind enough to offer both options, so customers can choose which suits them best

Also, I can second the fact that approximately 40-50% of my sales are at the higher price; I highly doubt that the difference has much of an impact on sales.

I would prefer buyers to deposit larger amounts

= higher ref cuts

I have never used that Buy Now function with $2, if I want something buy I will rather use pre-paid credit, every month i deposit + $100 all is fine. You can use these money in the future and etc.

As a buyer im good with this system

As a drop-in potential buyer I can tell you that I don’t like the system as it is. I make my decision on the product page which says $10. If I come to the checkout and I’m told I can pay either 20% more ($12) or 100% more ($20) I am not a happy customer. (I am sure there is some psychology on decisions in there, but I don’t know what it is.)

If I’d been told $12 upfront and then found out I could get discounts by starting up a credit system I would be OK. (I would prefer not to use Paypal either, but I will if I there is no direct credit card system.)

$10 isn’t much, and nor is $12, but when I’m buying apps for the ipad I’m paying a lot less than that, so my standards of what is ‘a lot’ and what is ‘OK’ have changed over the last two years.

To the authors: few people who are walking away from an apparent ripoff will bother to tell you, the individual author, that you have lost a sale. Even fewer will bother looking round for a more general forum to make a comment on the system.

Good luck.

What if envato change the minimum deposit amount to $10?
I think would be better to buyers who want just 2 or 3 Graphicriver items, but don’t want to pay the surcharge nor spend $10 more than needed.

To be honest surchange it’s just fine, another option would be $10 deposits as RafaelOliveira said.