Dentists Will Pay 10% to 26% MORE for a Better eCommerce User Experience

People don’t fully appreciate the value a high-quality online user experience has to eCommerce revenue. In the dental space, the eCommerce sites that I’ve run have consistently demonstrated double digit revenue / unit growth despite selling the SAME products on other eCommerce sites at a 10-26% premium. Read on to learn more.

People will often ask me about the value of user experience (UX) on eCommerce sites. How much can it be worth? All websites use the same software, right? They have the same search tools. How much can user experience really matter? 

I tell those people that a good user experience can allow you to charge 10-26% more for the same product. That statement isn’t from a survey, or a random whitepaper opinion. It’s from actual head-to-head competition against other dental eCommerce sites selling the SAME products. Don’t believe me? Take a look at Zestdent.com, the Zest Dental Solutions eCommerce store.

Zest Dental Solutions is a specialist dental manufacturing company that makes the LOCATOR overdenture abutment system, a dental implant abutment that allows patients to use dental implants to hold their dentures in place using snap-on / snap-off denture caps. Zest is the only manufacturer of the LOCATOR overdenture abutment system. It makes and sells LOCATOR abutments to dental implant companies like Implant Direct and to dental distributors like Preat to re-sell as a part of their product catalog. Zest also sells LOCATOR abutments direct to dentists on Zestdent.com. 

You can get the EXACT same LOCATOR product from ImplantDirect.com, Preat.com, and Zestdent.com. As of this writing, here are the current eCommerce store prices for a LOCATOR abutment:

• Zestdent.com: $169.99 each
• Preat.com: $154.99 (9.6% less than Zestdent.com)
• ImplantDirect.com: $135 each (25.9% less than Zestdent.com)

Most people would think that the companies with the lower prices would have the advantage. If the eCommerce sites were equal, that’d probably be true. However, that isn’t the reality. The Zestdent.com’s user experience for finding LOCATOR abutments is markedly better and customers will pay more to avoid the time and frustration that it saves them.

Zest is not only selling the same LOCATOR products that Implant Direct and Preat sell online, Zestdent.com’s online sales are increasing at double digit growth rates. High double digit growth rates. Those growth rates aren’t being impacted by the fact that Zest’s prices are 10-26% higher for the EXACT same LOCATOR products. I know because I was the person who led eCommerce at Zest and was responsible for those double-digit growth rates. 

If you have an eCommerce site, don’t forget about it after your site has launched. Paying attention to how users interact with your site and what they buy can give you valuable clues to improve your eCommerce store’s user experience and revenue. 

If you found today’s blog post, podcast, or YouTube video interesting and would like to learn more about how you can improve your eCommerce store’s online experience and revenue, reach out to us at: https://meetings.hubspot.com/ken-mah.