Don’t ask shoppers how much they’d pay. Ask them what they’ve already bought.

A rule-of-thumb for asking shoppers about the price of your products is to avoid hypothetical questions such as “What’s the maximum amount you’d pay for a new pair of pants?” They usually lead to mere speculation. After all, nobody can accurately predict their future spending habits.

Instead, ask retrospective questions that delve into their current buying behavior. For example, “Please list all the pant brands that are currently in your closet.”

Case study: Heidi Carey
About a year and a half ago, a client in the apparel industry – Heidi Carey – reached out to me to validate their pricing assumptions.

They collaborated with me to design a survey, which we sent to thousands of subscribers on their mailing list.

One crucial question we asked was, "Are there other brands that sell similar items to Heidi Carey that you have tried or would consider trying?"

This both provided insights into customer preferences and created a representative wardrobe of the target shopper.

By analyzing the data and examining the brands listed in the wardrobe, we were able to visualize the price range of products sold by these brands. This analysis confirmed Heidi Carey’s hunch that their prices were reasonable and further validated their strategic positioning as a "premium but affordable" brand.