Showing ‘production enjoyment’ lets online sellers charge more

They have called it ‘production enjoyment’, which is a signal of how much a seller enjoys making a product or providing a service. 

The research team from Tilburg University in the Netherlands, and Lehigh and Northwestern universities in the US, found that online buyers interpret obvious production enjoyment as a signal of a high-quality product or service and are willing to pay up to 10% more for this. 

Their study has been published in the American Marketing Association’s peer-reviewed Journal of Marketing. 

“Buyers interpret production enjoyment as a signal of a high-quality product or service. After all, someone who enjoys making jewellery or loves painting probably spends more time and focus on it than someone who does not,” explains Danny Zane, Associate Professor of Marketing at Lehigh. 

“[Customers] are therefore willing to pay more for it, even compared to other signals of quality, such as efficiency and effort.” 

Valuable in peer-to-peer marketplaces 

The researchers say production enjoyment is a particularly valuable cue in peer-to-peer marketplaces, where other cues such as brand power are less present and it’s clear that the same person is both making and selling the item or providing the service. 

This effect is enhanced in settings when the product or service also requires a high level of skill. 

Interestingly, the research team found that less than 1% of Etsy seller profiles signal production enjoyment. Further, they found that sellers often charge less for products and services they enjoy producing, in some cases up to 15% less. 

Zane’s advice to these sellers in online marketplaces: “While they might already feel like they are getting some inherent value from doing something they really enjoy … sellers shouldn’t allow this to lead them to demand less monetary compensation. In fact, they might be able to profit most.” 

You can find out more about the research here.