Show Prices With VAT or Without?

[Mainland]

Is it better to show prices with VAT or without on the product information side of an ecommerce site? I notice many sites show prices that include delivery but add VAT at the checkout stage. Do customers generally accept VAT added at the checkout as part of their shopping experience or do they prefer to see the full price up front?

 

[Andrew Baker]

Is it better to show prices with VAT or without on the product information side of an ecommerce site? I notice many sites show prices that include delivery but add VAT at the checkout stage. Do customers generally accept VAT added at the checkout as part of their shopping experience or do they prefer to see the full price up front?

It depends on your customer, if they are most likely VAT registered (B2B) then display prices ex VAT... if it's B2C then display inc VAT.

 

[Bill1954]

Can't you display both ? The web templates that I have used have always let you do that, Magento even does the calculation.

 

[Mainland]

Yes, I guess transparency is the best in this situation.

 

[andygambles]

If the site is B2C focused then you must include VAT in the price displayed. If I was buying a pair of socks online then VAT was added at the checkout I'd be off.

However if it was a business product or service then it would not bother me.

 

[Mainland]

Its a 50/50 combination of B2B and B2C

 

[Jayser100]

Both is definitely best if you intend selling to customers outside of the Eu. Non-Eu customers expect not to have to pay UK tax and it is a nuisance for them if they have to calculate the price themselves. I follow the pretty standard practice of having the inclusive price in a fairly large font, and the exc. price smaller and next to it for non Eu customers to refer to.

Another advantage of displaying the exc. price is that it confirms to non Eu customers that they will not be charged the VAT. There are still a lot of ecommerce websites out there which don't actually remove the tax for those outside of the UK and this does affect sales.

 

[andygambles]

Its a 50/50 combination of B2B and B2C

But who is your main target audience? Can we see the website?

 

[SillyJokes]

If selling B2C you must include VAT, simples, no matter what proportion

 

[darren atkinson]

I sell expensive stuff on my ecommerce website to businesses and private customers.

I used to show only a VAT inclusive price however some of my major competitors where from the US and they advertised UK pricing without VAT, I felt at the time this made us look expensive because the US sites made no mention of VAT, even at checkout, even though their advertised prices where listed in £'s not $'s.

I switched our site to major on the VAT free price, but on every product next to the price it shows the VAT inclusive price in brackets.

Although I was wary about making such a change upfront, to be honest it had no impact on our sales levels what so ever.

As everyone else says, if your selling to private customers mainly and not businesses then I'd look at what your competitors do and follow suit, this probably means including the VAT on your pricing.

Hope that helps,

Darren

 

[a1anm]

By default we show prices inclusive of VAT to visitors from the EU and exclusive of VAT to visitors outside of the EU.