But telling customers that they can pay whatever they want for your products feels intimidating.
What if people pay less than what it costs to produce your product? And what if you end up losing money?
While these are valid worries, introducing a Pay What You Want pricing model can actually have the opposite effect and increase your earnings.
Today, we’re covering everything you need to know to properly introduce Pay What You Want pricing into your business.
What is PWYW pricing?
Pay What You Want (PWYW) pricing is when customers choose how much they want to pay for a product.
We’re not used to Pay What You Want pricing models for brick-and-mortar businesses, where we typically deal with traditional pricing.
Traditional pricing is easy to grasp: The seller sets a price, and the buyer has to pay the set price to get the product. Every time you go to the mall or buy groceries, you interact with traditional pricing.
But Pay What You Want pricing takes traditional pricing and flips it on its head. Instead of sellers setting the price, buyers steer the ship and pick what they want to pay.
As for digital creators, PWYW pricing can be a unique strategy to open your offerings to more people.
When to use the Pay What You Want pricing strategy
Pay What You Want pricing is a good idea in a few key scenarios. Like if you have a new product but don’t know how to price it or want to increase sales for an existing product.
Let’s go over when to use PWYW in more detail, along with successful Pay What You Want examples.
Use it if you have a new product but don’t know how to price it
The age-old question: How should I price my products?
Price your offer too high and miss out on customers. Price it too low and leave money on the table. Finding the sweet spot is necessary (but difficult) when launching a new product.
Using PWYW, eliminate the guesswork and let your customers tell you exactly how much they’re willing to pay.
You aren’t leaving money on the table and are less likely to miss out on any buyers.
Additionally, use PWYW to gauge what your customers are willing to pay.
Then, switch to a set-priced method once you know what to charge. Customers will find your price fair, and you’ll feel confident it’s not too high or too low.
PWYW pricing example #1: Brendan Williams
Photographer Brendan Williams sells Photoshop brush packs, actions, and photo editing presets on his website. He’s used PWYW pricing in the past to help him price his products:
The Pay What You Want model helps with shifting to traditional pricing by knowing what people are willing to pay for my lower-tier products. Based on the high and low amounts people voluntarily paid for the products with the PWYW model, it gave me a ballpark for deciding on a fair price. This was especially useful for my smaller info products and digital assets that I wanted to charge for but wasn’t sure how much.
– Brendan Williams
Then, after getting a good feel for what customers will pay, Brendan switches to traditional pricing:
She tells me that she wanted to find a way to cover the cost of her podcast without ads, which sparked the idea for her PWYW product—live sessions where she discusses strategies to support young musicians.
Christine mentions that giving people a suggested price for her live sessions ensures people pay a fair rate:
I’ve learned through this process that many people will pay the suggested price I have listed. Also, many people may pay the minimum cost the first time, and then once they see what your product is may pay the suggested price in the future.
– Christine Goodner
And since introducing Pay What You Want pricing, Christine has covered all of her podcast production costs, including hosting costs, new microphone upgrades, and transcription services.
Use it if you want to raise donations
Pair a PWYW promotion with a good cause (like Giving Tuesday) and donate a portion of your PWYW funds to a charity.
To encourage buyers to increase the amount they pay, the charity should be one both you and your audience care about deeply, so make sure it’s clear on your product’s page which organization will receive your donation.
PWYW pricing example #3: Ev’Yan Whitney
Ev’Yan Whitney hosted a talk and donated a portion of sales to the Embodiment Institute with her PWYW product.
By mentioning the donation aspect, people may be more inclined to increase the amount they pay, which helps you earn more for your work and donate more to a good cause.
Use it if you want to provide greater accessibility
PWYW pricing eliminates purchasing barriers and makes your offerings accessible to more people.
This could be useful if you target an international audience where different currencies and economies affect prices people may find suitable.
Or if you simply want more people to benefit from your offers.
PWYW pricing example #4: Dana Nicole
In 2022, I added Pay What You Want pricing to an ebook I wrote to make it more accessible to my audience.
Initially, I expected more people to opt for the PWYW product. However, that didn’t happen. And over two years, 80% of people paid the regular price, while 20% named their own price.
This allowed me to share my ebook with even more people without lowering my sales in the process. It was a win-win for all parties involved.
When not to use the PWYW pricing model
Don’t use it if you’re selling a high-ticket item
Letting customers set the price when selling a high-ticket offer is risky. To minimize risk, you can set a minimum requirement, but then your item loses the novelty of PWYW.
Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re booking flights for an upcoming trip, and the airline lets you pick your own price for flights—how exciting!
But when you go to book, you see a minimum requirement of $1,000. This is understandable—the airline must cover the flight’s costs. But suddenly, the excitement you felt when choosing your price is gone.
You might even feel a bit of resentment.
The same applies to your high-ticket items. Keep PWYW pricing for mid- to low-priced items and offer customers more flexibility to pick their price.
Don’t use it if you offer time-intensive services
PWYW works wonderfully for products where you don’t need to spend much time (if any) helping the customer post-purchase. Think of things like ebooks, printables, or short coaching sessions.
But for offerings requiring hours of your time, you risk lowering your hourly rate if you let clients pick their own price.
For example, if you’re a graphic designer, you likely don’t want to offer a custom branding package using PWYW. Instead, you could offer one-hour brand consultations using PWYW.
How to set up a profitable PWYW product in 4 steps
1. Pick or create a product with high profit margins
Pick a product (or create one) with high profit margins—like digital products—and a low time requirement—like short coaching sessions. This way, both you and your customers come out winners.
Marketer Alexa Brachvogel shares that businesses can also adapt current products to fit a PWYW model rather than create new ones:
While not every product or service can be fully accessible based on the amount of time, effort, or materials required, there’s always a version of a business’s offerings that can be formatted and shared with a broader audience at a more inclusive price.
– Alexa Brachvogel
If you have a popular offering you don’t think is the best fit for PWYW (but you’d still like to try it), why not tweak the product?
For example, rather than sell an entire course under PWYW pricing, choose some key modules and offer those as PWYW. Plus, your PWYW customers might see the value in your products and choose to purchase the full deal later.
Pro tip: Although we’ve given some guidance on which products work well and which don’t with PWYW pricing, we recommend experimenting. Try different products, test different pricing methods, and see what works best for your biz with your customers.
2. Decide how much pricing control to give your customers
Although PWYW puts your customers in the driver’s seat, you can still choose how much control they have.
Here are a few examples:
Melanie Midegs gives her customers full rein
For a true PWYW experience, customers pay as little as $0 up to however much they’d like. Giving customers full rein is useful when you aren’t sure how much your product is worth.
But keep in mind customers might feel overwhelmed trying to set a price when you don’t give them any guidance, like a recommended price.
If you notice people aren’t buying your product, try adding a line to your product’s description suggesting how much to pay, just like coach
She mentions how much customers should pay, making the decision less overwhelming for the buyer.
Nurtured by Nature sets a minimum PWYW price
If you prefer more control, set a minimum price for your product. Price minimums might turn some people away, but they ensure you won’t get less than your specified amount.
Putting a minimum is useful for items like coaching, where you must spend time with the customer after the purchase. Or recurring subscriptions, where you want to receive a set amount each period.
Coach Nurtured by Nature sells 1:1 coaching sessions with a PWYW price. However, they set the minimum price to $165, ensuring they don’t get less than that for a 1:1 session.
3. Choose between ongoing or limited-time PWYW options
It’s entirely up to you how long you let customers pay what they want. On the other hand, making your offer PWYW for a limited amount of time generates buzz and excitement.
Experiment with both options and see which results in more happy customers!
IAMRENSI offers their PWYW product at all times
Keeping an ongoing PWYW pricing structure makes your product accessible to everyone at all times, like this brush pack from digital artist IAMRENSI:
Neurodivergent Narratives offer PWYW for a limited time
Neurodivergent Narratives makes it clear on its sales page that its PWYW workshop is only available for a limited time on August 29.
Image via Neurodivergent Narratives
4. Set up your PWYW product with Kit
If you aren’t techy, setting up an ecommerce shop with your products is a headache on its own.
But trying to program PWYW with your payment processor is an even greater challenge.
Using Kit Commerce, you can set up your own PWYW products within a few clicks.
Here’s how.
After logging into Kit Commerce, click Earn > Products.
If this is your first product, you’ll click Create a product. If you already have a product, click + New product.
Then fill out your product’s information, like its name and type.
Under price, select Pay what you want. Add a minimum price or leave the box blank if you don’t want a minimum price.
Fill out the remaining information and click Create product.
Next, customize the product details, checkout and confirmation page, and receipt email. You can add your own imagery, adjust the colors to match your color palette, and select from different fonts to match your brand.
After you’re happy with how each page looks, click Publish.
Kit will give you a unique product link to share with your audience, along with code to embed your product on your website to share your new PWYW product with the world.
Here are two additional things you should include when using the pay-what-you-want pricing model:
Anchor your price against what you’d normally consider charging. Consider adding an “anchored price” to your sales page—the price you would charge if you were using traditional pricing. This helps potential customers decide how much to pay.
Be transparent with your pricing. Don’t be afraid to share why you’ve set your anchored price to help your audience understand why it’s a fair price.
Promote your PWYW product and start earning today
Pay What You Want pricing is a unique concept you can use to attract more customers, create accessible offers, and nail down the prices people are willing to pay for your offerings.
Dana is a freelance writer who works closely with B2B SaaS brands to create content people enjoy reading. When she’s not working, you’ll find her sipping on a warm cup of tea and reading a good book (the scarier, the better). See what she’s up to at www.dananicoledesigns.com (Read more by Dana)
