Ask HN: How much should I sell my Windows Store App for?

#1

Post by Ralz » Wed, Nov 28, 2012, 3:42 AM UTC

Since the Windows Store is in its infancy, I'm finding it hard to choose the right price point that people are willing to pay. Are Windows users more or less frugal with their money? I know the the vast majority of apps are free but they come with ads and since my app is a password manager I don't think I will get enough "eye" time to justify putting ads. I started off at $1.49 and had a few sales (1-4/day) then I pushed it up to $1.99 and I am seeing roughly the same number of sales. With such low volume, would it be wise to increase my price or should I just wait it out?

Link: http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/app/lockit/665aa3ab-159b-4bc9-b59c-af5f7f22e974

Re: Ask HN: How much should I sell my Windows Store App for?

#2

Post by OafTobark » Wed, Nov 28, 2012, 3:55 AM UTC

I paid $15 for an iOS version (1Password Pro) so I'd imagine you can try at a higher price point. Worse case scenario, you can drop prices later. Much harder to keep increasing prices if there are a lot of users that take notice later. Try something like $4.99 and see how that does.

If traffic falls, but overall profit is up, thats still okay. You got to do a bit of testing to see what will work best.

Re: Ask HN: How much should I sell my Windows Store App for?

#3

Post by Gustomaximus » Wed, Nov 28, 2012, 3:59 AM UTC

OafTobark wrote: post #2

I paid $15 for an iOS version (1Password Pro) so I'd imagine you can try at a higher price point. Worse case scenario, you can drop prices later. Much harder to keep increasing prices if there are a lot of users that take notice later. Try something like $4.99 and see how that does. If traffic falls, but overall profit is up, thats still okay. You got to do a bit of testing to see what will work best.

Also if you raise the price to $4.99 consider doing some ads as you are hitting a price point where this activity can be ROI positive.

Re: Ask HN: How much should I sell my Windows Store App for?

#4

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Nov 28, 2012, 4:26 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How much should I sell my Windows Store App for?

#5

Post by tarekayna » Wed, Nov 28, 2012, 6:48 AM UTC

I did some price experimentation with my app (Blu Graphing Calculator). I ranged from 1.49 to 3.99. I kept every price up for around a week. Here are some of my findings:

- Blu was selling the most at $1.99 but the revenue was the most at 3.99 (sold on average more than half of what I sold at 1.99).

- Interestingly enough, it sold much more at 1.99 than at 1.49

I chose to push back to 1.99 for the time-being to increase the # of users.

Re: Ask HN: How much should I sell my Windows Store App for?

#6

Post by gyurisc » Wed, Nov 28, 2012, 4:00 PM UTC

It looks very nice. Good job! I think 1.99 is a good price for the app as it allows you to drop it to 0.99 when you want to boost the sales.

Re: Ask HN: How much should I sell my Windows Store App for?

#7

Post by Ralz » Wed, Nov 28, 2012, 4:39 PM UTC

tarekayna wrote: post #5

I did some price experimentation with my app (Blu Graphing Calculator). I ranged from 1.49 to 3.99. I kept every price up for around a week. Here are some of my findings: - Blu was selling the most at $1.99 but the revenue was the most at 3.99 (sold on average more than half of what I sold at 1.99). - Interestingly enough, it sold much more at 1.99 than at 1.49 I chose to push back to 1.99 for the time-being to incre…

That's really interesting to know, your app looks awesome. May I ask how long that took you and did you make this in JS? I'll try raising the price of mine for a week and see what the results are thanks.

Link to Blu Graing Calc: http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-us/app/blu-graphing-calc...

Re: Ask HN: How much should I sell my Windows Store App for?

#8

Post by Ralz » Wed, Nov 28, 2012, 4:41 PM UTC

OafTobark wrote: post #2

I paid $15 for an iOS version (1Password Pro) so I'd imagine you can try at a higher price point. Worse case scenario, you can drop prices later. Much harder to keep increasing prices if there are a lot of users that take notice later. Try something like $4.99 and see how that does. If traffic falls, but overall profit is up, thats still okay. You got to do a bit of testing to see what will work best.

Sheesh $15 thats pretty steep for a password manager, then again "Keeper" is a top grossing app on IOS and makes $9.99/year off of its customers. Thanks for the advice I'm going to try the $4.99 price point.

Re: Ask HN: How much should I sell my Windows Store App for?

#9

Post by tarekayna » Wed, Nov 28, 2012, 6:12 PM UTC

Ralz wrote: post #7

tarekayna wrote: post #5

I did some price experimentation with my app (Blu Graphing Calculator). I ranged from 1.49 to 3.99. I kept every price up for around a week. Here are some of my findings: - Blu was selling the most at $1.99 but the revenue was the most at 3.99 (sold on average more than half of what I sold at 1.99). - Interestingly enough, it sold much more at 1.99 than at 1.49 I chose to push back to 1.99 for the time-being to incre…

That's really interesting to know, your app looks awesome. May I ask how long that took you and did you make this in JS? I'll try raising the price of mine for a week and see what the results are thanks. Link to Blu Graing Calc: http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-us/app/blu-graphing-calc...

Thanks :). This was around 7 months of mornings and weekends while I had a full-time job. (I quit a month ago to start my own thing).

I built this with JS/HTML/CSS but the MathEngine component I built using C# (.winmd) and called into it from the Javascript.

If you have any specific questions about how different parts are implemented, let me know :).

Re: Ask HN: How much should I sell my Windows Store App for?

#10

Post by pkamb » Wed, Nov 28, 2012, 9:46 PM UTC

I increased the price of two of my Mac App Store apps:

Reddit Notifier https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reddit-notifier/id468366517?...

$1.99 -> $2.99

EdgeCase https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/edgecase/id513826860?mt=12

$4.99 -> $7.99

Sales numbers for both have remained close enough to constant so these price increases have lead to a nice little bump in revenue. I would say to aim for the high end of the price "range" you're targeting. If someone will pay $2, they'll probably also buy at $3 but perhaps not at $6. Your app looks like a vital part of a person's workflow... try $9.99.