الاثنين، 3 ديسمبر 2018
US-China Trade Truce Sends US Stocks Solidly Higher
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12 Tips for Creating Signup Forms That Convert
Every website can benefit from signup forms.
Depending on your business, these forms may vary greatly in their design and purpose.
Some of you are using signup forms to simply collect email addresses for your subscriber lists. Opt-in forms are great for your lead generation strategy.
Other companies rely on signup forms to acquire new customers. Subscription-based businesses need signup forms to generate revenue.
Signup forms improve communication between you and your current or prospective customers. They also allow you to share more information about your company while gaining insight into people who sign up.
Regardless of what you’re using signup forms for on your website, they are useless if your website traffic isn’t converting.
Unlike other customer acquisition strategies you’re probably using, creating a signup form isn’t expensive.
All you need to do is implement some minor changes to your website. Typically, these forms can be updated and embedded in just minutes.
You already spent much time, effort, and money getting visitors to land on your website. Don’t let those efforts go to waste by not improving your conversion efficiency.
This guide is perfect for anyone using signup forms with underperforming conversion rates. It will also help those building new signup forms.
After you review the tips I’ve outlined on this list, you’ll be able to generate more leads, improve conversions, and ultimately increase revenue.
1. Reduce the number of form fields
People are busy. They have better things to do than spend all day on your website.
To get them to convert, you need to make your signup forms as short as possible.
If these forms are long and require too much information to complete, people won’t take the time to fill them out. In fact, studies show that fewer form fields have the highest conversion rates:
Forms with fewer than five fields convert at a rate of nearly 20%.
If you currently have signup forms with six or seven fields, you can increase conversions by 4.5% just by eliminating a couple of these.
Shorter forms are not just faster to fill out but also less intrusive to the visitor. Here’s what I mean.
Obviously, longer forms require more information. But the website visitor may be hesitant to provide you with certain details about themselves.
They may wonder why a business needs their postal code if they just want to sign up for an email newsletter.
Depending on the circumstances, do you really need their last name? Why do you need billing information for a free trial?
These are the types of fields that can be eliminated to make your signup forms as short as possible.
2. Know when to use one or two columns
For the most part, I recommend using one column for your signup forms.
These are easy to read and fill out, and they won’t be confusing. People are more likely to skip a line or complete lines out of order if they have to deal with two-column signup forms.
If someone skips a required field, it slows down the whole process. But I’ll talk more about this concept later.
When you have one column, it’s obvious in which order the lines should be completed.
However, different website visitors may not view a two-column form the same way. Take a look at some examples of how people could progress through a form with two columns:
Lots of these will require extra steps and clicks that will slow down the progress.
If someone gets confused or frustrated, they won’t finish filling out the information.
If you’re currently using a two-column signup form, I suggest changing it to one.
That said, a multi-column form might be necessary at certain times.
You can use two columns if your signup forms are longer. I know I said short forms have the highest conversion rates, but some of you will have longer ones, just by the nature of your business.
Let’s say you have 20 form fields.
If you stack these in one column, the form will look long and intimidating to a website visitor. Forms this long may even require some scrolling to complete.
It will look more appealing if you create two columns with ten fields in each one. Then, the entire signup form can fit on one page without any scrolling required.
HubSpot tested one of its lead capture forms with 13 fields, which is long. However, the team liked using this method because it helps it qualify its leads better.
In this case, the variation of its signup form with two columns had 22% more conversions than the version with just one.
Depending on the form, you need to know when it’s in your best interest to use one column or two.
3. Offer an incentive to sign up
Why should someone complete your signup form?
No, this is not a rhetorical question. Sure, you want them to sign up so you can turn a profit, but how does this benefit visitors on your website?
Realistically, it doesn’t. You need to do more than just ask them to sign up.
Research shows that offering an incentive, such as a chance of winning something, increases your chances of getting a conversion by 15 times:
Sometimes, running a contest for your signup form isn’t practical. But that’s not the only type of incentive you can provide.
Other offers can increase your conversion rates five-fold compared to a straight ask.
Monetary offers usually work well. If you’re collecting email addresses, you can give new subscribers a discount off their next purchases for signing up.
If you are using signup forms to generate profits through subscriptions, for example, make sure your offer is attractive.
You need to learn how to create a highly effective value proposition. Then, you need to make sure that value proposition is clearly displayed on the landing page where you have the signup form.
4. Enable autocomplete
An autocomplete option simplifies the signup process for users on your website.
Chances are, you’re not the first person to ask them for the information you’re collecting in the signup form.
Depending on the visitor’s browser settings, this information can be stored. Once they start typing, the browser will recognize the required fields and automatically fill them out for the user.
However, this will work only if you enable the autofill feature when you’re programming the form fields on your site.
According to Google, users fill out forms 30% faster with autocomplete than without.
Speed is one of the reasons why you’d want to keep form fields as short as possible. If you have longer forms, the autocomplete feature will help improve your conversions.
Just make sure it’s easy to make changes in case the information provided by autofill needs to be corrected.
For example, a user may have multiple email addresses. They won’t want to use their work email address on your website if it’s for personal purposes. If the autofill adds the wrong email address, they should be able to correct it without the changes affecting the other form fields.
5. Allow social signups
Another way to speed up the signup process is by allowing social signups.
If you can integrate your website with social media platforms, users will be able to sign up with just a click or two.
Currently, 34% of retailers have this feature on their websites:
As you can see from this data, Facebook is the most popular social media site for signup form integration.
If you want to implement this on your website, follow the Facebook developer instructions.
Once you set this up, here’s an example of what your signup form will look like:
This is a relatively short signup form. It has only four form fields, which should make this form highly converting, given the information I shared with you earlier.
However, the process can be simplified even more for the user.
By clicking on one of the social icons I highlighted, they will sign up with just one click if they are already logged into one of those profiles.
If they’re not logged in, they’ll be redirected to a page that requires their username and password for the corresponding account.
Either way, this is still faster than filling out a signup form, no matter how short.
6. Avoid CAPTCHAs
CAPTCHA is short for “completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart.”
In short, this technology is used to distinguish between an action completed on a website by an actual person and a computer.
I’m sure you’ve seen these before. It’s one of those steps you have to take to verify you’re not a robot.
Here’s an example of what a CAPTCHA function looks like on a signup form:
Businesses implement this feature to detect bots and avoid spam.
However, it ends up being an extra step for users.
I’m willing to bet you have had to complete similar CAPTCHA forms multiple times in order to proceed with something. It’s annoying, especially since you’re obviously not a robot.
In addition to this being an extra step for people to complete, it’s also very frustrating if they get it wrong.
After a couple of attempts, they may decide to just abandon the signup process completely, which will obviously hurt your conversions.
You’re better off running the risk of some bots or spam on your website than turning prospective customers away with a CAPTCHA form.
7. Focus on opt-in placement
Where is your signup form located on your website?
In some instances, the form will appear on multiple locations on different landing pages.
Depending on your business, a signup form won’t always be your priority. For example, if you have an ecommerce shop, you’d rather prioritize sales than email signups.
The most common place for an email signup opt-in is in the footer of a website:
But it doesn’t mean it’s the ideal location.
If you rely on this signup form to drive revenue, you’ll want to make this the focal point of your landing pages.
Try including a signup form in the sidebar of your blog posts. You can even have them appear as popup windows when someone clicks a specific CTA on your website.
The point is, there isn’t an exact winning placement that’s the same for every business and all of their landing pages.
It’s up to you to determine your priorities and then choose the location of your signup form accordingly.
8. A/B test your CTA
If you’ve never run an A/B test before, I highly recommend reading my guide on everything you need to know before you start A/B testing.
Signup form CTAs are the perfect candidate for these types of experiments.
You can test many different elements of a CTA, such as its:
- size
- placement
- color
- font
- wording
Making subtle changes can have a major impact on your conversions. Just make sure you’re testing only one element at a time.
Once you complete your A/B tests, you can be confident that your signup form CTA is optimized for high conversions.
9. Highlight incomplete information
I briefly talked about this earlier when comparing forms with one column or two.
A user may leave a required field incomplete. If this happens, you want to make sure it’s corrected as fast and as efficiently as possible.
This user obviously wants to convert. They filled out some information and clicked your CTA.
Don’t let them get away without completing the process.
If they click on your CTA and nothing happens, they may just assume there is a problem with your website. That’s why you need to clearly highlight incomplete fields.
Here’s an example from the ClassPass website:
As you can see, I only filled out my first and last name on this form. I didn’t enter an email address or password.
Once I clicked the “Sign up” button, the email address and password boxes both turned red with an alert saying “This information is required.”
Without this type of alert, someone who made an honest mistake may not understand why they can’t submit their form.
The example above is very simple. It’s pretty obvious which fields were left blank.
However, that’s not always the case with longer signup forms. Don’t make users go back and hunt for what’s wrong. Highlight the error for them so it’s clear.
10. Showcase social proof
Your business should be looking for unique ways to effectively use social proof to increase conversions.
Signup forms are a great opportunity for you to do this.
The whole idea behind the concept of social proof is that people are influenced by others. If you can show your website visitors that other people have benefited from what you’re offering, they will be more likely to convert.
Integrating your social proof strategy with your signup forms is ideal because it’s going to be visible when people are making their decisions.
Here’s an example of how Single Grain used this strategy on its signup form:
The company is showcasing some of its top clients.
If major corporations such as Uber, Amazon, and Salesforce have benefited from its services, it must be good, right? That’s what people think when they see this type of social proof.
That’s not the only way to approach it.
You can use statistics that highlight an expert’s opinion. Say something like, “95% of doctors recommend XYZ.”
Just make sure it’s accurate.
You can also use a celebrity endorsement to create social proof.
Create proof in numbers as well. If 750,000 other people signed up, it will encourage others to do the same. Have a running tally of the number of customers or email addresses you’ve collected next to your signup form.
It’s also just as effective to include customer testimonials on these landing pages.
11. Use sentence case
It may not seem like a big deal, but typography can impact conversions.
You need to make sure your signup forms are easy to read. I see this often in my consulting work.
All too often, I see companies misuse capital letters. They do this to emphasize some information, but it doesn’t come off that way.
Just look at the difference between sentence case and all caps:
Today, people associate all capital letters with yelling. You don’t want to come across as if you’re yelling at your website visitors.
Sentence case looks cleaner, and it’s more conversational.
If you scroll back up and look at the examples above, you’ll notice the majority of the content is sentence case.
In some instances, you can get away with using title case. But I would always avoid using all capital letters. This looks too unprofessional.
12. Eliminate distractions
I briefly talked about this earlier. Each page of your website should have a priority.
Once that priority has been established, it should be the focal point of your landing page.
Don’t try to encourage people to sign up for something while simultaneously promoting your newest product and playing an embedded video about your company culture at the same time.
It’s too complex, and the website visitor won’t know where to focus their attention.
By eliminating distractions, you will focus the user’s attention on converting. Here’s a great example of a simple landing page from the Free Conference Call website:
Nothing else is happening on the screen except for the invitation to sign up and create an account.
Yes, the page has a background image. But that’s fine.
This type of image is much more appealing than just a plain black or white background.
Plus, the image is positioned perfectly. Both of the subjects in the background are looking in the direction of the signup form.
It’s only natural for you to follow their eyes toward the form.
By limiting text and prioritizing the form on the screen, you will increase conversions.
Conclusion
Adding signup forms to your website doesn’t guarantee your traffic will convert.
Whether you’re creating a new signup form or trying to improve an existing one, you can make changes that will increase conversions.
Use this list as a reference to help you through this process.
If you apply the tips I’ve outlined above, your signup forms will turn into conversion machines.
What tips is your website using to increase conversion rates on your signup forms?
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Questions About Car Loans, Toasters, Skin Care, Mortgages, and More!
What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Possible dodgy car loan
2. Maximum income before taxes
3. Buy it for life toaster?
4. Financial success dependent on others?
5. Frugal skin care solutions
6. Books on modern frugality?
7. Mortgage loan while on disability
8. Music subscription services
9. Driving twice a year
10. Having more kids
11. A plethora of unread books
12. Holes in undergarments
So many tasks in life are made up of a long series of comically simple steps. Take painting a wall, for example. You just put some masking tape around the edges, dip a brush and/or a roller in some paint, cover the wall in paint, and then remove the tape.
It’s so easy to not even really think about those simple steps and do a haphazard job. You miss little spots on the wall. You don’t tape properly and the edges look bad.
Focusing on those details makes all the difference. Being mindful of the task you’re working on instead of letting your mind wander across the infinite things you want to accomplish is the real difference maker.
On with the questions.
Q1: Possible dodgy car loan
I decided to finance my 3 year, 45,000 miles lease because I had driven 40,000 miles. It has a residual value of $15,600. I got a loan with an APR of 6.74% for the full value of the car pre-lease. I believe that I have at least 14-30 days to refinance for a better rate without further damaging my credit score. My credit score is 718. Can I get a better APR? and any recommendations for refinancing with another lending institution?
– Billy
You should be able to get a car loan down in the 4% to 4.5% range right now, provided you have good credit (which you seem to) and there are no other factors (you haven’t mentioned any).
I would definitely shop around and see whether or not you can come up with a loan with a lower APR than 6.74%. That sounds like a car loan that a dealership is putting on a car in the hopes that you won’t shop around and they’ll collect some nice profit because you didn’t.
I don’t have a particular recommendation for a lending institution. I would just suggest shopping around and getting several quotes from different lenders. Investing several hours right now could easily save you $2,000 or $3,000.
Q2: Maximum income before taxes
I am 71. My spouse is 70. How much can we make before we have to pay taxes?
– Barry
Given that you are both over the age of 65, the minimum amount of income that you need to earn before filing federal income tax returns is $26,600 (that’s the 2018 number, and it increases slightly each year). If you earn less than that, you don’t need to file a return at all. You may still want to file one if you paid some income taxes (via deductions from a paycheck during the year, for example) so you can get them refunded to you.
If you earn over that amount, you do have to file, but you will owe very little in taxes if you’re close to that number.
With Social Security, you have to do a bit of calculation. Social Security is concerned with your combined income, which is your adjusted gross income from other sources, plus any nontaxable interest (you likely don’t have any), plus half of your Social Security benefits. If that total is below $32,000 and you’re filing jointly, your Social Security income isn’t taxed.
Q3: Buy it for life toaster?
I’m hoping you’ll evaluate two of my recent purchases using your ‘buy it for life’ philosophy. This detailed evaluation is overkill for a single, cheap purchase, but it would be valuable to have a good strategy for similar future purchases. I needed a new 4-slice toaster oven and decided to buy one at Walmart during a weekly shopping trip. Given the low price, I couldn’t justify spending the time or gas on a trip to another store. I also didn’t think I’d find many quality online reviews of sub-$30 toaster ovens. The options that satisfied the size and features criteria were a $20 Mainstays brand model or a $25 Black & Decker brand model. I was skeptical that the Black & Decker model would last 25% longer, or be 25% more effective. Second, a toaster oven is relatively simple – I doubted there was any game changing technology that B&D incorporated into this model that the cheaper version lacked. My cynical mind also suspected the B&D model was only branded as such after being manufactured in a random factory. I bought the cheaper model. What would you have done differently?
– Jim
This is exactly how I would have done it, excepting that I would have checked a secondhand store for small kitchen appliances first like a toaster or toaster oven.
The only time I’m willing to pay a higher price for something like a small kitchen appliance is if I have seen great reviews for that particular model in Consumer Reports. That’s my trusted source when buying things like appliances.
If I’m in the exact situation you describe, I’d go for the store brand, too. It’s likely that the two models you were looking at were extremely similar on the inside and there’s no reason to pay extra for a label.
Q4: Financial success dependent on others?
I am struggling with the fact that my financial success is dependent on the failure of others. If Americans suddenly started being sensible with their money, instead of like 80% of us living paycheck to paycheck, a lot of us would be jobless pretty quickly as a lot of retailers and online businesses would die in rapid order. I’ve got lots of money in stocks and those stocks would crater. I’d probably lose my job and my portfolio would die if other people weren’t careless with their money. I feel like I am getting rich off the back of other people’s financial ignorance.
– Carly
The thing to keep in mind is that your job exists because others choose to spend their money in that way. Anyone in a retail or service job is largely doing that job because other people choose to spend their money in a certain way, and that’s okay. It means we have freedom of choice.
Yes, your investments would probably collapse if Americans had a mass behavioral change. However, in that scenario, the thing that would probably at least hold value, if not skyrocket, is real estate.
Q5: Frugal skin care solutions
Do you (or your wife or female contributors) have a recommendation for an anti-aging skin care regime that is budget friendly? I’m newly in my forties, accumulating wrinkles like nobody’s business, and even drugstore brand night creams are so expensive! I’d love to find a more affordable solution. Any recommendations?
– Jenny
I asked a few people who I really trust about this and I got a wide variety of answers. Two consistent things stood out.
One, they all mentioned using a mix of ordinary glycerin soap and ordinary olive oil. Just get a bottle of liquid glycerin soap and add about a tablespoon of olive oil to it for every four ounces of soap and mix it thoroughly. If your skin is naturally dry, use a bit more olive oil. If your skin is naturally oily, use a bit less oil. Two different people I asked said they used some version of this mix in the morning to wash their face and kept it in a bottle in their fridge.
The other thing mentioned by multiple people is that they would take a tablespoon of dry oatmeal, puree it with a coffee grinder into a fine powder, mix it with a tablespoon of plain yogurt, and then put that mix on their face for ten minutes in the evening, then wash it off thoroughly.
Those strategies seem super cheap to me. Sarah doesn’t really use any sort of special routine for her skin other than keeping it clean.
Q6: Books on modern frugality?
Are there any books that are like a modern version of the Tightwad Gazette? Or any new great books on frugality? Maybe you could write something like that.
– Daniel
I think that frugality is a topic that’s mostly addressed on websites and blogs these days. Books that focus on frugality are fairly rare and when they do appear they focus on the basics.
In fact, I view frugality and lean personal finance blogs as being the direct successor to The Tightwad Gazette. They just appear online and in email newsletters rather than in print form.
I think this appeals more to the frugal mindset than buying a print newsletter.
Having said that, I would probably subscribe to a new version of The Tightwad Gazette or something similar.
Q7: Mortgage loan while on disability
My family plans on moving hopefully this summer. I have a large down payment (140,000) but plan on applying for a conventional loan to pay the remainder. I receive SSDI income plus Auxillary Child benefits. I assumed all of my gross income would be added and grossed up by 25% because I assumed it’s all non-taxable. But when I looked at my jointly filed income tax return line 20b said $17,000. I completely freaked out and called my lender and he said he would still gross up my SSDI income because I’m the only one applying for the loan. My median credit is 745. Do I have anything to worry about?
– Adam
A bank with conservative lending practices will probably balk, but I think most banks will still give you a reasonably sized loan, one that they’re confident you’ll be able to repay.
In your specific case, I’d probably trust the lender I was working with. If he says that you’re still fine getting the loan, I’d believe him.
I would definitely seek out pre-approval, though. Before you even consider hunting for a house, get pre-approval from your lender.
Q8: Music subscription services
What do you think of music subscription services like Spotify/Pandora/Tidal/Amazon Music/Apple Music? Do you recommend one?
– Andrew
Honestly, about three years ago, they were all kind of distinct and did their own thing, but they all seem to be borrowing ideas from each other and seem more similar.
For example, Pandora used to really excel at musical discovery, but now it’s pretty easy to find new stuff using curated playlists on those services. Also, their overall music content is pretty similar at this point, too; they all have a few exclusives, but there’s pretty much a bottomless well of music that you’ll like at any of the services.
If you enjoy listening to music throughout your day, I think a subscription to any of those services is worthwhile. Most of them offer free versions with ad interruption; for me, it’s worth the less than $10 a month to get rid of it. I personally listen to Spotify, mostly because I share playlists with a few friends on there, but I’m not heavily tied to the service.
Q9: Driving twice a year
I suddenly realized that I really only need to drive twice a year. I visit my family for several days during the holidays (when I drive there) and I usually go on a summer road trip of some kind. Aside from that everything I do could be done on mass transit or a bike. Is it cheaper to do it this way and just rent a car when I need one?
– Tommy
If you’re dead sure that you only need a car twice a year for those reasons, then it’s probably cheaper to do things that way.
The catch, of course, is that you may actually have more car needs than you think. Are you easily able to handle getting groceries and household supplies without a car? I found that during my years without a car I relied on a friend who would take me along when he went to a warehouse club and then drive me home with all of my goods.
I would strongly suggest that you have at least a few close friends with cars who might be able to help you out if you realize that being without a car causes more trouble than you think. If you’ve got that, then try giving it a shot for a month or two – just don’t do anything at all with your car and see how it goes. If it’s fine, then sell it and drop your insurance costs.
Q10: Having more kids
You have said before that the leap from no kids to one kid was pretty expensive and challenging, the leap from one to two was less so, and the leap from two to three is even less so. Why? Do you think the pattern would hold with even more kids?
– Adrian
The leap to more kids is less expensive because you can reuse a lot of the stuff you had to acquire for the first kid, like bottles and car seats and so on. It’s also relatively easy because you’re well-practiced at the things that need to be done for child care, plus you begin to have helpers for many of the tasks. While the addition of another child does take time, it’s not as much time as the first one.
I think that the pattern would continue to hold for more children. I know a few families with more children than ours and they handle things in very systematic ways, with clear chores for everyone and lots of group activities. They do ensure regular one-on-one time between each parent-child pairing, but it’s basically just a refinement of what we do with three kids.
That being said, the first child is a major life change (unless you have enough money to buy help to shield yourself from the changes). Multiple kids just accentuate that core change.
Q11: A plethora of unread books
I used to have a very bad habit of buying books. I’d go to bookstores and drop $50 without thinking about it. I’d go to library book sales and spend $50 there and fill up a box. I have thousands of books on several bookshelves in my home and almost all are unread and I finally realized I’m never going to read most of them. So I started sorting and I have all of the ones I’m actually excited to read on one shelf, ones I’ve read and want to keep on another, and all of the others are full of books I will never read and I don’t know what to do with them. Ideas?
– Abbie
If I were you, I’d probably just have a big book sale during the garage sale and yard sale season in the spring. Put out a posting that you’re having a sale focused exclusively on books and then put them all out on tables or even on shelves for the sale. On the first morning, charge $1 a book. In the afternoon, charge $0.50 a book. Second morning, charge $0.25 a book. Second afternoon, charge $0.10 a book. Last morning, fill up a box for $1. They’ll probably all be gone by the end of the second day.
Just promote the sale where you can. Put up a bunch of flyers around town before the sale. Get in on every garage sale and yard sale listing you can. Highlight that it’s a book sale and note your pricing scheme.
I suspect you’ll make a few hundred dollars from this and clear out a lot of shelves in the process. Good luck.
Q12: Holes in undergarments
Should you throw out underwear if there are small holes in them? Don’t see why as they still do the job.
– Brent
For some reason, this question made me laugh and I kept coming back to it, so why not?
I’d simply ask myself two questions. One, do the holes bother you? Two, do they bother anyone who might see them?
My rule is literally a rule of thumb. If I can get my thumb through a hole, then they go in the trash. That’s my rule for any garment, though holes in outerwear are usually relegated to home use until the holes get to thumb size. I have a few favorite t-shirts that I still wear around the house or as an inner layer even though there are a couple of small holes in them. A small hole will not cause me to throw away a particularly comfortable t-shirt, particularly when it’s a shirt I’m wearing under a hoodie or a shirt I’m wearing while doing dishes or painting or something.
If holes are smaller than my thumb, the truth is I probably won’t even notice them. If I’m noticing a hole, it’s probably large enough for my thumb to go through, so it’s time to toss that pair. If I do find a hole in something and my thumb doesn’t fit, I usually assess the garment and if it’s not one I’m particularly attached to, it goes to the rag bag or the trash can.
My wife is far more picky about sock holes than anything else. She really does not like socks with holes in the toes.
I can’t believe I answered this question.
Got any questions? The best way to ask is to follow me on Facebook and ask questions directly there. I’ll attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive many, many questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours.
The post Questions About Car Loans, Toasters, Skin Care, Mortgages, and More! appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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Wayne Bank hires business lending officer
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Instacart Grocery Delivery Just Got Cheaper. Here’s Much You Can Save
Instacart has reduced its prices for delivery and membership as of Nov. 14, a company spokesperson confirmed.
Delivery fees, which were previously $5.99 for next-day orders of $35 or more, now cost $3.99.
The Express membership, which delivers orders of $35 or more for free, now costs $99 per year instead of $149. The 5% service fee is a thing of the past for Express members, but “a la carte” customers will still pay it for each order.
The company tested several pricing models and made the adjustments based on customer feedback.
The change rolls out during a hectic time of year when many grocery shoppers are willing to pay more for a little convenience — say, when you’re expecting a houseful of hungry people and need to serve up more than just holiday cheer.
It’s also a hugely competitive time for grocery and other delivery services. Instacart works with a wide variety of grocers, from Amazon-owned Whole Foods to budget store Aldi. Meanwhile, Shipt has expanded to the contiguous U.S. from its initial focus on the Southeast. Shipt requires a membership fee of $99 annually for unlimited free delivery of orders $35 and up.
Walmart has been expanding its same-day grocery delivery service, which charges a $9.95 fee. Target now offers curbside pickup, with delivery of nonperishable goods available through its Restock program. For same-day deliveries, it works with Shipt.
Lisa Rowan is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder covering the retail and grocery industries.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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The Best Work-From-Home Jobs for 2019
Are you ready to work-from-home? Then 2019 is your year! With advances in technology and with corporate attitudes being more acceptive of telecommuting, there are more work-at-home positions than ever before! According to FlexJob’s annual analysis of the top companies that hire remote workers, as of 2017, 43% of US workers now work remotely at least occasionally, […]
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How Introverts and Extroverts Spend Their Money Differently
How you decide to spend your money is a deeply personal issue. It depends on your overall financial state, of course, but also on your upbringing, tastes, and personality — including, it appears, whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert.
While there’s some debate about just how meaningful terms like introvert and extrovert really are (a lot of people don’t exhibit strong tendencies either way), there is general agreement that these two personality types exist.
In broad strokes, those who are more sociable, talkative, and draw energy from being around other people are considered extroverts. Those who are more inward-focused, quiet, and value alone time are considered introverts.
And it turns out these personality traits correlate pretty strongly with how you spend your money.
Extroverts Tend to Spend More and Save Less
A recent large-scale analysis showed that extroverts have lower savings rates than introverts. This effect held not only in the United States, but around the world.
A big reason for the savings rate difference is that extroverts tend to have stronger cravings for instant gratification. “Extroverts are far more sensitive to rewards, which makes it harder for them to overcome their desire for immediate gratification,” said University of Toronto professor Jacob Hirsh, the author of the study. Basically, they’re willing to spend on items or experiences that bring them a quick dopamine hit. Hirsh wrote that “when making financial decisions, this can contribute to impulsive spending, higher credit card debts, and reduced savings.”
This form of spending behavior shows that extroverts have a tendency to discount the future to a high degree, meaning they place a lower value on money they don’t get right away.
Introverts, on the other hand, discount the future less and exhibit less impulsive spending behavior. They tend to be more methodical and thoughtful about how they spend money.
Recent research has also shown that lower-income extroverts spend a greater proportion of their income on status goods, such as designer clothes, than their introvert counterparts. This act of keeping up with the Joneses, coupled with the fact that extroverts tend to evaluate product advertisements more positively than introverts, could easily be contributing to their lower overall savings rates.
So, should all extroverts be emulating their introverted peers, who tend to save more and be less impulsive? Not so fast.
Aligning Spending and Personality
Extroverts aren’t doomed to lives of misery because they save less money. Quite the contrary, in fact, as as extroverts are generally happier than introverts and land better jobs. And it’s been shown that introverts who make a concerted effort to act extroverted every once in a while actually experience a boost in happiness. So, this whole story is complex.
Take Camilo Maldonado, co-founder of The Finance Twins (and self-proclaimed “100% extrovert”), as an example of a different perspective. He told me that he thinks his extroversion actually leads him to make better financial decisions.
In Maldonado’s opinion, his outgoing personality reduces temptation in an area that snares many a would-be mindful spender: online shopping.
“Being extroverted is actually a huge asset for me. I am less tempted to shop online because I prefer going in person,” he said. When you couple that tendency with a schedule packed with work, family, and social events, he has created a system where he simply doesn’t have as many opportunities to spend money shopping. As for his introverted friends? In Maldonado’s experience, they get into trouble because they’re more inclined to shop online, where it’s so easy to buy things they don’t need.
One key thing to keep in mind, whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, is that we’re happier when our spending is in line with our personalities. If you enjoy experiences, spend on experiences. If you enjoy things, spend on things. If it brings you joy to give people gifts, honor those feelings.
Regardless of what a study says, we all have the power of autonomy and choice. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you tend toward extroversion or introversion. What matters is that you consciously choose to spend your money in a way that brings you genuine happiness and sets you up for a stable future.
Tips for Spending Mindfully
If you’re having a hard time reaching your financial goals in part because your personality lends itself to impulsiveness, there are things you can do to work around your urge to splurge.
For starters, make a list before you go to any store, and stick to it. If creating a zero-sum budget is too overwhelming, there are simpler, gentler alternatives that can still help you keep better tabs on your spending, as well as budgeting apps that make the process easier. And you may want to reevaluate how you’re using your credit cards.
It can also help to make it as hard as possible to make impulse purchases online. Turn off one-click ordering on Amazon, unsubscribe from email marketing lists, and delete shopping apps from your phone so you add some friction to the buying process.
With any purchase, force yourself to pause and really consider whether what you’re buying is a need or a want. Some people like to institute a 30-day waiting period before they execute any purchase over a certain dollar threshold (such as $100), forcing themselves to take any fleeting emotions out of it. If you’re still thinking about the item a month later, chances are it’s worth it — but there’s a good chance you’ll forget all about it by then.
You can also learn the tricks that marketers use to get you to part with your cash, so you’re ready to combat them. A good example is “scarcity marketing,” which is when a company will try to make you feel like you’re missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you’re aware that the hype in such cases is usually entirely artificial, it could help you to avoid making a regrettable purchase in the heat of the moment.
Extroverts, who recharge in the company of others, may find they’re especially vulnerable to FOMO — the “fear of missing out” when friends are out having fun (and spending money). Here are some strategies to combat that feeling — including limiting social media and distractions.
Finally, monitor your stress levels. We all make worse decisions when we’re under a heavy cognitive load. If you’re an extrovert, you should be especially careful about shopping when you’re tired, hungry, or stressed, as those states can lead to more impulse buying.
Summing Up
“Know thyself” is a phrase carved above the entrance to the Delphi, a famous Greek sanctuary from antiquity. Although the words are thousands of years old, their simple wisdom is still applicable today. Only if you know your personality and your preferences can you design a spending system that makes you optimally happy and financially secure.
If you’re curious about whether you’re more introverted or extroverted, so you can better understand the spending choices you make, you can take this simple test to find out.
More by Drew Housman:
- Give Me the Goods: Why I Value Things Over Experiences
- How Delaying Retirement – Even by Just a Few Months – Can Erase a Savings Shortfall
- Digital Detox: How and Why to Recharge Your Mind With an Unplugged Weekend
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