Does exceptional quality sell better than low prices? It depends on the item you are selling, but I tell customers the quality of your brand is one of the most marketable aspects of product or service offerings. As the adage states: you get what you pay for. It is why people test drive cars, try on rings to see how they look on a finger, sample ice cream before placing an order, and try on dresses to see how they look on the body before making a purchase.

From a marketing perspective, quality is the differentiator between you and your competition. When you are competing on price alone, whoever can cut the most corners becomes the winner. A product that has been reduced to barely acceptable to keep the cost low is not a winner for consumers. The fine details that make one product superior to its competition should be at the forefront of your marketing efforts. Quality sells.

But we are in the middle of a giant shift in the way we purchase items. When e-commerce was first getting started, it was a fast way to find the lowest price. Then it was the place to go to get fast delivery. Price and speed of delivery are still important, but there is a shift that is beginning to happen with online purchasing. Quality is becoming a major factor in e-commerce. How do you build quality into e-marketing? It is hard to get a good feel for product quality on an e-commerce site. You cannot kick the tires on a website. However, there are ways that smart marketers have used to bring quality back into the equation in online purchases. Here are three things you should be doing now to prove your quality.

Let your customers do the talking

It is an easy thing to make a strong statement in marketing. There has been an ongoing debate in business circles about just how believable consumers find marketing claims to be. Can I simply say I have the best brand on the market and consumers will believe what I say? In many cases, yes, if you make a strong claim, you will find people will buy from you on the strength of that claim. That is, until someone has a problem and exposes your brand to be less than the quality you’re promoting. In the world in which we live, where social media and customer complaints are swift and explosive, that sort of thing can take your brand credibility down in a hurry. But the flip side of things is also true: the happy customer can give you a high rating and it will back up your marketing claims. How do you make this happen? Listen to what your customers are saying. When they give you a compliment, ask them if you can quote them on your website. Give an incentive for customers to rate their experience with your brand. It will not take long to develop credibility from the experiences of your customers. Make this a part of your quality marketing efforts.

Highlight the details of your products and services

One of the best things you can do with online products is to photograph multiple angles and close-up views of the finer details of your offerings. Multiple photographs give the consumer a better idea of what they are buying, but it also gives you the ability to point out the differences between your brand and your competition’s brand. I recently bought a pair of shoes on the comfort of the inner soles. How could I know this from a computer photo? I saw a close up of the construction of the shoe and it sold me. Focus on the details, but do it in a way that tells the story visually.

If you are a service company, there are ways you can also tell your quality story. I like to include short stories that tell how services made life a lot easier for the consumer. Did you go the extra mile to make a tight deadline for a client? Did you make their processes go faster? Explain how your service quality made a difference.

Have a credible return policy

There are some functions of an e-commerce site that you may not think of as a marketing device. One of those is your return policy. This seems to be the area of the corporate lawyers and not the marketing department. However, I would challenge that thought, because your return policy backs up your quality assurance. Some of the new online retail sites have a satisfaction-upon-delivery factor built into their e-commerce site. They will not charge your card until you have received delivery of the item and check back with them to agree that the product met your expectations. If it did not, the consumer simply puts the item in the box it was shipped in and it is returned without ever being charged. This quality guarantee takes the risk out of online purchases and is a very attractive marketing device. It combines e-commerce with the evaluation of the actual product.

Quality is very marketable. As our world demands more and more e-commerce, make sure you are differentiating yourself with the quality of your offerings and build it into your online brand presence.