Overview: Redesigned Pricing Calendar

One of the many benefits of Cloud UI is the ability to quickly and effectively refresh UI designs. The Redesigned Pricing Calendar is a fresh look at Aspenware’s larger dynamic pricing calendar with loads of research, iterative design, and testing behind it. Price and inventory scarcity design has been optimized to maximize conversions and user comprehension based on Usability Testing and A/B testing results

Price Scarcity Display - Green vs. Red

Tiered pricing is a common strategy to encourage immediate purchases by hinting at impending price increases. When using tiered pricing, Aspenware lets resort users define "limited-time deal" dates by setting a price scarcity threshold. We suggest a threshold that triggers urgency for many but not all dates in a season to optimize this.

Our recommendation stems from A/B tests during pre-season sales. These tests aimed to enhance metrics by highlighting low-priced dates on a full-page calendar. Red text didn't work, but green text significantly improved results. This was especially true for first-time users or "window shoppers," a segment notoriously hard to convert. With green prices on the calendar, this group's likelihood to purchase increased by 6.7%, and their revenue per visitor surged by 27.5%. Overall, revenue per visitor increased by 19% for all users exposed to green prices.

You may now customize the color of dates for which the price is about to change and control the messaging presented to the guest. This customization, backed by Usability Testing and A/B testing, optimizes the pricing calendar's design for maximizing conversions and user understanding.

Increase Conversions with Inventory Scarcity Indication

If products that use the pricing calendar have inventory added, we recommend indicating which dates have lower-than-usual availability by setting the inventory scarcity threshold. Research shows that creating a sense of urgency for inventoried products motivates guests to purchase and is proven to drive more revenue and boost conversions. Low inventory date background shading offers the messaging that creates that sense of urgency.

One resort ran an A/B test on its inline calendar with this scarcity design for lesson products for the 2023/24 season, splitting traffic 50/50, with 50% of the traffic seeing the current calendar, which only shows sold-out dates. The other 50% of traffic saw the inline calendar with yellow background-shaded dates to indicate low inventory. In this test, the color-coded experience won with a 4.4% increase in lesson purchases and $110k more revenue.

The background shading for inventory scarcity on the full pricing calendar is optimized to maximize conversions and comprehension based on Usability Testing and A/B testing results.

Comparing Inventory and Price Scarcity on the Large Calendar Versions

Use the chart below to compare how the new Cloud UI Redesigned Pricing Calendar stacks up against the standard Commerce calendar and the Advanced Pricing Calendar.

Scenario	Commerce Pricing Calendar	Commerce Advanced Pricing Calendar	Cloud UI Pricing Calendar
Product uses tiered pricing, and the threshold has been hit to trigger the “Only 10 left at this price!” message.	A banner shows how many are left on all dates with price scarcity.	Background of dates with price scarcity can be shaded and the legend may be customized. Banner indicating how many left display.	Dates with only price scarcity have green text and no background shading. Banners showing how many are left have been removed to simplify pricing information presented to the guest.
Product has inventory and has reached the threshold to trigger messaging that inventory is low for that date.	A banner shows how many are left on all dates with inventory scarcity.	Background of dates with inventory scarcity can be shaded and the legend may be customized to indicate plenty, low inventory, and sold out uniquely, and customize the legend for each status. A banner indicates how many are left on that date. If date has both inventory and price scarcity, dates with price scarcity have red text. Red text is not customizable and has no legend.	Triggered dates are shaded yellow. The yellow color is configurable in the Aspenware Styling pluginr, but we recommend #F6D241 for ADA compliance. A legend for background shading is available to help with user comprehension.
Product has inventory and sold out threshold has been triggered.	Sold out dates show the day in gre, have a grey diagonal slash through them, and have the words “SOLD OUT” displayed.	Sold out dates have a grey background, and the legend value for sold is customizable.	Sold out dates have a grey background, and the legend value for sold out is customizable.