Pay What You Want 36#
The buyer pays any desired amount for a given commodity, sometimes even zero. In some cases, a minimum floor price may be set, and/or a suggested price may be indicated as guidance for the buyer. The customer is allowed to influence the price, while the seller benefits from higher numbers of attracted customers, since individuals’ willingness to pay is met. Based on the existence of social norms and morals, this is only rarely exploited, which makes it suitable to attract new customers.
Examples: Iconic Cases
How they do it: In 2010 Panera Bread Bakery opened their first pay-what-you-want cafes, nonprofit cafes in which every menu item is paid for by donations. The concept behind this is that customers who can afford more pay more than the cost of the meals, allowing customers who can’t afford the meals to also benefit. These cafes reportedly still brought a profit which was reinvested in job training programs in the cafes.
Learn more about Panera Bread Bakery →
How they do it: Humble Bundle offers game bundles with 3-5 games and lets customers determine the price they want to pay. Part of the price goes to charity organizations. The company also has specials such as ”beat-the-average”. This gives customers who pay more than the average paid price a bonus in the games.
Learn more about Humble Bundle →
Below, the top industries for the pattern "Pay What You Want" are displayed, in order to get insights into how this pattern is applied across different industries. We've collected data from 2 firms using this pattern.
Top Industries
9% of firms using pattern
5% of firms using pattern
2% of firms using pattern
All Industries
Below, the pattern "Pay What You Want" is analyzed based on co-occurrence, in order to get insights into how this business model pattern is applied in combination with other patterns within the firms we studied.
Top Co-Occurrences
1 pattern co-occurrences
1 pattern co-occurrences
1 pattern co-occurrences