We want to keep prices on ShareGrid competitive, yet fair and at market value. To encourage this, we reward members who price their gear close to the average price for that equipment. These owners get preferential ranking in search results, among a host of other benefits.
Owners who deviate too far from that average price will lose out on these benefits. When you’re listing gear, our system will show you if you’re pricing your item too low. Our system will determine what is too low based on averages of the community. This algorithm is applied to ALL categories, products and communities. If you list packages with multiple items, our trusty algorithm will still apply.
Here are some of the ways your listing and account will be affected if you price your listing too low:
Lower Search Rank (Best Match). Your low-priced listing will be removed from our Best Match searching tool. Best Match is the most popular way for members to find gear in our marketplace. It is our default searching option and allows members to easily find gear that matches their needs.
No Featured Spots in The Newsletter. Your listing will not be featured in our weekly newsletter. Every week we send a newsletter to our community with featured gear of the week. This email generates significant traffic for featured members, which typically leads to rentals. However, if your prices are too low, you will miss out on this extra traffic.
No Free Promotions. We spend a significant amount of money on paid advertising (Facebook, Google, etc.) for our members for no extra charge. If your prices are too low you will also lose out on this perk.
Ineligible for Elite Badges. Though a manual process, we always reserve the right to revoke any members Elite badge for a number of reasons. If our team feels that your prices are negatively affecting the community as a whole, we will first give you a warning and suggest a price that is deemed still competitive yet within a fair range. If you do not comply, we will revoke your Elite status until you do.
We understand that this may seem harsh. However, rather than implement strict parameters that you must work within, we simply discourage outlier pricing as an effort to maintain a healthy marketplace for all.