"Purchase Animal" vs "Inquire about Animal" [4993]

I do not see the change of the wording to “Purchase Animal” on the ad pages as being a positive change for either a seller or a potential buyer. Seeing this caused me to hesitate and feel that I couldn’t just ask a question for the fear I would be committing to purchasing the animal when I wasn’t necessarily ready to purchase. I can only assume many others would feel the same way
I understand that after a person clicks on that “tab” that it brings them to a page where a question can be asked, but I really think it should be switched back to something like “Inquire about Animal”

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Second this.

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It does feel more limited as ‘purchase’ but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing overall.
I’ve had a couple crazy inquiries… I’ve also had to start a messages with, “I’m sorry. I am actually not interested in purchasing, but-” when contacting about an error or mislabeled listing.

Maybe a drop down menu would be easier?
Contact breeder with drop downs of “I’d like to purchase”, “I have a question” and “other” as subject titles…
That way a seller can have a heads up on actual interest, potential interest or something else. Maybe help sort some of the incoming messages.
I suppose it would be better to poll sellers on this though.

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I agree. I like the possibility of a contact breeder about, with varying options.

I clicked it out of curiosity earlier thinking that it was going function like a “buy it now” button on eBay. Glad it doesn’t, but think it could be a bit more user friendly.

I think it’s a step in a positive direction

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Thank you for the feedback, guys!

@brittni-admin worded my thoughts on this perfectly the other day.

“Inquire to Buy” is how it was originally, and “Buy” seems very minor… “I am going to buy cheese,” “I am going to buy a hat,” “I am going to buy a can of Pepsi.”

Whereas a “Purchase” has a lot more thought going into it. You purchase your house, your car, your season ticket.

The most frequent issue amongst sellers is window shoppers. If the wording puts those window shoppers off, is that not a good thing?
People who want to purchase the animal will not squirm at its wording.

I really like the idea of “inquire” and “purchase” being two different buttons :muscle:

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I personally have no issue with this and would agree, that window shopping and people who have no intent to purchase messaging sellers.

Thanks for the feedback!

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I applaud the sentiment. I concur that people who are really serious about a specific animal won’t be put off by the change. My concern is that this change may inadvertently turn away people who are less familiar with the species, or with whole idea of buying an animal online, who may be serious about finding out more before committing to buy.

I love this idea, as a seller and as a buyer. Window shoppers can indeed be a hassle, even for a small breeder. People with hundreds of animals have many others things to do than answer questions which are already addressed in their ad/store info. Many big breeders do make time for this but it’s less than ideal.

And yet, I don’t want to discourage honest questions about an animal. I am a small breeder, so when I add to the collection I’m looking for specific things, including more than the genetic info in ads. I’ve very rarely bought anything without some additional questions of the breeder. I generally preface inquiries with something like, “I’m very interested in purchasing this animal. I would appreciate more info about…” As a seller, I’m always more than happy to answer such questions myself. I do recognize that being smaller helps with having the ability to do that.

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I do agree with the concern about the phrasing, because I think it may deter people who are new to the site. While discouraging tire kickers is important, in this age of “one click purchasing”, I can order something from Amazon or have pizza delivered with one click, so I can see people new to morphmarket thinking that clicking that button might instantly result in that animal being sent to them.

As someone who has bought plenty of animals from Morphmarket, the change wouldn’t bother me because I know exactly what happens when I click that button. It brings me to the form where I can either talk myself out of buying another animal and exit the tab, or tell the buyer that their snake is gorgeous and I absolutely must have it. However to someone unfamiliar with the process, simply stating “purchase animal” is a little intimidating if you don’t know what will happen when you click the button. Maybe “Inquire to purchase” instead?

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Superb idea Hillary. I like that one the most too.

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I’d like to add my 2 cents as a buyer. I’ve purchased many ball pythons from MM but I’ve also had questions that weren’t answered by just the general ad. I do also acknowledge that answering a hundred questions must be bothersome, and that people don’thave all days to go back and forth constantly (add in the window shoppers too)…however, there have been times where there was no weight listed, or no updated weights listed, do they eat live or f/t, what was sire and dam, etc. For me as a long-time buyer, seeing the new button makes me feel quite hesitant and pressured to buy. I mean, there are cases where an answer to my question swayed me to purchase an animal and a rude seller’s condescending answer kept me from purchasing.

So, I can see both sides of the argument, but “inquiring to buy” seems less off-putting from a buyer’s standpoint, especially to a first-time buyer. “Purchase” seems set in stone for me. Thanks for reading.

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Same exact reaction from me. We should feel free to ASK questions without commiting.
It has put me off inquiring about an animal I’m interested in too.
Good communication is what we should promote.
Its not ebay - click and buy.
I may ask additional information about a few animals before choosing, I am a good buyer according to my ratings though
I want to ‘Purchase’ is a commitment to me. Interested is just that. I’m interested, tell me more.

Edit: as a seller too I want people to ask questions and not just click and buy. I want the animal to be right for them and for them to have full information, otherwise that can create problems down the line.

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Love the feedback guys :muscle:

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As someone who has made many MM purchases over the years, this doesn’t bother me personally as a BUYER. However, for the potential customer that is new to MM, I see this as a very bad change.

As a SELLER, I love answering questions about the animals I produce. In fact, at times this has even led to a new customer purchasing a different animal from me that was a better fit for them. I see this change as a discouragement to asking questions that can lead to a purchase. As sellers we have to contend with some customers that ask a million questions, only to ghost us after we answer, but this comes with the territory in sales. I’m not interested in scaring off customers in order to save a little aggravation over some tire kickers.

As a final note, psychologically this can make a potential buyer feel as though they are giving up ground in a negotiation if they click a button that says “purchase animal”.

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I may not be the first to suggest this, but what about 2 buttons? A more information button and a purchase button. That way a very serious buyer that may be concerned about missing out on a good deal can express their level of seriousness. Someone who needs more information can communicate that. The inquiry to the seller would indicate which button the customer selected.

Thoughts?

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I really hope something changes. Two buttons, drop-down menu, change of wording to something more like inquiry. It really feels to me that the current wording is off-putting, which is not who we who of MorphMarket are as a community nor as a marketing entity.

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At minimum, I, as a seller, feel I should be given the option to choose how it appears on my page.

The page the customer is directed to also comes off as kind of off-putting to me; as if I am about selling and nothing more. I care greatly about the animals I am selling. They are more than just a $ amount /sale to me.
I specifically don’t like the part where it reads:
“State your intent: I’d like to buy the animal”
I feel it’d be more welcoming if it said something like:
"State your intent: I’d like to buy the animal or I have a question about the animal?

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I think two button option is not the way to go.

  1. the seller could bypass the “question” option and only read “buy” option.
  2. if this starts to happen, everyone will just use the “buy” option. This will make the other one obsolete.
  3. having a drop down option will end up doing the same thimg.

New users and not so frequent buyers will be turned off on just a “buy” button. Not knowing if they will be locked in to buy, they will just not do it.

The only and best option would be to change the wording. As someone stated “inquire to purchase” sounds like the best way solution.

I don’t know if this is part of the new management, but it seems like there are a lot of changes happening and most have not been good ones. This is typically of a new take over, but bad for current, loyal, dedicated users. This place was built by user input. That made this place a hit and people felt wanted. Now people no longer feel this way. Most will not say anything, out of fear. Others will just move on to other places.

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I’ve been mulling this over for a few days now. I strongly agree that the button should either say “Inquire” or “Inquire to Purchase”. I initially thought the two button or drop down menu was a good compromise, but then I was thinking about which button would I choose to use as a buyer. I never go into a transaction without the intent to purchase, but I also rarely go into a transaction without also having some inquiries about the animal. And only if the answers are satisfactory do I then purchase. So I think with two options, I would be worried that the seller wouldn’t take me seriously if I chose the non-purchase button. So I’d feel forced to choose the purchase button and then feel a bit guilty if a sale didn’t happen because the answers to my questions weren’t what I wanted.

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I am not a big time business, but I currently have ~70 animals available. Maybe it’s coincidence, maybe not, but since the change to “Purchase Animal”, I have had zero new inquiries and zero questions asked of me for now the 5th day. This is concerning to me as a seller. Previously, over the past month, there was a day here or there that I didn’t receive one, but never this many days in a row.
I’m curious if others have seen a down turn.

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I have also noticed a drop in inquiries since this change was made but the time window is too short for me to draw a straight line from the wording change to this drop in inquiries. It could be that people are busy with Memorial Day or with graduations or with vacation plans or preoccupied with the debt ceiling or who knows.

I am concerned that this change was made without community input. It changes the tone of what a potential buyer sees as the first, direct interaction between buyer and seller.

Further, the MorphMarket site states that “Our Mission” is:
“To support and advance the herpetoculture industry. We promote the ethical keeping and efficient and legitimate commerce of reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates.”

After a lot of consideration, and reading all of the thoughtful responses here, I have to say that I think this change is not reflective of who we are. Buying living things is and should be different from buying pizza or car parts or towels. I don’t even think this change promotes “efficient commerce” as I agree with others that it’s off-putting to newer site users/buyers.

I hope we change this. Soon.

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