Price lists are an important tool for businesses. They’re not just a menu of options. They’re a key element of a business’s pricing strategy. They are potential customers’ first impression and can be used as an effective communication tool to showcase your market positioning and demonstrate your value proposition.

This article explains what price lists are, why they’re important to French businesses, and how to create a price list that fits your business model and boosts sales.

What’s in this article?

• What is a price list?
  
• Why should you create a price list?
  
• Who should use price lists?
  
• How to create a price list
  
• How Stripe Billing can help
  

What is a price list?

A price list is a physical or digital document that presents the products or services a company offers and how much they cost. Price lists are a clear, easy way for potential customers to quickly view a company’s products and the prices it charges. Such lists can take many forms, including flyers, brochures, catalogs, webpages, or PDFs.

There are several types of price lists:

• Standard price lists: These present all of a company’s products or services and their fixed prices. Standard price lists are used in restaurants and in retail (e.g., clothing or furniture stores, ecommerce websites).
  
• Tiered price lists: Tiered price lists display different prices based on the quantity purchased or level of service selected. These are often used by service providers, software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms, gyms, photographers, etc.
  
• Personalized price lists: These are customized for specific customers or projects and might include negotiated rates or exclusive agreement or payment terms.
  

What does a price list include?

A price list should include certain information important to potential customers, like an overview of the products and services, descriptions, rates, taxes, appropriate subscription packages or add-ons, and agreement or payment terms.

Here’s a closer look at the basic elements of a price list:

• Overview of products and services: Price lists include every product or service that the company offers, often categorized by pricing tier (e.g., free, basic, standard, premium).
  
• Description: Price lists should include basic information for each item listed (e.g., origin, ingredients, specifications, features, benefits, number of users or modules, options).
  
• Rates: The price—which can be a unit price, monthly or annual subscription fee, flat rate, or discounted rate—should be stated clearly for each product or service to make pricing clear.
  
• Discounts: Depending on the company’s strategy, price lists might include discounts or special offers based on the season, customer type, volume (of purchases or users), or customer loyalty tier.
  
• Taxes: Prices should be labeled as pretax (HT) or including tax (TTC).
  
• Agreement terms: For services, price lists should also include terms of use, like the length of the agreement, the number of authorized users, the number of service hours included, and customer support availability.
  
• Payment terms: Price lists should state billing and due dates clearly, whether customers are billed one time, on a recurring schedule (monthly or annually), or based on usage.
  

Why should you create a price list?

Creating a price list is a key part of any company’s pricing strategy. It’s a tool for communicating with customers as well as a roadmap that contributes to a business’s commercial and financial success. Price lists can help clarify a business’s offers, save time in sales discussions, keep business models consistent, and improve customer relations.

• Ensure clarity and transparency: Price lists should clearly list the products and services offered as well as the associated costs. A clear, easy-to-read price list gives potential customers a quick overview of different options, content, and prices so they can plan ahead.
  
• Save time: A standardized price list allows salespeople to save time in their interactions with prospective clients. Having a price list on hand avoids the need for repeated calls or messages requesting information, speeding up negotiations, and increasing the conversion rate of initial conversations.
  
• Achieve pricing consistency: A price list keeps managers and sales teams on the same page and avoids inconsistencies in pricing. Whether you’re overcharging or undercharging, inconsistent pricing is confusing to customers and could even lead to lawsuits. In both cases, the company’s image can be tarnished.
  
• Improve customer relations: A clear, organized price list shows that a company is serious and professional, allows customers to easily compare various options, and builds trust with potential customers who are then more likely to accept the terms of purchase.
  

Who should use price lists?

Though price lists can be used by any type of business in France, they’re particularly useful for businesses that charge rates that vary by tier, context (e.g., season, customer type), or usage, or that charge flat rates or subscription fees.

Price lists are particularly useful for the following types of businesses and professionals:

• Service providers: Architects, photographers, wedding planners, event planners
  
• Companies with subscription or flat-rate models: Streaming platforms, gyms, SaaS platforms, beauty salons, telecommunications services
  
• Utility companies: Water, gas, electricity
  
• Nonprofit organizations: Local authorities, sports clubs, cultural institutions
  

How to create a price list

To create an effective price list that’s compelling to potential customers and boosts your business, you should:

• Define your offer
  Before even considering pricing, you should define what you want to sell. What is the customer’s problem? How does your product or service solve it? And what is the value of your solution (saving money, saving time, improving performance, increasing visibility or revenue)? Next, you should communicate the offer in simple, easy-to-understand terms.

• Segment your target audience
  Once you’ve defined the offer, you should determine who your customers are: their demographic, budget, needs or requirements, goals, and priorities. Then, segment them by what influences their decision: delivery time, cost, or preferences (pricing model, features, customer support). Determine how your target customers make their purchasing decisions, what they’re comparing you to, and the type of pricing they’re looking for (flat rate, usage-based, or tiered). This will help you create a menu of options aimed at each customer segment.

• Structure your offers
  Create offers for each customer segment following a clear, logical progression. For customers on a budget, consider creating an initial basic or starter package with only essential features. For customers with more to spend and a need for more features, a standard package might offer the best value. For the customer segment prioritizing quality and performance above all else, you could create a deluxe premium or expert package. Price lists designed using this method generate an escalator effect that pushes customers toward middle and high-end options.

• Define the content of each offer
  Clearly define what’s included in each offer: the product or service, features, operational limitations, deliverables, options, terms of agreement, payment terms, terms of use, etc. At this stage, it’s important to ensure that content is clear and transparent to avoid customer confusion and needless back-and-forth communications.

• Determine your pricing
  Your price list should be consistent with your goals: fast growth, profitability, customer loyalty, etc. Depending on your objectives, options might include freemium models, balanced offers that ensure healthier margins or higher average spend, or lower prices contingent on an annual contract. Make sure to indicate whether additional fees apply to any of the offers. You should also consider how prospective customers perceive your offers, particularly in relation to your market positioning and direct or indirect competition. Whatever your strategy, your price structure should be simple and easy to understand.

• Add-ons
  Depending on your business model, you can offer add-ons that let customers customize their purchase, increasing their average spend. Examples include more users or modules, popular advanced features, premium customer support, or extended warranties. But be careful: add-ons should make sense in relation to the base offers and create value. Also, don’t offer so many that customers are overwhelmed.

• Choose the price list format
  Your price list can be physical, digital, or both, depending on your industry. For example, SaaS platforms should post price lists on their homepage or on a dedicated pricing page. Gyms might display price lists on their website as well as at the gym in the form of a flyer or brochure. An effective price list is clear and easy to understand, answers customer questions at a glance, and features a call to action (e.g., subscribe, make an appointment, request a demo, buy now).

• Design your price list
  The price list’s design is an important factor for customers and can make or break a sale. An appealing price list is attractive and well thought-out but not cluttered. Similarly, customers should be able to choose an offer easily, quickly, and without hesitating. Offers should clearly indicate who they’re intended for, and the “best” offer should be visually highlighted.

• Test, analyze, and tweak
  A price list is a living roadmap that you can adapt and tweak based on results and the customer experience. Evaluate its performance regularly using KPIs to measure what’s working and what isn’t (for instance, the most popular and least popular offers, the rate of abandoned carts, the most common add-ons, or frequent obstacles). Tweak your offers based on real customer behavior and your objectives, adjusting your pricing if necessary.

How Stripe Billing can help

Stripe Billing lets you bill and manage customers however you want—from simple recurring billing to usage-based billing and sales-negotiated contracts. Start accepting recurring payments globally in minutes—no code required—or build a custom integration using the API.

Stripe Billing can help you:

• Offer flexible pricing: Respond to user demand faster with flexible pricing models, including usage-based, tiered, flat-fee plus overage, and more. Support for coupons, free trials, prorations, and add-ons is built-in.

• Expand globally: Increase conversion by offering customers’ preferred payment methods. Stripe supports 125+ local payment methods and 130+ currencies.

• Increase revenue and reduce churn: Improve revenue capture and reduce involuntary churn with Smart Retries and recovery workflow automations. Stripe recovery tools helped users recover over $6.5 billion in revenue in 2024.

• Boost efficiency: Use Stripe’s modular tax, revenue reporting, and data tools to consolidate multiple revenue systems into one. Easily integrate with third-party software.

Learn more about Stripe Billing, or get started today.