Among the most effective ways to increase sales of an online service i

Question

Among the most effective ways to increase sales of an online service is to offer some form of free trial for users to experiment with before they purchase the full service. The benefit of such a practice is to encourage sales in individuals who would not buy the product without having tried it first.

Which of the following is best supported by the information given above?

A. The number of people who see the free trial as an acceptable replacement for buying the online service is not greater than the number of people who buy the online service because of their experience within the free trial.

B. Because the cost of offering a free trial can be high, companies are often resistant to offering free trials, especially free trials that offer all features included within the paid version of the online service.

C. In calculating the total number of an online service sold, free trials are generally included as zero-dollar sales rather than as a separate category.

D. The number of sales for a given online service is directly proportional to the number of visitors to the online service's website, a number that tends to increase if a free trial is offered.

E. Online services that are easily adapted to free trial versions sell better than do online services that are not readily distributed as free trials.

eswarchethu135 · Answer

Choices B, C, E are irrelevant. So Eliminated.
Now from options A & D, D is talking about no. of visitors to the website but not anything about sales. So Eliminated.

My choice is A

AdityaHongunti · Answer

Among the most effective ways to increase sales of an online service is to offer some form of free trial for users to experiment with before they purchase the full service. The benefit of such a practice is to encourage sales in individuals who would not buy the product without having tried it first.
Understand :
1)AMONG (not only) most eff ways- to inc sales of ONLINE service(not all services) - offer free trial- Goal- exp before then purchase 
2)BENEFIT - encourage sales - in whom? who would NOT BUY WITHOUT TRYING FIRST......( the argument has especially mentioned whihc group we are talking about .)

Which of the following is best supported by the information given above?
- Inference ...  NOT  must be true

A. The number of people who see the free trial as an acceptable replacement for buying the online service is not greater than the number of people who buy the online service because of their experience within the free trial.
- COORECT- the author mentions a BENEFIT ( encourage SALES ) and the goal - increase the likelihood of purchase.
 if the ans choice were opposite  and the people who who view free trial as a REPLACEMENT for buying , then this directly negates the benefit mentioned by the author and hence makes the PLAN futile. SO this answer is correct.

B. Because the cost of offering a free trial can be high, companies are often resistant to offering free trials, especially free trials that offer all features included within the paid version of the online service.
- WRONG- no mention of  COSTS.

C. In calculating the total number of an online service sold, free trials are generally included as zero-dollar sales rather than as a separate category.
- WRONG-  Calculating  the total no. NOT MENTIONED.

D. The number of sales for a given online service is directly proportional to the number of visitors to the online service's website, a number that tends to increase if a free trial is offered.
-WRONG-  NO CORRELATION  given between sales and no. of visitors.

E. Online services that are easily adapted to free trial versions sell better than do online services that are not readily distributed as free trials. 
- WRONG - NO COMPARISON  between two types of online services

Vinodsai1995 · Answer

I think the answer should be D. Since it talks sales directly related to number of visitors to the website.

Sent from my iPhone using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

AdityaHongunti · Answer

My friend lemme tell u something...
CR RC AND SC Are all about MODIFFIERS . One word can push the ans choice into hell.

Option D:

The number of sales for a given online service IS DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to the number of visitors to the online service's website, a number that tends to increase if a free trial is offered.

your reasoning may be right that the author does mention about sales and number of visitors... But does it Tell us that the both are DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL? This is too strong a word my friend.
One increases and then second has to increase...No this may not be true... Look carefully at the argument ...the author just says that BENEFIT is that people will TRY the free trial version ...but does he mention that it will result in sale? NO... 
Secondly, this option generalised the argument...the argument specifically talks about people WHO DO NOT BUY WITHOUT FREE TRIAL... There may be millions who don't need a free trial and purchase directly...
Thirdly, the argument NEVER tells us that there IS. A correlation... No he is just giving us a plan and mentioning a benefit and that too within a narrow scope ( a particular group) ...

I suggest you to read EACH AND EVERYWORD and then see if it is mentioned in the passage...

Happy GMATing

Posted from my mobile device

alexkozhura · Answer

I have a problem with A. Let's try to negate it.

Let's imagine that our sales are 0. We start offering free trials. 10 users try our product, and 4 of those 10 buy it later. A is negated (there are indeed more people who got the product for free then those who have chosen to pay for it: 6 v. 4), but our sales still have increased by 4 (from 0 to 4).

Therefore, negating A doesn't ruin the argument. Either there must be a better answer choice, or the question is flawed.

adstudy · Answer

Hi Experts,

Please help in providing a detailed solution of this question.
I am still confused between A and D. I still understand D to be a better option.

Bunuel · Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

As with any inference question, your job here is to understand the information given and to choose an answer choice guaranteed by the text. You are told in this stimulus to this question that free trials are meant to increase sales of the full version of an online service by giving users who would not buy the service without trying it first a chance to experiment with it. Choice (A) is the only answer choice that is guaranteed by the text. If the number of people who find that the free trial was a good substitute is bigger than the number of people who are incentivized to buy the full online service because of the free trial, then the ability to experiment before you try the full service would not only be meaningless, it would be counter to the reason that companies offer free trials.

Among the other answers, choice (B) can be eliminated because there is no information about what makes companies more or less likely to offer free trials. Choice (C) can be eliminated because there is no information given about the spread of companies’ free versus paid sales. Choice (D) can be eliminated because there is no information about whether the two values are directly proportional at all. Choice (E) can be eliminated for similar reasons to choice (B). there is no information about the importance of the ease of creating a free trial.

KarishmaB · Answer

We are looking for the conclusion of the argument. Negating the option is used when we are looking for an assumption. 
Anyway, since we are looking for the conclusion, negating the correct option is equivalent to negating the conclusion here.

(A) The number of people who see the free trial as an acceptable replacement for buying the online service is not greater than the number of people who buy the online service because of their experience within the free trial.

There are two scenarios: "No free trial" vs "Give free trial"
The argument says that "give free trial" gets more business.

"Give free trial" works in two ways - 
One, there are people who would have bought the product in "no free trial" scenario but after using the free trial, they don't feel the need to buy it anymore. For example, think of a video game. User X would have bought it but he played the game in the trial version and was satisfied. He doesn't need to buy it anymore. So this will decrease the potential sale. 
Two, there are people who wouldn't buy the product in "no free trial" scenario. But they see the free trial and enjoy their experience with it so they buy it. This increases the sale.

Since the argument is telling us that "give free trial" gets more business, we know that the second point trumps over first. This is what (A) is saying - that second point has more impact (people) than the first.

The comparison is not between people who buy and those who don't after checking the free trial (as you suggested)
It is between those who would have bought without free trial but did not with free trial and those who would not have bought without free trial but did after free trial.

KarishmaB · Answer

I have explained (A) above.
Note that (D) is certainly incorrect.

(D) The number of sales for a given online service is directly proportional to the number of visitors to the online service's website ...

We cannot conclude any relation between sales and visitors to website, much less a directly proportional one. The argument doesn't tell us anything about this. We need to find the conclusion. The conclusion should have no new information.

alexkozhura · Answer

VeritasKarishma

Dear Karishma,

Thank you for your explanation, and for pointing out that it's not an assumption question. Good point.

However, nowhere in A do we find any indication that we are talking about customers who would have bought the product without a free trial. Here's the sentence:
 
The number of people who see the free trial as an acceptable replacement for buying the online service is not greater than the number of people who buy the online service because of their experience within the free trial.

I don't think there's any indication in this sentence that we talk here about customers  who would have bought the product without a free trial .

I usually try to translate a complicated argument into a simple real-world example. Wikipedia would be a good analogy here. Wikipedia offers the same service to everyone. Most use Wikipedia for free; some people (I'm sure that the number is less than 1%) donate to Wikipedia. But even though the proportion of people who donate to Wikipedia is waaaaaay less than 50%, Wikipedia still manages to thrive on donation only. (Of course Wikipedia is a non-profit, but the analogy still works). However, if Wikipedia charged for its services something (even $1 per year), its number of users would collapse and so would its business model.

Could you please point out the flaw in my thinking?

KarishmaB · Answer

Hey  alexkozhura ,

Yes, I understand the problem you are facing, but the implication I mention is in the word choice - acceptable replacement

Think of what I mean by this - I find that black tea is an acceptable replacement of green tea.
What would this imply? That I have green tea but if required, black tea can replace it.
If I don't intend to have green tea, this statement makes no sense. Why would I need something to "replace" it then? Only if I plan to "have" it, would I "replace" it.

In the same way, "the number of people who see the free trial as an acceptable replacement for buying the online service" are those who would have bought the online service but now, since the free trial is available, they see it as an acceptable replacement of the service. Otherwise, where is the point of the free trial being a replacement?

Vinodsai1995 · Answer

Thanks buddy for the suggestions.

Sent from my iPhone using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

AKY13 · Answer

Hi VeritasKarishma,
It is an inference/assumption question not a strengthen question. 
For a inference question, this option is assuming a lot.

"The number of people who see the free trial as an acceptable replacement for buying the online service is not greater than the number of people who buy the online service because of their experience within the free trial."

The above option is supporting(strengthening) rather than getting supported by the argument. I agree D is also not perfect. 
There is no mention in the argument of people considering free trial an acceptable replacement. 
The argument doesn't cover any number comparison. We don't know whether these people -people considering free trial an acceptable replacement- are greater in number than the that of people of any other subgroup.

sayan640 · Answer

@VeritasPrepKarishma,
Can you please explain why option E is wrong ?

Posted from my mobile device

jyotsnamahajan · Answer

VeritasKarishma 
How is this an inference question? Why is this not an assumption question?

Also can you tell me what the conclusion is?

Hullas · Answer

Veritas  and  karishma  isn't E giving the conclusion too? Since online services with free trials sell more.... 
The argument provides an explanation of 'how'

Could you explain this better?

David nguyen · Answer

I agree with you too. Could some expert please explain further?

If OA said that the argument never mentioned anything about the number of sales, then the argument also neither mentioned anything about the number of ppl see the free trial as an acceptable replacement nor the number of ppl who buy the online service because of experience with the trial.

BlueCrab · Answer

B, C, E are out of scope. Only issue with D is that it says if sales increases, no. of visitors to the website will increase, something that isn't mentioned in the argument. Hence A. Hope it helps

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