Why charging $12/year converts higher than $9.99

Post by ams6110 » Fri, Feb 04, 2011, 5:31 AM UTC

noodle wrote: post #27

brudgers wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My take - People see one and two and those are the two lowest numerals. Fill their brain up with nines and somewhere there are synapses firing which say that's a lot. It's not like $10 is a huge psychological barrier in the same way $1000 is.

so then that means $10 would convert even better?

Post by jonathanjaeger » Fri, Feb 04, 2011, 5:38 AM UTC

nikster wrote: post #30

swores wrote: post #2

Is the reason that $12 converted better than $9.99 definitely because users are able to visualise it as one dollar a month? Maybe people see the .99 and are trained to think "99 cents is a marketing plan to make me think it's cheaper than it is", thus causing it to have the opposite effect? Maybe people see $9.99 as a generic price, implying it was picked fairly randomly, whereas $12 is a slightly odd number to chose…

Maybe they introduced this new price with a tagline - "A buck a month!". I am pretty sure it's because of that, very simple, people like simple. I like simple.

Post by wazoox » Fri, Feb 04, 2011, 8:05 AM UTC

anamax wrote: post #25

v21 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The £.99 pricing also makes people in shops operate the till every time to make change, preventing theft.

> The £.99 pricing also makes people in shops operate the till every time to make change, preventing theft. In most US states, the listed price isn't the amount that the customer actually pays. In most retail establishments, sales tax isn't included. In most online sales, there's some shipping and handling fee. As a result, even a "round number" price ends up being something like $12.31.

Post by samtp » Fri, Feb 04, 2011, 8:40 AM UTC

ams6110 wrote: post #33

linuxhansl wrote: post #6

Speaking from personal preference: I always prefer "honest" numbers like $1, $10, $12, $60, etc, rather than marketing number such as $0.99, $9.99, or even $55.59 (they seem sleazy and to an extent insulting - as if I cannot work out that $9.99 is almost identical to $10).

There is a study, though I don't have a reference, that showed that .99 prices were used most often by discount stores, or their equivalent. They signal "cheap" to the buyer. Whole-number prices are seen in more upscale shops, they signal "quality".

Post by aisi » Fri, Feb 04, 2011, 9:43 AM UTC

detst wrote: post #39

wazoox wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIL this is a very specific (and weird) US idiosyncrasy. In all other countries I can remember, you pay the price displayed.

Sure, it sounds nice to have a price and know that's exactly what you're paying but I prefer the US way. I want to be reminded how much of a cut the government is taking. I don't want taxes to be hidden in the price of my purchase. I want to know that an increase in price is due to some business factor or if the government is taking a larger cut.