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People spend more when prices end in .99 (2018)

kenthendricks.com

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Re: People spend more when prices end in .99 (2018)

#171

Post by kaba0 »

throwaway13337 wrote: post #9

I never like thinking of pricing in this way. When you price something as $9.99, you're signaling to your customer that you're trying to manipulate them. Whereas a flat $10 is honest. Integrity means a lot. The software I sell is priced in whole numbers. However, the magnitude of effect claimed in the article is huge. It's the difference between selling at cost and a huge margin. Between doing well and shutting down…

I mean, given that this pricing is used everywhere by basically every commercial body on Earth, and it is a pretty easily testable hypothesis (like, literally, you need like 30 people at most and a couple of sheets of paper), it’s pretty damn trivial to claim that.. most probably the whole market has done its homework and it is trivially reproducible.

Re: People spend more when prices end in .99 (2018)

#172

Post by kaba0 »

satvikpendem wrote: post #152
ksec wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you are selling software and your target audience are either business, enterprise or computer engineers. The trial of whole number pricing keeps coming up in Consumer and Retail every 10- 15 years and EVERY time the test shows .99 works. Despite how most of us and even my younger self hated it.

Indeed, marketers aren't stupid (but it turns out people in general are stupid, enough to fall for this trick and many others).

That’s pretty ingenious to call people dumb. This is psychology and these tricks work on you even if you trivially understand that 3.99 is not feasibly cheaper than 4.00 — your brain simply processes information non-stop in the background and you are affected by this. Hell, there was even a study that people who claim they don’t fall for these kind of marketings tricks are more susceptible to fall for this, so, take what you want from it.

Also, even knowingly false propaganda has an effect on you.

Re: People spend more when prices end in .99 (2018)

#173

Post by kaba0 »

qup wrote: post #88
indymike wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That may be true but we don't know that it is true I think a walk through a shopping mall might provide some clear evidence.

It'll provide evidence that they've studied it internally? I don't think so.

Because only software engineers developed the ability of higher-thought, every other field is just a bunch of monkeys/NPCs living life.

/s

Re: People spend more when prices end in .99 (2018)

#174

Post by kaba0 »

dennis_jeeves2 wrote: post #148
subroutine wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And many physicians still recommend putting ice on sprained ankles 5x per day to reduce the “harmful” swelling. Even though the abundance of research now shows icing delays the infiltration of proteins, hormones, and cells that aid in healing processes (and can even cause further tissue damage). Practices like this stick around because of the desire to be seen making proactive recommendations with putative benefit. W…

>Practices like this stick around because of the desire to be seen making proactive recommendations with putative benefit One manifestation of this phenomenon in it's extreme form is cancer diagnosis and treatments. Barring a few exceptions, most cancer treatments are useless.

What a thoroughly uninformed and idiotic take. The narcissism of this field is astonishing.

Re: People spend more when prices end in .99 (2018)

#175

Post by hulitu »

tracerbulletx wrote: post #11
throwaway13337 wrote: post #9

I never like thinking of pricing in this way. When you price something as $9.99, you're signaling to your customer that you're trying to manipulate them. Whereas a flat $10 is honest. Integrity means a lot. The software I sell is priced in whole numbers. However, the magnitude of effect claimed in the article is huge. It's the difference between selling at cost and a huge margin. Between doing well and shutting down…

Retailers don't do this because of published studies. They do it because they've tested it internally for the last 40 years.

For me 9.99 is 10. I don't know what they tested, but maybe they shall test again.

Re: People spend more when prices end in .99 (2018)

#176

Post by iceburgcrm »

m463 wrote: post #162
samatman wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Customer facing reasons for receipts in no particular order: - Expensing purchases to their employer or self-owned business - Record of sale to be used in returns - Reconciliation of spending with cheques or credit card statements - Budgeting and accounting generally

My suspicion is that most business owners don't care about ANY of that. even returns - it might actually be enough friction that returns would go down. for example, why would a donut shop give receipts? I have a friend who recently opened a bar. He did cash in the beginning, but finally got the electronic payments for the bar installed. He immediately caught a bartender stealing. He noticed that at the start, the bar…

It might be because an electronic payment system can accept exact tender and / or the options to tip defaults to lower payment options / easier to hide a small tip to your friends

With cash few have exact change and the table can see what you give. This leads to rarely asking for change back and putting higher amounts as it ups your social ranking.

This effect is easier to see in a bar.

Often you need to keep track of dollar per unit sold as some staff will overpour

Re: People spend more when prices end in .99 (2018)

#177

Post by feetsoup »

hulitu wrote: post #175
tracerbulletx wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Retailers don't do this because of published studies. They do it because they've tested it internally for the last 40 years.

For me 9.99 is 10. I don't know what they tested, but maybe they shall test again.

That's easy to say, but when it comes to shopping at the store, picking up several items and not actively thinking about it, are you really sure you aren't unconsciously interpreting that 9.99 differently from 10? Personally, I like to think that doesn't work on me, but at the same time I've caught myself saying something was '9 dollars' when I've been distracted and it was in fact 9.99.

And even if 9.99 really is 10 for you, it could mean that you're different than most people, rather than the methodology being faulty.

Re: People spend more when prices end in .99 (2018)

#178

Post by throwaway8195x »

OJFord wrote: post #163
johnnyanmac wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>who cares about a technique for tracking total number of any items sold? Pre-digital calculator salesmen? Time is money and being able to do a quick mental math can be helpful before doing a more detailed inventory >you could then just divide by the price, you don't need to coerce the total into being a tally mod 100. That's why they gave more than one reason. Why laser focus on criticizing a single one?

> Pre-digital calculator salesmen? For what purpose? Say you're a salesman of 7 different products/SKUs; you sold 186 products today. What do you do with that information?

I guess you can think of it as a "checksum". If your inventory count doesn't match the sales sum, something is wrong

Re: People spend more when prices end in .99 (2018)

#179

Post by GoblinSlayer »

kaba0 wrote: post #173
qup wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'll provide evidence that they've studied it internally? I don't think so.

Because only software engineers developed the ability of higher-thought, every other field is just a bunch of monkeys/NPCs living life. /s

I usually evade products with such tricks.

Re: People spend more when prices end in .99 (2018)

#180

Post by mbs159 »

everdrive wrote: post #71

I don't have any evidence for this, but intuitively it feels like this must be true for much of the bell curve of humanity. In other words, it probably doesn't work very well for some sets of folks. It's very easy to look at $18.99 and mentally think "$20 once taxes hit," which ought to dispel the illusion. It makes me wonder if there are some market segments which intentionally avoid this sort of trick since it is e…

In many countries in Europe the price of products is always written including tax.
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