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A Penny Saved: Psychological Pricing

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11–20 of 46 posts

Re: A Penny Saved: Psychological Pricing

#11

British supermarkets have plenty of products priced at round pounds, or £x.50. This is particularly the case with BOGOF deals, e.g. two packets of cheese might cost £3 whereas individually they may cost £1.89 each. Why is this? There are two reasons. The round price is an honest price, nobody has tried to fiddle the price to look less than it is by putting the 99 in there. Secondly, for those shopping to a budget, e.…

It might be to differentiate from the competition. You might see enough orders from people picking the .95 over the .99 to make a difference.

Re: A Penny Saved: Psychological Pricing

#14

British supermarkets have plenty of products priced at round pounds, or £x.50. This is particularly the case with BOGOF deals, e.g. two packets of cheese might cost £3 whereas individually they may cost £1.89 each. Why is this? There are two reasons. The round price is an honest price, nobody has tried to fiddle the price to look less than it is by putting the 99 in there. Secondly, for those shopping to a budget, e.…

Speaking of "two for $X", i've noticed plenty of shops leave it to the consumer to assume that they have to buy two when in fact the price of one is $X/2.

Safeway does this a lot.

Re: A Penny Saved: Psychological Pricing

#15
post #5

Interestingly, in Australia where taxes are in the sticker price, most retail prices are .99 or .95. When I was in the US, where the taxes mean you have no idea what the checkout price will be, it was weird to see so many prices at .29, 39, .59 and so on. I assume it was tax-related, because forking over cash and getting shitty amounts of coins back is not something that's common in Australia, but a necessity of the…

> There's no 'leave a penny/take a penny' tray in Australian retail culture, for example.

There wasn't one when I was a boy in the US, at least not that I remember. I think that they started to be a thing around the time I graduated college, and of course they're now everywhere. Just today I paid for some coffee and got back an integer number of dollars because the clerk made up the cost. Of course, it was in her interest, because I throw change or a dollar into the tip jar when the tab is small enough that the tip is less than a dollar.

Re: A Penny Saved: Psychological Pricing

#17
post #14

British supermarkets have plenty of products priced at round pounds, or £x.50. This is particularly the case with BOGOF deals, e.g. two packets of cheese might cost £3 whereas individually they may cost £1.89 each. Why is this? There are two reasons. The round price is an honest price, nobody has tried to fiddle the price to look less than it is by putting the 99 in there. Secondly, for those shopping to a budget, e.…

Speaking of "two for $X", i've noticed plenty of shops leave it to the consumer to assume that they have to buy two when in fact the price of one is $X/2. Safeway does this a lot.

Back when I worked at Target, it was also this way. As I understood it, the system simply did not allow for a multiple item discount. The "3 for $4" ads did always say, in fine print, something like: unit price $1.33.

What got me was that a 12-pack of certain replacement razors was more expensive than three four-packs. I distinctly remember that one, having done a double take and checking my math with a friend.

Re: A Penny Saved: Psychological Pricing

#18
post #2

I would love a once-and-for-all answer on this topic. Hell, even a rule of thumb like "If you are positioning your product for the mid to high end market, go with X"

There's no once-and-for-all answer, but this is what I would go with:

* 99p may fool less numerate customers into believing they are paying less than they are. A fair proportion of the general population are not numerate enough to add £1.99 and £1.99. If these are in your target market and you find that ethically OK, you may be profiting from that. [Edited to add: sum deliberately chosen from experience; coincidentally matches article data]

* "Random" prices such as 86p can give a psychological sense that you have cut off as much as you can (even if you really haven't), attracting savvy shoppers, as long as you have a reasonably trustworthy brand on this point.

* Pricing even a penny or two less than the competition will attract price sensitive customers, particularly online. A lot of the general population are indeed price sensitive and are able to compare prices thanks to the internet. This depends on whether your level of service is perceived as reasonably comparable/fungible.

* Round prices e.g. £100,000 can give a sense of luxury or quality - you are not discounting because you are providing a high value product. Discounting often undermines any perception of quality - it's plausible that you would make fewer sales at £99,999

* a few pence difference is a bigger hit on (much bigger percentage of) your retail profit margin than it is on the customer's pocket. Research shows inconclusive results, and if it's not costing you sales, you should probably not take off the pennies.

It's interesting to compare this to the neighbour thread about developer rates - I doubt there are many developers charging £49.99 per hour [Edited to add: it's not even possible to select that as an option!]

Re: A Penny Saved: Psychological Pricing

#19
post #4

I love buying when prices are quoted in even amounts, especially if they include the tax. It makes me sad that we humans are so affected by tactics like this and that sellers (rationally) take advantage of them.

Me too. I know I'm in the minority with this, but I much prefer to do business (repeatedly) with a firm that isn't employing bullshit tactics. It would be interesting to see a study that reflects the whole cost-per-customer, since resorting to such pricing tricks means you're inevitably attracting consumers who are extremely price driven and who may be harder to upsell or retain.

Interestingly even Apple does this on a not-so-cheap device.

http://store.apple.com/us/iphone

Re: A Penny Saved: Psychological Pricing

#20
post #4

I love buying when prices are quoted in even amounts, especially if they include the tax. It makes me sad that we humans are so affected by tactics like this and that sellers (rationally) take advantage of them.

Me too. I know I'm in the minority with this, but I much prefer to do business (repeatedly) with a firm that isn't employing bullshit tactics. It would be interesting to see a study that reflects the whole cost-per-customer, since resorting to such pricing tricks means you're inevitably attracting consumers who are extremely price driven and who may be harder to upsell or retain.

There's a burrito chain in the northeast US called Boloco, and while their prices seem pretty arbitrary, all of the post tax prices are always whole dollar amounts. It's the only place I know of in Boston that does that.
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