How Product Pricing Online Can Influence Buying Behavior

The psychology behind e-commerce is quite amazing. I’m an avid online shopper and am often surprised at all the things that I buy that I didn’t really need but it was just too cool or too good a deal to pass up! This infographic from Wikibuy, 13 Psychological Pricing Hacks to Increase Sales, describes the impact of pricing and how buying behavior can be influenced easily with some minor tweaks.

Psychological pricing is an effective sales-driving strategy for businesses. By tapping into human psychology and the way consumers perceive price and value, businesses are able to price products more attractively and influence purchasing decisions. In addition to amended price structures, offering discount prices, BOGO offers, and coupons is another research-backed way to influence sales.

Wikibuy

Don’t let the term psychological pricing and hacks turn you off. The fact is, over the years we’ve educated online users on what to look for in a great deal and our competitors are relying on these methods significantly. While you may feel like this is manipulative, it’s both mainstream and solid best practices in optimizing your pricing online.

What is Anchoring?

Product anchoring is a strategy where the consumer is presented with an immediate product or pricing comparison in order to heavily weigh their buying decision.

What is Charm Pricing and the Left Digit Effect?

When reading prices, there’s a strategy known as the left digit effect where consumers place disproportionate attention to the leftmost digit in a price. So a price like $19.99 conceptually seems closer to $10 than $20. This is known as charm pricing.

What is Bundle Pricing?

Grouping relevant products into a single, discounted purchase is known as bundle pricing. It’s often utilized to eliminate overstocked items that aren’t selling as well.

Here are the 13 pricing optimization methods:

1. Display pricing in small fonts so they’re perceived to be smaller prices.
2. Show premium options first so the second appears to be a bargain.
3. Use bundle pricing to convince consumers that they’re getting a higher-value purchase with a steep discount for multiple items.
4. Remove the comma from prices so that they’re perceived as lower prices.
5. Give consumers an option to pay in installments so they anchor their minds to the smaller price.
6. Offer three items with varying prices with the one you want them to buy in the middle.
7. Position low prices to the left to follow left-to-right conceptual behavior on pricing.
8. Use rounded numbers for emotional purchases and non-rounded numbers for rational purchases.
9. Price from high to low vertically to follow top-to-bottom conceptual behavior on value.
10. Add visual contrast by changing the font, size, and color of the sale item and place it slightly further away from other pricing to draw attention.
11. When pricing, use words like low and small to associate the purchase with a smaller magnitude.
12. End prices in $9 to change the perception of the price to be smaller.
13. Remove dollar signs to change the perception of the product price. In a Cornell study, consumers spent 8% more when the dollar sign was eliminated