Roll Those Price Quote Wheels-Within-Wheels

You can find research to support almost any approach you take to pricing. Some of the advice from the research seems to conflict with other advice. This suggests it all might be nonsense.
     To be sure, the reaction of a shopper to a retailer’s price quote depends to a certain extent on factors you—the retailer—would have trouble determining until you know the shopper well. Still, there are guidelines well-grounded in research that do make sense. They are like wheels-within-wheels, with the most applicable advice containing inside it tips for certain conditions and exceptions.
     That’s the form in which I’ll present them below. This way, you can proceed to the point where your brain starts yelling, “I’m full for now! Stop to give me a little rest!”

• Set prices that end in a 99. $3.99 is better than $4.00 or $3.95. $499.00 will look more attractive to the shopper than $500.00 and will not look less attractive than $495.00.
• But when quoting better-best alternatives to customers, say whole dollar amounts. If the items are priced at $29.99 and $39.99, say, “This one costs less than $30, and this one costs less than $40. Here are the extra benefits for the additional $10.”
• Also use whole dollar pricing for gift items, luxury items, and fun items.
• But if you’re broadly advertising a cut-rate store image, use odd-cents pricing, such as $8.37, to convey that you’ve cut every last penny from the cost.
• When discounting, state the percentage of the discount rather than the dollar amount.
• But you can make a discount look more attractive by filling it with 1’s and 2’s. For example, a discount from $222.99 to $211.99 looks more attractive to most customers than a discount from $199.99 to $188.99, although the second discount is actually a larger percentage of the regular price.
• That last one applies when the signage and sales tag include both the regular price and the reduced price. However, if you are saying the price to a shopper, such as in a voice call, the rule is different. “We’ve reduced the price from ten dollars to seven dollars, sixty-six cents,” sounds like a better deal than, “We’ve reduced the price from ten dollars to seven dollars, twenty-two cents.” This is because the sounds of “s” in “sixty-six” imply “small” and “smooth,” but the sounds of “t” in “twenty-two” are sharper and imply “tension.”

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

Click below for more:
Discount for Shoppers’ Eyes & Ears
Round Prices to Whole Dollars for Better-Best