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Actually what the motivation in having price point ending in .99? Why can't I simply price my app at, for instance, 10? I understand there is a pricing psycholo
by a_c 4y ago
Actually what the motivation in having price point ending in .99? Why can't I simply price my app at, for instance, 10? I understand there is a pricing psychology in play and I faintly remember it has something to do with accounting but I can't recall the specifics. Can anyone shed some insight?
- coder543 4y ago> Why can't I simply price my app at, for instance, 10? The article says you can. It's one of the "supported conventions".
- a_c 4y agoMy bad, completely missed the second table. Thanks for pointing it out!
- nine_k 4y agoThe psychology is (allegedly) simple. When you see a price like $4.99, unless you're pre-conditioned, you are expected to read it as FOUR-99, essentially $4, even though it's $5 for all practical purposes. Often it is styled as $4.⁹⁹ to double down on this effect. This looks silly, and many people, including me, have taught themselves to recognize this pattern and round the price correctly without a mental effort. Some people, of course, fall for it; I suppose younger kids are heavily affected.
- ryandrake 4y agoHow can it be that anyone in the world falls for this anymore? My daughter recognized this obvious pattern when she was 7 years old: "It's $5, dad, why don't they just say $5?" I wonder if pricing something at $4.99 have anything more than a vague subliminal effect these days?
- stephencanon 4y agoEveryone is absolutely consciously aware of it, and this has always been true. It still works just fine via your subconscious.
- jtsiskin 4y agoImagine two apps you’re scrolling by in the App Store. One is $5, the other is $4.99. Barely going attention (essentially picking subconsciously rather than consciously), you choose one to click first. What are the odds you clicked the $4.99 one?
- hackernewds 4y agoZero
- cactus2093 4y agoPart of it is that people want to be tricked. If I want to buy something but I'm on the fence about whether it's worth $5 then I think the $4.99 price works as like a semi-subconscious plausible deniability mechanism to let me allow myself to buy it.
- rootusrootus 4y agoAnd then there are gas stations, infamous for taking it another step and including another tenth of a penny.
- frosted-flakes 4y agoOnly American gas stations. They go so far as to have the 9/10 of a cent fraction as a permanent part of the sign.
- jamesvnz 4y agoThe majority of New Zealand petrol stations display the fractional cent too. Same in Australia from memory.
- frosted-flakes 4y agoOh I didn't know that. They don't do this is Canada. Fuel here is priced to the tenth of a cent (192.5 cents per litre), but it's not fixed to 9/10.
- jamesvnz 4y agoOh - I misread the comment. It's not fixed - they're all digital. Apologies.
- eastbound 4y agoFrench stations too, they’ve introduced the 1.779€ a liter pricing a dozen years ago, so, 4 significant numbers. On a 100€ refill, it’s 10 cents, ie a drop.
- frosted-flakes 4y agoIs it always 9/10 of a cent though, or does it vary?
- jameshart 4y ago
- travem 4y agoIn addition to the other replies (which I agree with) about the psychological aspects, another aspect historically is that avoiding round numbers meant that change had to be given when making a purchase. I.e. if you bought something that cost $5 you could just hand the $5 to the cashier and they could just avoid ringing you up and pocket the money. In contrast if the object cost $4.99 or $4.95 say they would have to ring it up in the till so they could open it to provide change to the customer.
- blowski 4y agoAnother story: a newspaper seller - whose newspaper cost 1 penny - encouraged .99 price points to increase the number of pennies in pockets. I heard this on Tom Scott's Podcast "Lateral" recently.