How to increase sales by simply adding 9 or .99
There is a strategy in marketing called Pricing Psychology which based the theory is that certain prices can have a psychological impact and can make more sales than others. So how can you put this into practice in your business?
Instead of charging £10 for your product or service for instance, consider charging £9.99. Even though it is only a few pence less, people seem to think that it sounds cheaper. Even on high priced items the same tricks can work.
For instance, you have probably never seen a car advertised for £30,000. Instead, you’ll see it advertised for something like £29,999.
Amazingly enough, on that last example, some people will walk away thinking that the car is £29,000 in their head (even though they are smart enough to know that it is obviously £30,000).
In the past many marketers have used 9 or .99 to end the numbers in, but it seems that there’s been a growing trend lately that 7, .97, 5, or .95 seem to stand out even more and appear even less expensive. Crazy stuff, but it can definitely work. It is doubtful that you will miss those few pennies after increasing your conversions.
Did you know that over 60% of prices actually end in the number 9?
The reason is simply called ‘left digital effect’
We will judge a product by the left digit – so if we see a price of £9.99 we will see it as £9 instead of £9.99
The power of the number 9
As we have noted from this article the number 9 is the most used and oldest pricing ‘trick’ because as we all know it works very well. All of us see these prices as lower than they actually are and that is why we will purchase them. All consumers have been conditioned to think that they prices are lower than they actually are (as referred to above)
You can make the power of 9 work in your favour as studies have shown that the same item priced at £45 and also £49 – that the £49 item will produce greater sales due to the power of 9 at the end of the price tag. This can also work for you if for example you have an item at £45 and reducing it to £39 would not be cost effective then change the price to £49 and see what happens!
Takeaway: Consider adjusting your price points to end in 7, .97, 5, or .95 to make your prices seem cheaper and help increase conversions.