By Mathilde LE PETITCORPS.
€4.99, €49.99, €74.49… You may have already noticed: prices often end with the number 9, and those displaying 99 after the decimal point are also very numerous. Do they really encourage more purchasing than prices rounded up to the nearest cent? Does this well-known commercial strategy still work with consumers today? Explanations.
A bottle of orange juice for €2.49, an oven for €299.99, an internet subscription for €19.99… You have surely noticed the prices displayed on the labels of the products, services or subscriptions of the daily life often end with the number 9. This is obviously not a coincidence. This is a well-known marketing strategy, and one that is not new.
What exactly does this marketing concept consist of? What psychological bias is it based on? Does it really encourage purchasing? Decryption with Nicolas Guéguen, teacher-researcher in behavioral sciences and co-author of a study entitled: “Price at termination “9” and influence of purchasing behavior”.
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“Make people perceive a lower price than in reality”
“This is the technique known as “magic prices” and its purpose is exclusively commercial, summarizes Nicolas Guéguen. The objective is to make the price perceived to be lower than in reality. » For example, the seller wants to give the customer the impression that they are getting a deal, by displaying an item at the price of €99.99 rather than €100.
“This pricing strategy ending in 9 should not be confused with “psychological” pricing, that is to say the optimal selling price of a product based on the consumer’s reactions to it. In this case, if the price is too high, the customer will not buy. If it is too low, he will think that it is not qualitative,” continues Nicolas Guéguen.
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The magic price technique is more rational, it is mainly practiced “so as not to cross certain thresholds, such as those of €10, €50 or even €100”. Prices ending in 90 are also affected, like €390, for example.
“We have known more about this technique since the 1980s,” adds the researcher. It remained anecdotal for a long time until large-scale experimental research was carried out. 30,000 women received clothing catalogs: half with round prices, the other with prices ending in 9. The researchers then realized that prices in 9 attracted more: 3 to 4% additional sales were recorded. »
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There are several reasons why “magic prices” ending in 9 inflate sales: psychologically, a customer will go more towards a product that starts with a lower number, for example towards a product at €79.99 rather than €80 . “Because when reading from left to right, we tend to remember the digit or number we read first. The one to the left of the comma conditions the value given to the product. By reading €79.99, our brain understands €70 more and remembers that it is much cheaper than €80…” Another theory, explaining that the 9 would attract the eye due to its resemblance to the zero, thus causing confusion, is also mentioned.
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Initially, a strategy to prevent employee theft
If the issue today is strictly commercial, setting prices ending in the number 9 has not always been used for this purpose. The method is also old, “she is over a century old”, recalls Nicolas Guéguen. “It originated in a hardware store in New York,” he continues. The boss, who was looking to reduce the number of thefts committed by his employees, had the idea of setting the price of his items at $9.99, and other amounts ending in 9, instead of round prices . Thus, the customer could hardly make the top-up and the seller was forced to return to the cash register to give change. It was then difficult for the employee to keep for himself the amount given by the customer. he explains.
It was only in the 1970s that this technique was first used commercially. Then, in the 1980s, the magic prices “have become widespread”. Nicolas Guéguen notes that this method is now used, “even in the automobile, real estate and banking sectors”.
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“It doesn’t transcend behavior”
All products and services are now affected, “with the exception of the luxury sector”, but that doesn’t mean that magic prices cause sales to jump. “Consumers are being fooled a little but that doesn’t transcend behavior either, comments Nicolas Guéguen. It is possible to sell 1 to 2% additional products this way, it’s not huge. But a difference of a few euros per order represents a lot of additional sales and millions more for an online sales website like Amazon…”
Prices ending in 9 therefore have a small effect on sales, “but it doesn’t push a customer to make an excessive purchase either.”
