Why Almost Every Price Ends With 99 Cents

Hi everyone,

When you shop, online or in-store, you’ll probably see prices like $6.99, $3.99, etc. There’s actually a psychological reason for this, instead of storeowners pricing things willy-nilly. There’s even more tactics used to separate you and your hard-earned money.

Method 1: The 99 Cents Trick

This is the most common pricing trick: ending your prices with .99. The reason for this is pretty simple: We’re just really impatient people. See, when we shop, we usually look at the first number. For example, $3.99 and $4. Obviously, you’d go for the $3.99 because it’s cheaper, but cross that out for the sake of the explanation.

Our brains would pretty much only process the front number. You’d automatically look at 3 in the $3.99 price tag and think “Wow, that’s way cheaper,” even though it’s only 1 cent off $4. This is really effective when pricing really expensive items too, like video-game consoles. Even though $99.99 is only 1 cent off $100, you’ll think “Wow! What a steal!” because there’s one less digit on 99 than 100 and you’ll focus on the big number too. It’s a double whammy, pretty much.

Method 2: The Random Pricing Trick

This one’s pretty simple too. Now that everyone’s using the 99 Cents trick, store owners and manufacturers have to come up with new ways to trick consumers. It’s not like having an honest business is profitable, right? Pshh… Take for example $8 and $9.18. You’ll probably notice the $9.18 more because it’s, well, random. This can create a myriad of thoughts, like “Wow, this must be discounted” or give the shopper more viewing time, therefore, more time to think about whether they really need this product. Who knew that slamming your hand on the numbers can create even more money?

Method 3: The “Package” Trick

Take some time to think about ways online businesses make money. If you’ve answered “Monthy Subscriptions,” you’re correct! Most online businesses make money by selling online subscriptions. You know, that 30-day free trial to watch a movie that you forgot about? Sneaky, but, it’s not illegal, I guess.

Now, think about different “packages” these companies offer. I’m going to use Netflix because Netflix is a pretty big company. You have the Basic Plan, the Standard Plan, and the Premium Plan. The way companies get you to buy their product is pretty sneaky. You see, since we have to be more selective with our spending since we’re not Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos or even Trump (sorry), our brains will use some process of elimination.

Since the Basic plan doesn’t even offer HD, we’ll probably cross that off. Then our brains will drift to Premium. However, the Premium plan is crazy expensive at $15.99 a month (hey, look, the 99 cents trick), so we’ll go to the Standard plan. The Standard plan comes with HD and a reasonable price. Ka-ching, money!

I hope this post answered some questions that might’ve been floating around. I hope you enjoyed!

– A Koi named Skoi ♪┏(・o・)┛♪

Credit: Bing

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