If You Think 9-Ending Prices Are Low, Think Again

Artikel

9-ending prices, which comprise between 40%–95% of retail prices, are popular because shoppers perceive them as being low. We study whether this belief is justified using scanner price-data with over 98-million observations from a large US grocery-chain. We find that 9-ending prices are higher than non 9-ending prices, by as much as 18%. Two factors explain why shoppers believe, mistakenly, that 9-ending prices are low. First, we find that among sale-prices, 9-ending prices are indeed lower than non 9-ending prices, giving 9-ending prices an aura of being low. Second, at first, 9-ending prices were indeed lower than other prices. Shoppers, therefore, learned to associate 9-endings with low prices. Over time, however, 9-ending prices rose substantially, which shoppers failed to notice, because the continuous use of 9-ending prices for promoting deep price cuts draws shoppers’ attention to them, and helps to maintain-and-preserve the image of 9-ending prices as bargain prices.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Journal: Journal of the Association for Consumer Research ; ISSN: 2378-1823 ; Volume: 6 ; Year: 2021 ; Issue: 1 (Forthcoming) ; Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Marketing and Advertising: General ; Marketing ; Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms ; Industrial Organization and Macroeconomics: Industrial Structure and Structural Change; Industrial Price Indices ; Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce ; Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis ; Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis ; Market Structure, Pricing, and Design: General ; Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: General‡ ; Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making‡ ; Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
• Subject: Behavioral Pricing ; Psychological Prices ; Price Perception ; Image Effect ; 9-Ending Prices ; Price Points ; Regular Prices ; Sale Prices

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Snir, Avichai ; Levy, Daniel
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Chicago Press ; ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics
• (where): Chicago
• (when): 2021

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/204666
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET