Why price anchoring matters
Shoppers rarely know what something “should” cost, so they lean on the nearest comparison. Provide the comparison and you shape the judgment; leave it out and the shopper anchors on whatever they saw elsewhere.
Anchors stores use
- Compare-at and struck-through original prices
- A premium tier that makes the middle tier reasonable
- Per-unit and per-day price framing
- Decoy options priced to steer toward a target choice
Questions
Are fake original prices legal?
Reference prices generally must be genuine, a price actually charged, or they cross into deceptive pricing that regulators and platforms act on. The anchor has to be real.
What’s a decoy price?
An option built to lose: priced close to the target choice but clearly worse value, so the target looks obviously right. It works quietly, and clumsily done it insults the shopper.