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

Avichai Snir () and Daniel Levy ()
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Avichai Snir: Department of Banking and Finance, Netanya Academic College, Israel

Working Paper series from Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis

Abstract: 9-ending prices are a dominant feature of many retail settings, which according to the existing literature, is because consumers perceive them as being relatively low. Are 9-ending prices really lower than comparable non 9-ending prices? Surprisingly, the empirical evidence on this question is scarce. We use 8 years of weekly scanner price data with over 98 million price observations to document four findings. First, at the category level, 9-ending prices are usually higher, on average, than non 9-ending prices. Second, at the product level, in most cases, 9-ending prices are, on average, higher than prices with other endings. Third, sale prices are more likely to be non-9 ending than the corresponding regular prices. Fourth, among sale prices, 9-ending prices are often lower, on average, than comparable non 9-ending prices. The first three findings imply that although consumers may associate 9-ending prices with low prices, the data indicates otherwise. The fourth finding offers a possible explanation for this misperception. Retailers may be using 9-ending prices to draw consumers' attention to particularly large price cuts during sales, which perhaps conditions the shoppers to associate 9-ending prices with low prices.

Keywords: Behavioral Pricing; Psychological Prices; Price Perception; Image Effect; 9-Ending Prices; Price Points; Regular Prices; Sale Prices (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 D22 D40 D90 D91 E31 L11 L16 L81 M30 M31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-ind, nep-mac and nep-mkt
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Downloads: (external link)
http://rcea.org/RePEc/pdf/wp19-14.pdf

Related works:
Journal Article: If You Think 9-Ending Prices Are Low, Think Again (2021)
Journal Article: If You Think 9-Ending Prices Are Low, Think Again (2021)
Working Paper: If You Think 9-Ending Prices Are Low, Think Again (2019)
Working Paper: If You Think 9-Ending Prices Are Low, Think Again (2019)
Working Paper: If You Think 9-Ending Prices Are Low, Think Again (2019)
Working Paper: If You Think 9-Ending Prices Are Low,Think Again (2019)
Working Paper: If You Think 9-Ending Prices Are Low, Think Again (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rim:rimwps:19-14

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