IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/jconrs/doi10.1086-597215.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Price Endings, Left-Digit Effects, and Choice

Author

Listed:
  • Kenneth C. Manning
  • David E. Sprott

Abstract

Past research has found that changes in price endings can result in "left-digit effects" whereby the magnitude of an item's price relative to the price of a reference product is influenced by the leftmost digits of both prices. We extend this work by investigating the impact of changes in price endings and associated leftmost price digits on choice. Findings indicate that assigning different combinations of price endings to two products (e.g., $2.00 and $2.99 vs. $1.99 and $3.00 vs. $2.00 and $3.00) can shift choice share toward the lower- or higher-priced alternative. We also find that changes between just-below (e.g., $29.99 and $39.99) and round (e.g., $30.00 and $40.00) pricing affect choice, with just-below pricing shifting share toward lower-priced alternatives. The latter effects are found to be moderated by price level and shopping goals. A three-path mediation model reveals the processes underlying the influence of price endings on choice.

Suggested Citation

  • Kenneth C. Manning & David E. Sprott, 2009. "Price Endings, Left-Digit Effects, and Choice," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(2), pages 328-335.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:doi:10.1086/597215
    DOI: 10.1086/597215
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/597215
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/597215
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/597215?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:doi:10.1086/597215. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/jcr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.