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Pricing / Sales / Ecommerce

Clever Tactics That Boost Conversions (and Why)

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Latest Tactic / 12 days ago
Dates & Numbers

Quantify Your Advantages

Customers prefer whichever options are superior on numerical metrics.

A cheaper hotel is chosen when the price is a lower digit and the quality rating is visual, yet an expensive hotel is chosen when the price is visual and the quality rating is a higher digit

Everything is quantified nowadays.

We measure:

  • Movies by Rotten Tomatoes.
  • Websites by Domain Authority.
  • Babies by Apgar scores.

Dubbed quantification fixation, this focus on numbers has created an instinctive preference for numerical superiority. Even if these options are worse overall.

For example, customers prefer hotels that are superior on whichever metric — price or quality — is quantified. And researchers replicated this effect across 21 scenarios (Chang et al., 2024).

Ultimately, you can influence behavior by quantifying advantages. Some governments encourage healthy eating by quantifying food healthiness, like Nutri-Score ratings:

Salad with A rating and cake with E rating

Perhaps catalogs should replace a visual continuum of stars with a single digit, like Airbnb:

Collage of rentals with quality conveyed through a single digit instead of stars

A single digit will intensify a preference for quality (and typically higher prices).

Or you can curb harmful behaviors by restricting quantification. Perhaps social media companies should depict engagement visually instead of quantitatively:

Social post with number of engagements being replaced with view all

Visual approaches can still convey the amount of engagement, yet this UI tweak might improve the mental health for billions of people by removing a key culprit in unhealthy comparisons — i.e., digits.

The authors said it best: When we count, we change what counts (Chang et al., 2024).

How to Apply

  • Invent an Industry Metric. Is your bread softer than competitors? Show a softness score. Or any metric that aligns with your competitive advantage (e.g., crispiness, tastiness; Hsee et al., 2009).
  • Show Unit Prices. You can nudge customers from a 4-pack of batteries to a 20-pack by showing the unit prices in which $0.70/battery is numerically cheaper than $1.20/battery (Yao & Oppewal, 2016).
  • Write Precise Numbers for Accuracy. Round numbers feel vague and abstract. A project that takes 1 year seems like it could be delayed, compared to a project that takes 52 weeks (Zhang & Schwarz, 2012).

  • Chang, L. W., Kirgios, E. L., Mullainathan, S., & Milkman, K. L. (2024). Does counting change what counts? Quantification fixation biases decision-making. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(46), e2400215121.
  • Hsee, C. K., Yang, Y., Gu, Y., & Chen, J. (2009). Specification seeking: How product specifications influence consumer preference. Journal of consumer research, 35(6), 952-966.
  • Yao, J., & Oppewal, H. (2016). Unit pricing increases price sensitivity even when products are of identical size. Journal of Retailing, 92(1), 109-121.
  • Zhang, Y. C., & Schwarz, N. (2012). How and why 1 year differs from 365 days: A conversational logic analysis of inferences from the granularity of quantitative expressions. Journal of Consumer Research, 39(2), 248-259.
Framing

Reinforce a Desired Attitude

Help customers affirm positive sentiments toward your brand.

Netflix ratings of Not For Me, Like This, and Love This are better than Hate It, Meh, and Love It

Attitudes are plagued with uncertainty.

Customers are unaware how they truly feel in many scenarios, often determining their attitudes by judging their behavior: Hmm, I'm eating. So I must be hungry.

You can influence attitudes by orienting attention toward these behaviors. For example, Netflix provides three ratings for their content:

  • Not for me
  • Like this
  • Love this

All ratings are positive because any negative sentiment (e.g., Dislike This) would create a self-fulfilling prophecy: Hmm, guess I hate Netflix content. So why am I subscribed?

Replace Sorry With Thank You

Imagine that a contractor is 1-hour late. You might hear:

  • Sorry for for the wait.
  • Thank you for waiting.

Sorry reduces satisfaction because customers infer that something negative has happened to them, whereas thank you implies that customers are forgiving and patient. So they act forgivingly. This example has been replicated across dozens of scenarios (You et al., 2020).

Frame New Customers as First-Timers

WiderFunnel boosted conversions for a nonprofit by asking visitors to select an option. I'm a:

  • Regular donor
  • Occasional donor
  • First-time donor

New visitors affirmed their identity as a first-time donor, which compelled them to donate. An option like "I've never donated" would have reinforced this passive inaction.

Rationalize Negative Behaviors

You always hear: It doesn't hurt to ask.

Well, it can hurt. If you reject or ignore a call to action, you might convince yourself that you dislike this brand: Hmm, why didn't I share their message? Guess I don't like them (Gvili & Levy, 2024).

Always rationalize inaction with a positive spin. If customers scroll to the end of your catalog without clicking any products, show a link to your Product Quiz. Blame their inaction on indecisiveness, not apathy.

Same with skipping behavior. Users who skipped an option to contribute to their savings account were less likely to contribute in the future because contributions seemed less important. Users needed to see a follow-up message that reinforced the importance of savings (Reiff et al., 2023).

A request to enroll now or in 6 months converts better when these two options are divided into two screens instead of a single screen

Highlight a Customer's Loyal Behavior

Customers feel loyal to a brand if their actions resemble a loyal customer. Perhaps mention competing alternatives they've ignored:

...if a salesperson identifies a consumer who is likely to purchase an Apple iPhone, making them aware of a Samsung promotion could cause them to experience resistance toward that offer and result in the purchase of supplemental services like insurance as well as branded accessories (Pratt et al., 2023).

  • Gvili, Y., & Levy, S. (2024). Vive la résistance: a boomerang effect of resisting incentivized eWOM on consumer trust. International Journal of Advertising, 1-23.
  • Pratt, A. B., Robinson, S. G., Voorhees, C. M., Wang, J., & Giebelhausen, M. D. (2023). Unintended effects of price promotions: Forgoing competitors’ price promotions strengthens incumbent... Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 51(5), 1143-1164.
  • Reiff, J., Dai, H., Beshears, J., Milkman, K. L., & Benartzi, S. (2023). Save more today or tomorrow: the role of urgency in precommitment design. Journal of Marketing Research, 60(6), 1095-1113.
  • You, Y., Yang, X., Wang, L., & Deng, X. (2020). When and why saying “thank you” is better than saying “sorry” in redressing service failures: The role of self-esteem. Journal of Marketing, 84(2), 133-150.
Product Catalog

Add Borders or Backgrounds to Choosable Items

Customers prefer choosing from individualized assortments.

Grid of yogurts that becomes more clickable with visual boundaries on each selection

How should catalogs look?

Try wrapping each item in a border or background. This style nearly doubled conversion rates in ecommerce catalogs (e.g., beverages, resorts; Jia et al., 2024).

Based on eye tracking, customers saw more unique features in these catalogs because they viewed features within products instead of viewing a single feature across products:

Two assortments of headphones, one assortment has a background which keeps attention within each product, whereas the other assortment has no background which spreads attention across products

Naturally, they saw more varied features.

But it also happened in retail settings: A restaurant doubled their drink sales when their signage wrapped each drink with a border (Jia et al., 2024).

A menu sign with drinks generated more revenue with visual boundaries on each item

Just be careful when comparisons are critical.

Pricing tiers are often evaluated with back-and-forth comparisons, yet rigid borders can hinder this motion by trapping eye gazes:

Pricing plans are more comparable without rigid borders

In these scenarios, discriminate each item with a solid background without any exterior fencing.

Stronger For

  • Small Catalogs. Large catalogs were unaffected by discreteness because they already possessed variety (Jia et al., 2024).
  • Contamination Worries. Visual borders feel like tangible borders that can protect food or luxury items from external touches. In one study, natural disasters seemed less likely to travel into adjacent regions when viewed on a map with darker borders (Mishra & Mishra, 2010).
  • Curved Backgrounds. Round corners converted better than sharp corners, presumably because round objects feel more touchable (Biswas et al., 2024).
Catalog of blenders with round backgrounds performing better than sharp backgrounds

  • Biswas, D., Abell, A., & Chacko, R. (2024). Curvy digital marketing designs: virtual elements with rounded shapes enhance online click-through rates. Journal of Consumer Research, 51(3), 552-570.
  • Jia, Y., Ouyang, J., Dong, J. Q., & Jiang, Y. (2024). EXPRESS: Framing of Differences: Visual Product Frames Reduce Consumer Choice Deferrals. Journal of Marketing, 00222429241280224.
  • Mishra, A., & Mishra, H. (2010). Border bias: The belief that state borders can protect against disasters. Psychological science, 21(11), 1582-1586.
Framing

Describe Your Enjoyment With Production

Buyers spend more money when sellers enjoy creating a product or service.

We enjoy helping small businesses is better than we help small businesses

How is your product made?

Try describing your enjoyment with this process (Paley et al., 2024).

Describing enjoyment:

  • Boosted a Facebook ad CTR by 40%
  • Enhanced perceived quality
  • Increased willingness to pay

And this strategy is underused — e.g., only 0.1% of Etsy sellers and 4% of Upwork freelancers mention their enjoyment in creating products or services (Paley et al., 2024).

Why It Works

  • Higher Quality. Enjoyment implies motivation and lack of automation.
  • Less Reactance. Direct claims trigger suspicion: We help small businesses. Readers will question the previous statement, as if this agency doesn't help small businesses. Indirect claims can distract readers from questioning the core assertion: We enjoy helping small businesses. Now readers will question this enjoyment instead of the main benefit of providing help.

How to Apply

  • Describe Products As Complex Yet Enjoyable. A bartender earned more money when they enjoyed making a complex cocktail, but not a simple cocktail (Paley et al., 2024).
  • Charge Higher Prices. Researchers confirmed that Upwork freelancers charge lower prices when they enjoy their service, yet buyers are willing to pay higher prices for them (Paley et al., 2024).

Price Digits

Align Product Type With Digit Type

Adjectives that describe your product should also describe your price.

A pair of socks for $7.88 because the 88 is a pair

Think of your product.

Perhaps it could be described as:

  • Sharp
  • Unique
  • Precise

Well, those descriptions can also apply to digits. Strive for congruence when possible: Adjectives that describe your product should also describe your price.

Why It Works

  • Congruence. Buying tickets to a concert? Since you want an emotional experience, you prefer discounts that are emotional (e.g., chance to win free tickets) because of this congruence (Chandon et al., 2000). Digits are merely a different medium to reach this alignment.
  • Scaffolding of the Mind. All abstract ideas are built from primitive ideas that we learned early in life — e.g., spatial distance helped us learn numerical distance. These primitive ideas can add neural connections between two seemingly different domains (e.g., products and digits).

How to Apply

  • Charge Round Prices For Round Products. In a pilot study, I alternated $9.37 and $10 for a knife and hammer. Participants significantly preferred $10 for hammer even though $9.37 was cheaper.
  • Charge Round Prices for Networking Events. Customers who want social connectivity will prefer numerical connectivity (e.g., $50 is connected to many numbers). For example, participants were asked to rate the loneliness of each number from 1 to 100, and they attributed more loneliness to prime numbers that couldn't be divided. Same with prices: While comparing $19 and $21, lonely participants were less deterred by $21 because of its connections to 3 and 7 (Yan & Sengupta, 2021).
$60 divided into two $30s, and these numerical connections look similar to social connections
  • Vary Your Digits to Convey Variety. Product variety seems higher when customers are exposed to more visual diversity (e.g., random shapes, types of people in ads; Khan et al., 2024). And I confirmed this effect in a pilot study: Repeating digits in a price reduced the perceived variety in a box of chocolates because people expected more repetition in the box.
  • Charge Precise Prices For Analytical Tools. Customers preferred a calculator with a precise price of $39.72 or $40.29 (vs. $40; Wadhwa & Zhang, 2015). Though one study failed to replicate this effect (Harms et al., 2018). And I couldn't replicate a similar approach. I asked respondents to rate the accuracy of a kitchen scale, and I altered the precision of the price ($18, $19.73, $20, $21.73). But these varying levels of precision didn't influence the perceived accuracy of the scale.
  • Charge Paired Digits For Paired Products. Would $7.88 convert better for a pair of socks? Similar effects happen with colors: Lonely customers prefer two colors that look similar because this visual companionship feels like social companionship (Kwon et al., 2024). Or maybe 88 can "feel right" for socks because the visual roundness of 8 resembles the shape of a sock. Perhaps 7 or 9 could deter customers because each digit has a visually sharp endpoint at the bottom.
  • Charge Lucky Digits For Lucky Products. Prices in Singapore convert better with 8 because it's a lucky number (Westjohn et al., 2017). Perhaps this idea can explain why Western marketers love 7-ending prices. Or perhaps 7-ending prices convert better for products that require luck (e.g., lottery tickets, mystery boxes, trading cards).

Caveats

  • More Research is Needed. This fundamental idea is widely supported, but the individual pricing applications need more empirical validation. I've been conducting a few pilot studies to test some of these effects, and I'll update this tactic with any successes or failures.
  • Semantics vs. Visuals. Respondents preferred $10 for a hammer, but I'm not sure if this preference was due to shared roundness in the semantic idea or visual roundness of 0.

  • Chandon, P., Wansink, B., & Laurent, G. (2000). A benefit congruency framework of sales promotion effectiveness. Journal of marketing, 64(4), 65-81.
  • Khan, U., Kim, S., Choi, S., & Labroo, A. (2024). Diversity Representations in Advertising: Enhancing Variety Perceptions and Brand Outcomes. Journal of Consumer Research, ucae060.
  • Kwon, M., Jeon, E., & Han, Y. (2024). The social side of color: How social exclusion influences preferences for color combination. Psychology & Marketing.
  • Schumacher, A., Goukens, C., Geyskens, K., & Nielsen, J. H. (2024). Revisiting surprise appeals: How surprise labeling curtails consumption. Journal of Consumer Psychology.
  • Wadhwa, M., & Zhang, K. (2015). This number just feels right: The impact of roundedness of price numbers on product evaluations. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(5), 1172-1185.
  • Wang, Y., Jiang, J., & Yang, Y. (2023). Magic odd numbers: The effect of numerical parity on variety-seeking. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 73, 103345.
  • Westjohn, S. A., Roschk, H., & Magnusson, P. (2017). Eastern versus western culture pricing strategy: Superstition, lucky numbers, and localization. Journal of International Marketing, 25(1), 72-90.
  • Yan, D., & Sengupta, J. (2021). The effects of numerical divisibility on loneliness perceptions and consumer preferences. Journal of Consumer Research, 47(5), 755-771.

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