2023/04/19 by Eve Sarah Troll, Julius Frankenbach, Malte Friese +1 · 1 citation
Business, Management and Accounting · Decision Sciences · #Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification #Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing #Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1002/jcpy.1353
openalex publication_date 2023/04/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Abstract Marketers' proclivity for just‐below prices (e.g., 9.99) is rooted in an expected higher demand than for round prices (10.00). The literature, however, lacks a comprehensive assessment of when and how price endings matter. Three mechanisms might explain price‐ending effects on consumers' purchase decisions: just‐below prices (1) improve price perceptions, but (2) impair perceived product quality, and (3) cause consumers to underestimate prices. A preregistered meta‐analysis ( k = 69 studies, m = 362 effect sizes, N = 40,541) established that just‐below (vs. round) prices tend to increase purchase decisions ( g = 0.13, CI 95% [0.01, 0.25]), result in an advantageous price image ( g = 0.28, CI 95% [0.09, 0.48]), have no effect on perceived product quality ( g = 0.00, CI 95% [−0.17, 0.18], p = 0.96), and are more often underestimated ( g = 0.67, CI 95% [0.04, 1.30]). Participant, study, price, and product characteristics moderate the magnitude of these effects. Overall, the effect sizes are small and highly heterogenous, p ‐curve analyses revealed a large proportion of nonsignificant effects, and publication bias corrections suggest smaller and, at times, nonsignificant true effects. We discuss theoretical and applied implications for the pricing literature.