4. Pricing manipulation
Stores have a number of techniques up their sleeve to convince customers they are getting a great deal when they aren’t. Comparative pricing involves putting a normally-priced item next to an expensive one, making customers feel like they are saving money on the former when actually it is the latter that is overpriced.
Charm prices involve the power of prices ending in the number nine. One author analyzed eight different studies (he really should have found a ninth!) on charm prices and found that on average, they increased sales by 24 percent compared to rounded price points. Premium pricing is in some ways the opposite of comparative pricing and involves setting a price artificially high in order to make a product seem trending or high quality. And there is a whole gamut of other tricks like these being used!
