Pricing is a powerful marketing strategy in increasing purchases if priced right. You can take it up to the next level and increase the success rate by adding an additional 99-cent to the pricing. Have you ever wondered why so many businesses use that dreaded 99-cent in their pricing strategy? Consumers perceive 99-cent as cheap; $14.99 looks much cheaper than $15 even if it’s off by 1 cent.

The psychological effect of adding 99-cent to the dollar value works wonder for prices like $99.99, $89.99, $79.99, $69.99 and etc. The consumers analyze and conclude that the product hasn’t reached the next bracket [100, 90, 80, 70,] and think it is a steal. Manipulating the price to make it look like a bargain is a powerful psychological strategy used in marketing for the best ROI.

The 99-cent pricing strategy is dying out as consumers are becoming more immune to it from overuse. As consumers get smarter and more immune to the psychological effect of 99-cent, it is best to do psychological research and find the next best number.

Will 49-cents be the next great number? Is a hypothetical guess, but I believe it will do well since it is less than 2 quarters which can have a very powerful psychological effect for consumers. Finding the next perfect psychological number takes research and experimentation.