Psychological pricing

As a fractional prices ( also threshold prices ) refers to rates that are just below a round figure, eg 0.99 € instead of 1 €, £ 1.95 instead of £ 2, 39.50 U.S. dollars instead of 40 dollars.

Broken prices are widely used in retail. Many prices are 1 cent, 2 cents or 5 cents below a threshold (eg, 0.99, 9.98, 4.95). A purchase price of eg 1000 euros is often at 999, -; 998, - or 990, - " rounded".

Threshold prices, there are also at online auctions or the so-called reverse - pricing.

According to an anecdote broken prices in the U.S. have emerged in the early 20th century to force the seller to complete any purchase at the box office because they needed change. Previously, it was common practice to take the money in the store and put it in his pocket. Because each sale is recorded in the cash register, a forfeiture of the purchase price falls on the balance sheet. Essentially the same explanation is given for the invention of the cash register itself.

, - However controversial - psychological effects mentioned are other reasons which will A broken price intended to act disproportionately small, even if the difference is only a penny, as in the case € 19.99 instead of € 20. Numerous studies have reported mixed and inconclusive results.

Another anecdote is found in Scot Morris's Book of Strange Facts & Useless Information from 1979:

1876 ​​'ve Melville E. Stone in Chicago convinced shop owners that their sales were up in the impulse when the prices were below a threshold price. His motivation here was to increase the circulation of the relatively rare pennies so he could sell his newspaper ( for the price of one cent ) better.

In the same source, there is also the view that the price competition, particularly in ads of newspapers and magazines from the 1880s, was the cause. Here customers had for the first time the opportunity to compare the prices and sellers trying to undercut each other.