Price anchoring is the practice of presenting a reference price — usually a high one — so that a subsequent price is judged relative to it and feels more reasonable. It exploits the anchoring bias: the well-documented tendency for the first number a person sees to disproportionately shape every judgement that follows.
How anchoring works psychologically
When people assess whether a price is fair, they do not compute value from first principles; they compare it to a reference point. Whoever sets that reference point controls the comparison. Show a customer €200 first, and €120 reads as a bargain. Show €100 first, and the same €120 reads as expensive. The euros are identical; the anchor changes the perception.
Common anchoring tactics in e-commerce
- Strike-through pricing — "~~€200~~ €120" puts the original price first as the anchor and the sale price as the deal.
- Compare-at price — Shopify's
compareAtPricefield exists precisely to display an anchor above the selling price. - Decoy pricing — a deliberately overpriced option that makes the target option look like the rational middle choice.
- Premium-first ordering — listing the most expensive plan or product first so everything after it feels affordable.
- MSRP display — showing the manufacturer's suggested price as the anchor against your lower price.
A concrete e-commerce example
A store sells a coffee machine for €149. On the product page it displays "MSRP €229" struck through above the €149 price. The €229 anchor — whether or not anyone ever paid it — makes €149 feel like a €80 saving rather than simply the price. The same store orders its machine line-up most-expensive-first, so the €149 model appears after a €399 flagship and reads as the sensible-value choice.
The ethical and legal line
Anchoring crosses from persuasion into deception when the reference price is fictitious — a "was €200" that the product was never actually sold at. Many jurisdictions regulate this: reference-price and "was/now" claims must reflect a genuine prior price for a meaningful period, or the discount is considered misleading. The EU's Omnibus Directive, for instance, requires that a displayed "previous price" be the lowest price applied in the 30 days before the discount. Honest anchoring uses real reference prices; deceptive anchoring invents them and invites regulatory trouble.
The competitive intelligence angle
Anchors are only persuasive in context. If every competitor anchors against a €229 MSRP and one store anchors against €199, the comparison shifts. Knowing how rivals construct their anchors — what compare-at and strike-through prices they show — reveals the category's reference-price conventions. Competitor-price-monitoring tools like RivalScraper capture both the selling price and the displayed compare-at/strike-through price, so you can see not just what rivals charge but how they frame it.
Anchors beyond the strike-through
Strike-through pricing is the obvious anchor, but anchoring operates through subtler channels too. The order in which products are listed sets a reference point — leading with a premium item makes everything after it feel affordable. A large "bulk" pack priced just below the per-unit cost of the small pack anchors the small pack as poor value. Even a shipping-threshold message ("free shipping over EUR 50") anchors basket size. Recognising that almost any number a customer sees first becomes an anchor is what separates deliberate framing from accidental misframing.
Reading competitors' anchors
Because anchoring is contextual, a rival's anchors shape how your own prices are judged. If the category norm is to anchor against a high MSRP, a store that omits the anchor can look needlessly expensive even when its actual price is lower. Watching how competitors construct their reference prices — the compare-at values, the MSRP claims, the tier ordering — reveals the conventions buyers in that category have been trained to expect, and where a deliberate break from the convention might stand out for the right reasons.
The strategic takeaway
Price anchoring is one of the most reliable levers in psychological pricing because the anchoring bias is so robust. Used honestly — with genuine reference prices — it is a legitimate and effective framing tool. Used dishonestly, with invented "original" prices, it is both a legal liability and a trust-destroyer. The discipline is in keeping the anchor real.