The effect of lucky price end numbers on consumers' intention to purchase a product

Abstract

Consumers' cognition of a number or numbers in prices as being lucky can affect their purchase intention. We carried out four experiments with 450 undergraduate students to investigate their purchase intention when buying products with price end numbers that they considered to be lucky or unlucky. The results show that participants in the group that was offered the product with a lucky price end number had higher purchase intention when they experienced negative (vs. positive) emotions, were superstitious, felt they had lost control, or had experienced a significant event. When they had experienced a significant event, that is, taking the College English Test Band 4, participants were more likely to avoid an unlucky price end number. Our findings indicate that retailers should consider the influence of lucky number pricing on consumers' choices when implementing pricing strategies.