$3,000, $2,999, $2,888.
You might see these prices on inventory-quality domain names in the domain aftermarket. Some people round their pricing to the nearest thousand. Others drop a dollar to make it look less expensive. And BuyDomains popularized pricing ending in 88.
But it’s possible that increasing prices a bit might make domains look less expensive.
That’s according to research published in The Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.
For their paper, Are 1-endings the new 9-endings? An alternative for generating price discount perceptions, researchers examined the use of 9-endings in pricing and compared them to repeating lower digits. Five experiments demonstrated that consumers are likely to perceive multi-digit prices with 1-endings (e.g., $2111) as being more on a discount than prices with 9-endings (e.g., $1999). They’re also more likely to click on ads with the repeating low digit prices.
In other words, you might have better luck selling a domain priced at $3,111 than $2,999.
Thomas McKinlay explained the ramifications in his newsletter.
The research covers items priced at four figures or more, which is the sweet spot for domains. It did not compare $x,111 to round number pricing like the $3,000 example above, but it strongly suggests that pricing domains with low repeating digits in the last three spots could make them look less expensive than charging a lesser amount ending in 999.
I’m going to try this pricing approach, and it would be interesting for people with larger portfolios to try it and share their results.
Spike says
Interesting. Love this kind of insight. Time for another pricing experiment to prove if this is true-ish.
Mark Thorpe says
I’m going to try it.
Mark Thorpe says
So far so good
MICHAEL DOONER says
Mike Mann always uses 888!!
Andrew Allemann says
I think he started that at BuyDomains back in the day.
joesaba2014 says
A few weeks ago I sold one for $24888
J.R. says
Appreciate the data. Giving it a try.
Bob says
I now follow BuyDomains with 888 as they seem to make such regular & successful sales!
joesaba2014 says
I will see if the sales with the ending 111 give good results.
BDB says
If you want to convey the idea of a valuable asset, put growing figure.
..when a figure is decreasing, unconsciously it seems to be cheaper (offer or liquidation):
9800, 5420, 4210, 3200, 1965, 985, 95…
Mike says
Explain this?
Miike says
Isn’t the “1” ending a clarance ending at some retailers? (ie Sam’s Club) and car dealers? $17.01, $6991 …. I sold recent 2881 bin priced though it was negotiated down a few hundred. Thanks for the post Andrew!
mel says
this is great insight. will test the low digit sequence against the 888 model (maybe do half half in my small portfolio of 100 domains).
Andrew Allemann says
I don’t think you’ll be able to measure much with that many domains. It would likely require tens of thousands of domains.
Valerie Lynn says
I don’t think one could control for the variation in perception of domain value based on Name, extension AND digit series in a real sale test.
Polling, yes. But selling? This is starting to sound like multi-variate analysis with a very large data pool.
Andrew Allemann says
Right, it would take one of the big sellers to figure this out.