In recent years, a trend in retail pricing has been to give consumers greater autonomy in setting their own prices, be it through auctions or other forms of participative pricing. Such consumer pricing autonomy often requires the seller to set limits in the form of price floors and price ceilings. Price floors and ceilings in our auction settings are referred to as reserve prices (RP) and Buy It Now (BIN) prices, respectively. We examine the effect of RP and BIN presence and magnitude on the number of bidders and ending price. Using auctions, we uncover consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) through bids. WTP is malleable through reference cues. Our focus is on two such cues: BINs and RPs. Results of two field studies, augmented with a laboratory study, show that both BINs and RPs result in lower bidder entry, but have an overall positive effect on ending price. Furthermore, results show that RP is more effective than a comparable BIN magnitude and that these two pricing cues are substitutes. The study design allows the authors to rule out alternative explanations. Open RP and BIN's effect on ending price is due to a reference point effect rather than a price truncation effect. Thus, retailers can increase WTP through changing these reference cues and exploit a richer choice set over which to shape a malleable WTP. The quantification of the interaction between RP and BIN gives managers the ability to jointly take advantage of both RP and BIN.

近年来，零售定价的趋势是赋予消费者更大的自主定价权，无论是通过拍卖还是其他形式的参与式定价。这种消费者定价自主权通常要求卖方以最低价格和最高价格的形式设置限制。我们拍卖设置中的最低价格和最高价格分别称为保留价格 (RP) 和立即购买 (BIN) 价格。我们研究了 RP 和 BIN 的存在和幅度对投标人数量和最终价格的影响。通过拍卖，我们发现消费者通过出价支付的意愿 (WTP)。WTP 通过参考线索具有可塑性。我们的重点是两个这样的线索：BIN 和 RP。两项实地研究的结果以及实验室研究的结果表明，BIN 和 RP 都会降低投标人的进入率，但对收盘价有整体积极影响。此外，结果表明，RP 比可比较的 BIN 量级更有效，并且这两个定价线索是替代品。研究设计允许作者排除替代解释。Open RP 和 BIN 对结束价格的影响是由于参考点效应而不是价格截断效应。因此，零售商可以通过改变这些参考线索来增加 WTP，并利用更丰富的选择集来塑造可延展的 WTP。RP 和 BIN 之间相互作用的量化使管理者能够共同利用 RP 和 BIN。研究设计允许作者排除替代解释。Open RP 和 BIN 对结束价格的影响是由于参考点效应而不是价格截断效应。因此，零售商可以通过改变这些参考线索来增加 WTP，并利用更丰富的选择集来塑造可延展的 WTP。RP 和 BIN 之间相互作用的量化使管理者能够共同利用 RP 和 BIN。研究设计允许作者排除替代解释。Open RP 和 BIN 对结束价格的影响是由于参考点效应而不是价格截断效应。因此，零售商可以通过改变这些参考线索来增加 WTP，并利用更丰富的选择集来塑造可延展的 WTP。RP 和 BIN 之间相互作用的量化使管理者能够共同利用 RP 和 BIN。