Purpose

This study aims to analyse the use of psychological pricing in online food retailing. In stationary grocery shops, psychological prices with nine-endings have been a well-documented phenomenon for many decades. However, little is known about the relevance of this pricing practice in the growing grocery e-commerce sector.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors investigate the frequency of nine-ending prices at Amazon Fresh for more than 10,000 products from May 2019 until March 2020 for the customer location Berlin, Germany. Applying a within–between logit model, the authors identify the determinants for the use of nine-ending prices.

Findings

The authors find that more than 70% of all prices end in the digit 9. This indicates that Amazon Fresh applies psychological pricing to a similar degree as traditional offline grocers. Nine-ending prices are more likely for so-called “want” products such as snacks and sweets than for “should” products such as fruits and vegetables. Also, psychological price endings are used less for products with a higher price level and for products with temporary sales promotions.

Originality/value

This study is the first to analyse psychological pricing practices for the world's largest online food retailer Amazon Fresh. The study results contrast with most previous empirical and theoretical studies, which suggest that the use of psychological prices would decline in an online context.

中文翻译：

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在线食品零售中的心理定价

目的

本研究旨在分析心理定价在在线食品零售中的使用。在固定的杂货店中，具有九个端点的心理价格在数十年来一直是有据可查的现象。但是，对于这种定价做法在不断发展的杂货电子商务领域中的相关性知之甚少。

设计/方法/方法

作者调查了从2019年5月到2020年3月在客户所在地德国柏林的10,000多种产品在Amazon Fresh的9结束价格的频率。作者采用中间logit模型，确定了使用九种价格的决定因素。

发现

作者发现，超过70％的价格都以数字9结尾。这表明Amazon Fresh采用的心理定价与传统线下杂货店类似。零食和糖果等所谓的“旺盛”产品比水果和蔬菜等“应有”产品更有可能达到九分价格。此外，心理价格结尾在价格较高的产品和具有临时促销功能的产品中的使用较少。

创意/价值

这项研究是第一个分析全球最大的在线食品零售商Amazon Fresh的心理定价实践的方法。该研究结果与以往的大多数经验和理论研究相反，后者表明在网上背景下使用心理价格会下降。