Does strikethrough pricing lift product page conversion?

Our product pages showed a single price. We tested showing a higher list price struck through beside the sale price. Over 22 days, conversion fell 13.3%, though revenue per visitor rose 4.8% on larger orders.

Lost Responsive 22 days Called at 90%

SURFACE

Product page

DEVICE

Responsive

VERTICAL

Ecommerce (B2C)

PRIMARY METRIC

Conversion rate

VARIATIONS

1

The hypothesis

By showing a struck-through list price beside the sale price, we will make the value of each product clearer, resulting in a higher conversion rate.

Average prices had risen without a clear drop in conversion. Customer surveys showed price is a key reason shoppers choose a vendor, so showing the saving against a list price looked like a way to reinforce value.

What we changed

A higher list price struck through beside the sale price

We added the list price, struck through, next to the current price on product pages. Traffic to the test was raised in steps as a precaution, reaching all visitors once no harm showed.

VAR A: STRIKETHROUGH PRICE

List price shown struck through
Sale price shown beside it

The result

Strikethrough pricing cut product page conversion 13.3%

CONVERSION RATE

-13.3%

REVENUE PER VISITOR

+4.8%

Over 22 days, the struck-through price converted 13.3% worse than the original. Revenue per visitor rose 4.8%, because shoppers who did buy placed larger orders, but that gain did not reach our confidence bar. The drop in conversion grew as traffic increased, so we paused the test.

What we took from it

Users preferred a single, plain price

The struck-through price may have nudged some buyers to order more, but fewer shoppers bought at all. For these products, a single clear price kept more shoppers moving to checkout.