Anchor Pricing Visualizer
Leverage the Contrast Principle. Set a high reference price (Anchor) to make your actual selling price appear significantly more attractive.
Price Settings
Premium Widget
"The $99 sets the expectation of value.
The $49 then feels like a gain, not a cost."
The Value Gap
How much 'Deal Equity' are you creating?
Perceived Savings
The customer feels they are 'saving' $50.00. This reduces the pain of paying.
Discount Depth
You are showing a 51% drop. If this is >50%, ensure you explain WHY (e.g., 'Clearance', 'Flash Sale') to avoid signaling low quality.
Visual Weight
The anchor should be visible but less prominent (greyed out) than the selling price to guide the eye to the 'Buy' signal.
Execution Steps
Enter your actual 'Selling Price' (the price you want customers to pay).
Enter a higher 'Anchor Price' (MSRP, Competitor Price, or 'Before' price).
The tool visualizes the 'Perceived Value Gap'.
Use this visual to design your pricing page or discount banners.
Pro Strategy
- The anchor must be credible. If it is unrealistically high ($10,000 for a pen), consumers will reject it as fake, harming trust.
- Use 'Contextual Anchoring': Place your premium product next to your standard product. The premium price anchors the customer upwards, making the standard price feel safe.
- In B2B negotiations, always state your highest price first to set the anchor.
Core Concepts
Anchoring Bias
A cognitive bias where an individual depends too heavily on an initial piece of information (the 'anchor') to make subsequent judgments. A $50 shirt looks cheap next to a $200 shirt.
Reference Pricing
Using a higher price point (Compare At, MSRP) to frame the current price as a deal. This increases the perceived transactional utility (the joy of getting a bargain).
Visual Hierarchy
The anchor is usually displayed first (left or top), often crossed out, to set the context before the user sees the actual price.
What is Anchor Pricing Visualizer?
Anchoring relies on the 'Contrast Principle'. When we see two things in sequence, we evaluate the second one relative to the first. This tool simulates how consumers perceive the 'gap' between the reference price and the actual price as pure value.
Best For
- • Designing product cards for ecommerce.
- • Structuring SaaS pricing tables (ordering from High to Low).
- • Running clearance sales.
Limitations
- • Overuse leads to 'Discount Blindness'.
- • Requires ethical adherence to truth-in-advertising laws.
- • Less effective if the customer already has strong internal knowledge of the product's value.
Alternative Methods
Decoy Effect
Using a 3rd option to manipulate choice, rather than just a high reference price.
Charm Pricing
Changing the digits (.99) rather than the reference context.
Industry Applications
See how this methodology generates real revenue uplift in different sectors.
Williams-Sonoma Bread Maker
Sales of a $275 bread maker were poor.
They introduced a 'Premium' model for $429 and placed it next to the $275 model.
The Economist Subscription
Digital subscriptions were underselling.
Added a 'Print + Digital' anchor at the same price as 'Print Only'.