Anchoring in ecommerce: a psychological tactic that can boost your sales

One of the most effective — and underused — psychological tactics in ecommerce is anchoring.

And in this post, I’m going to explain what this is, why it works, and how you can apply it to your ecommerce business.

I’ll also discuss the ethics of using this approach.

Let’s start with a definition of the term.

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What is anchoring?

Anchoring is a cognitive bias that causes people to rely heavily on the first piece of information (the “anchor”) they receive when making a decision.

When you present a price to a customer, that number becomes a reference point  — even if it’s completely arbitrary, every other pricing option you present is judged against that figure.

Here’s a simple example of anchoring in action.

• You visit a website and see a smartwatch priced at $399.
• You then scroll down and see a similar watch for $199.
• That $199 price feels like a bargain — even if you had no idea what smartwatches usually cost.

It works because our brains tend to compare things relatively. We don’t assess the $199 price in a vacuum — we assess it in relation to the first price we saw.

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Why anchoring works so well in ecommerce

Ecommerce is full of decisions: what product should I choose? Which plan is best? Is this worth the money?

Anchoring helps make things simpler for shoppers by reducing decision friction. It gives them a quick mental shortcut — a pricing “anchor” — that helps them navigate choices.

This is particularly useful when…

• Your product category is unfamiliar to the buyer
• The buyer is time-poor or skimming your store quickly
• You sell tiered products or plans (which is common in software, SaaS, and DTC subscriptions)

In all these scenarios, anchoring helps guide your customer to the choice you most want them to make.

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Common anchoring tactics

Let’s take a look at a few practical ways to put anchoring to work on your store or site.

1. Showing a more expensive option first

One of the simplest anchoring tricks is to show your highest-priced product or plan first.

Let’s say you’re offering a product with multiple pricing tiers:

Plan	Features	Price
Pro	Full access, support, extras	$89/month
Plus	Most features, limited support	$49/month
Basic	Core features only	$19/month

If a user sees the ‘Pro’ plan first, $49 suddenly feels reasonable. But if you list “Basic” first, that same $49 might seem expensive. You’re framing the $49 plan as better value by placing it next to the $89 one.

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2. Using strikethrough pricing

Another classic anchoring move is the “was/now” pricing format, often used during sales.

Was $89 → Now $59

This approach instantly plants a price anchor in your customer’s head — the product used to be $89, so $59 feels like a win — even if the product’s fair value is around $59 to begin with.

Some retailers even rotate price displays to ensure there’s always an anchor — showing a high RRP most of the year and marking it down as a “limited-time offer.” (This is ethically dubious however. More on ethics shortly!).

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3. Highlighting the most expensive product in a bundle

When offering bundles, you can list individual product prices first, before showing the bundle price. For example…

• Toothbrush: $49
• Toothpaste: $12
• Whitening Kit: $39
• Total: $100
• Bundle price: £69

This makes the ‘total’ price of $100 the anchor — and that $69 bundle now feels like a serious bargain, even if the original intention of the customer was to only buy one item.

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4. Using comparative copy

Anchoring isn’t just about numbers — words can serve as anchors too.

Think about phrases like:

• “Half the price of what it costs in store”
• “Equivalent to 2 cups of coffee a week”
• “Cheaper than your Netflix subscription”

This sort of phrasing sets mental anchors that help shoppers reframe your pricing in relative terms — and make your offer seem like better value.

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But is all this ethical?

Anchoring is generally ethical when it’s used to clearly frame value, help users make informed decisions and highlight genuine savings or product tiers.

For example, displaying an original price alongside a real sale price, or offering a premium plan as a reference point for a mid-tier one, is fair enough — it gives customers useful context and lets them weigh up options.

However, anchoring drifts into unethical territory when it’s used to deceive. Inflating original prices to make discounts seem bigger than they are, introducing fake “decoy” products that were never intended to be purchased, or manufacturing urgency around false savings are highly questionable tactics that can erode trust fast.

Anchoring pitfalls to avoid

While anchoring can be powerful, it’s not foolproof.

It generally won’t work if…

• Your customers are price-savvy, and your anchor prices are inflated. Anchoring won’t work here, and will possibly do reputational harm to your business.
• Your pricing tiers are too far apart. A $19 product and a $299 one don’t help each other much. There needs to be relative proximity for anchoring to work.

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Wrapping up

By making simple adjustments to how you present your prices, you can guide your customers toward higher-value purchases without using aggressive tactics or heavy discounts. Just remember to use anchoring ethically, so that both you and the customer get value out of the approach.