Do strikethrough prices work?

We used the DoWhatWorks BetScore methodology to find out.  This is just one example of the kinds of analysis we do for clients based on evidence from over 20,000 experiments sourced using the DoWhatWorks engine.  

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If you are running a promotion you may be tempted to "slash out" old prices to show a good deal. We see it tested all the time by major brands. For example Spotify ran this 5-way tests.

In this 5-way split test, Spotify tried multiple different ways to show value using strikethroughs. They tried crossing out the $29.97 price. It lost. They tried crossing out "One month" to emphasize you were getting 3 months. That lost as well. For good measure, they even tested showing the strikethrough price at the start or the end of the H1 headline. Those lost too.

To see how these results compared to tests run by top subscription brands, we analyzed 22 similar experiments using our BetScore methodology.

Surprisingly, we found that strikethrough pricing tends to lose across tests from major subscriptions brands. A BetScore this low indicates it is not a good bet. These tests suggest that using strikethrough prices may be counterproductive and you want to find other ways to show value.

We've unlocked a few tests from the analysis below.

Prezi ran tests using strikethrough pricing in plan selection and saw them lose.

Strikethrough prices lost for Dropbox as well.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, if you work in a digital subscription brand (especially in SaaS) adding strikethrough is not likely to help you drive conversion.

It is important to note that this meta-analysis is focused on subscription brands showing discounts. Context matters. If you are in retail, travel, finance or other sectors, you will want to look at BetScores for your industry.

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