Anchor Pricing

What is Anchor Pricing?

Anchor pricing exploits a quirk of how people evaluate prices. We rarely judge a price in absolute terms; we judge it against whatever number we saw first. The first number becomes the anchor, and everything else is measured against it.

In e-commerce, this usually shows up as a struck-through "RRP" or "compare-at" price next to the active price. A jacket priced at $120 with a $200 anchor feels like a meaningful win. The same jacket at $120 with no anchor feels like a normal price.

Why it matters for e-commerce

Anchor pricing influences perceived value, which in turn affects conversion rate, AOV, and how customers feel about a brand's pricing overall. Used honestly, it communicates real savings. Used dishonestly, it inflates the anchor to manufacture a discount that does not exist — a practice now regulated in the EU under the Omnibus Directive, which requires anchors to reflect the lowest price charged in the previous 30 days.

Example: A Shopify store sells running shoes at $89 with the compare-at price set to $129. Customers see "Save $40" on the listing. The same store leaves the compare-at field empty on a different SKU priced at $89. The same price, but no anchor, and conversion is measurably lower.

How it relates to repricing

Repricing tools handle the active price. The anchor (compare-at or RRP) typically stays static. Modern tools let you sync both fields together so an anchor is not left behind when the underlying price changes, important for stores running frequent promotions.