Why £9.99 price tags are turn-off for women

IT IS the oldest trick in the shopkeeper’s book.

But marketing goods at £9.99 might be turning women off parting with their money.

A study suggests round numbers are more appealing to them so adding a penny to the price would actually increase demand.

Researchers from Texas University proved that different types of figures are split along sex lines.

People subconsciously see round numbers as feminine while those more precise and including decimal points are deemed manly.

In an experiment 121 adults were split into two groups and asked to read the birth notice of a baby with the unisex name Chris and guess whether it was male or female.

Among those told the youngster was born at 5am, weighed 8lb and measured 21 inches, around half thought it was a girl. But when the figures were replaced with 5.01am,

Figures are split along sex lines

7lb 6.5oz and 20.75 inches, a total of 74 per cent plumped for a boy.

A second experiment saw 113 people shown a mixture of numbers and asked to imagine they had human traits. Then they rated them on a scale from 1 for very feminine to 7 for extremely male. Round figures averaged a score of 3.8 while the precise ones were marked 4.4.

Primark, Next and M&S are prominent high street chains that price their items in whole numbers such as £10 or £20.

Dr Amna Khan, senior lecturer in consumer behaviour and retailing at Manchester Metropolitan University, said the findings, in the Journal of Consumer Research, could have a variety of uses on the high street. She said: ‘However counter-intuitive it may seem on the face of it, adding a penny to a £9.99 price tag could actually increase demand among women consumers.’