Remove the Currency Sign and Sell More

Did you know that if you remove the currency sign you will end up selling more items? If you don’t sell more, you will certainly be able to sell higher-priced items a lot easier by just removing that pesky little, dollar, pound, Euro, etc. sign.

It seems that when we see these currency signs we associate it not just with money, but the spending of money.

As much as we all like to own things, nobody really enjoys spending that much.

A study conducted at Cornell University’s Centre for Hospitality and Research showed that people eating in a restaurant actually spent a lot more money when the dollar sign had been removed from the prices.

For example, instead of $20 the price was simply 20.

This means that if you are a marketer of higher priced items, or simply want people to spend more on lower priced items, you may wish to remove the currency symbol from your pricing form now on.

Another aspect that was studied was writing down the price in word format instead of using numbers.

For example, $20 would be Twenty Dollars.

The thinking beyond the written word approach is that it makes it far harder for buyers to start adding up their various purchases.

If I order three items at $18, $23 and $55 dollars I may be able to hold the image of those numbers in my mind and mentally add up, or at least roughly estimate the total. This would allow me to stick to a predetermined limit I had set myself.

However, if I saw eighteen dollars, twenty three dollar and fifty five dollars it becomes more difficult to be able register those numbers and calculate them.

Which is best, removing currency signs or converting prices to words?

The answer is both.

If the prices are converted to word format and then the word dollars is removed it increases sales again. The author of the study found that referencing the currency sign (in this case dollars) reminded people they were about to spend money and this format removes such an emphasis.

So next time you see just a word based version of a number when you are buying something or a number of items, make sure you double check you can afford it.

That’ll be twenty, please.