Why Prices So Often End in 8: How Sellers Use Lucky Numbers in Pricing

Do prices ending in 8 really make buyers find an item more attractive?

Yes, for buyers who believe in lucky numbers. In an experiment published in the Journal of International Marketing, A. Westjohn and colleagues (2017) showed that a price ending in a lucky number can make an item look more attractive to buyers from a culture that believes in that number. This does not mean every buyer is affected; it means the effect exists and is measurable in a specific group of buyers.

What matters is that the effect does not sit in the number itself. It sits in the expectation the buyer attaches to the number. A price of 1,680,000 dong and a price of 1,670,000 dong differ little in cost, but they can differ in the feeling of a good deal in the buyer's mind. Sellers do not need to convince anyone to believe in feng shui. They only need to set the price in the zone where part of their customer base already believes.

What has research on lucky-number price endings actually measured?

Westjohn and colleagues (2017) compared pricing approaches between Eastern and Western cultures, focusing on superstition and lucky numbers. Main finding: prices ending in a lucky number are more common in some markets, and in the experiment such prices looked more attractive.

Another line of research looks at lucky numbers from the buyer's side. Block and Kramer (2009), published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, found that superstitious belief can shift consumer expectations about a product. In other words, the number affects not only the feeling about the price but also the feeling about the thing being bought. Kind of knowledge: UnprovenNot enough evidence. Someone has claimed it, but no source or study is strong enough to confirm it. The five labelsThis result belongs to the group that has not been replicated many times and is still debated among consumer behaviour researchers.

Hernandez and colleagues (2008), published in the Journal of Consumer Behaviour, distinguished two kinds of superstition among Chinese consumers, active and passive, and examined how they relate to novelty seeking and independent judgement making. Kind of knowledge: UnprovenNot enough evidence. Someone has claimed it, but no source or study is strong enough to confirm it. The five labelsThis too belongs to the group not widely replicated, so it should be read as a hypothesis with preliminary evidence, not a general rule for all buyers.

Why do numbers carry so much weight in a purchase decision?

The final digit is what a buyer sees before reading any other information. It sits at the end of the price string, where the eye rests a moment longer. For someone who already holds a belief about that number, that pause is a confirmation: "this number is good." For someone without that belief, the number says almost nothing.

This is why the effect is uneven. It is not a psychological blow aimed at everyone. It is a filter: the seller sets the price to filter in the customers who already believe. For that group, a good-looking price reduces the pain of paying. For the group that does not believe, it is just a slightly odd number.

The mechanism is close to what Wiseman and Watt (2004) call "positive" superstition: beliefs aimed at bringing good things, such as carrying a lucky charm, knocking on wood, crossing fingers. Those authors note that most earlier research measured only "negative" superstition, the fear of bad luck, and so missed an important part of the picture. Buying an item with a good-looking price ending belongs to the positive group: the buyer fears nothing, they are trying to bring something good home.

How do believing and non-believing buyers differ?

Kind of knowledge: Folk beliefFolk belief. What people believe, avoid or pass on by word of mouth, recorded as a belief, not as a checked fact. The five labelsIn the folk belief of many ethnic Chinese communities and among some Vietnamese people, 8 is the number of prosperity, 6 the number of fortune, 9 the number of longevity, and 4 the number of death. This reading rests on similar Sino-Vietnamese sounds between the words, not on any rule of arithmetic. It is passed on through speech, through choosing dates, through choosing licence plates, and through choosing prices.

Hernandez and colleagues (2008) suggest that the two kinds of superstition can lead to two kinds of behaviour: actively superstitious people tend to act to welcome good luck, passively superstitious people tend to avoid risk. With pricing, active believers may be willing to pay more for a good-looking number. Passive believers may simply avoid a bad number, without necessarily paying more for a good one.

This difference matters to sellers. If your customers are the active kind, a price ending in 8 may help sell faster. If they are the passive kind, the more important thing is to avoid a price ending in 4, not to add a price ending in 8. Two different strategies, both resting on the same belief base.

What is price clustering at final digits, and is it real?

Price clustering is the tendency of market prices to pile up at a few final digits instead of spreading evenly from 0 to 9. Brown and colleagues (2002), published in the Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, found evidence of this in Asia-Pacific stock markets and argued that cultural factors play a role.

One point must be clear: the Brown study looked at stock markets, not retail prices. That result shows final digits have pull in financial markets, but it cannot be stretched directly to say a market-stall price works the same way. This is where the distinction between market types must be kept.

Still, the direction of the result fits what is seen in daily life. Round prices, prices ending in 9, prices ending in 8 are all ways a seller picks a stopping point that means something to the buyer, rather than picking a neutral number.

How are prices ending in 8 and lucky numbers used in Vietnam?

In Vietnam, prices ending in 8, 88 or 168 appear commonly in retail, in rent for premises, in car prices, and in large transactions. Good-looking phone numbers, account numbers and licence plates are also sought after and paid for at a premium. Kind of knowledge: UnprovenNot enough evidence. Someone has claimed it, but no source or study is strong enough to confirm it. The five labelsNo published study exists on how strongly these numbers affect the buying behaviour of Vietnamese consumers, so what is written here is market observation, not measurement.

Kind of knowledge: Folk beliefFolk belief. What people believe, avoid or pass on by word of mouth, recorded as a belief, not as a checked fact. The five labelsIn folk speech, people often say "8 is prosperity," "4 is death," "7 is loss." These sayings run so deep that some sellers automatically avoid prices ending in 4 without anyone reminding them. Some buyers also automatically find a price ending in 8 easier than a price ending in 7, even when the two differ by a few thousand dong.

It is worth noting that in Vietnam the names and readings of numbers differ somewhat from Chinese. The number 8 is read "tám," not close in sound to "phát" as in Cantonese. But through long cultural contact, the association still survives among part of the consumer base. This is an example of how a belief about numbers does not need the original phonetics to keep living in buying and selling.

Do sellers really pay a price for that belief?

Yes, in the sense that they accept slower sales or a thinner margin to keep a good-looking price. An item listed at 999,000 dong may sell faster than one listed at 1,000,000 dong, even though the seller takes in less. That difference is the price the seller pays to keep a number that looks good to customers.

But the reverse also exists. For some goods, especially expensive items and Asian-origin brands, a lucky-number price ending can sell higher than a neutral ending. Here the seller does not pay for the belief, but profits from it. The Westjohn et al. (2017) result leans toward this possibility in their experiment.

So the answer to "do sellers pay a price for that belief" is: it depends on the goods and the customer group. For ordinary goods, sellers often pay in margin to keep a good-looking number. For expensive goods and believing customers, sellers can charge extra.

How should buyers read a good-looking price ending?

Gợi ý của Nhật Nguyệt: when you see a price ending in 8, 88 or 168, ask yourself whether you are paying for the item or paying for the number. If the answer is the item, the number does not matter. If the answer is the number, that is a real expense, and it deserves to be recognised like any other expense.

This does not mean avoiding every good-looking price. It only means knowing what you are buying. A clear-headed buyer can still choose a price ending in 8 if it is cheaper than or equal to another price. The problem only arises when a good-looking price is set above a neutral one without the buyer noticing.

What is still unproven in this story?

Most of the available evidence comes from laboratory experiments, from market data in a few countries, and from specific consumer samples. Kind of knowledge: UnprovenNot enough evidence. Someone has claimed it, but no source or study is strong enough to confirm it. The five labelsNo study shows the effect is the same across all cultures, all income groups and all goods. Nor is there Vietnamese retail data to say how strong the effect is here.

Studies of superstition and consumer behaviour are often measured on small samples or in specific settings, so results can change when repeated elsewhere. This holds even for results considered fairly solid, such as the Westjohn et al. study.

In the Tetrabiblos, Ptolemy held that eastern lands carry a masculine, diurnal, stronger character, while western lands carry a feminine, gentler one. This is the view of ancient astrology on how direction affects human temperament, not a modern behavioural research finding. It is mentioned here only as an example that the idea of "East and West differ in psychology" is old, not as proof of anything about prices.

Conclusion: a number is a pricing tool, not a curse

Lucky numbers are a pricing tool with a measurable effect on buyers who believe in them. For that group, a price ending in 8 can make an item look more attractive, and sellers can charge more or sell faster. For buyers who do not believe, the number has almost no effect. This is why the effect is strong in some markets and weak in others.

The useful thing for buyers is not to believe or disbelieve the number, but to notice what they are paying for. Once they notice, they can still choose a good-looking price if they want. But it will be a conscious choice, not a reflex.

Frequently asked questions

Do prices ending in 8 really sell better?

According to Westjohn and colleagues (2017), a price ending in a lucky number can make an item look more attractive in the experiment, and the pattern is common in some markets. However, the strength of the effect varies by customer group and goods, so it cannot be said to always sell better.

Why is 8 considered lucky?

Kind of knowledge: Folk beliefFolk belief. What people believe, avoid or pass on by word of mouth, recorded as a belief, not as a checked fact. The five labelsIn the folk belief of many ethnic Chinese communities, 8 is tied to the word "phát" because the readings are close. This association spread to part of Vietnamese consumers through cultural contact, even though Vietnamese reads 8 as "tám," which is not close in sound to "phát."

If I do not believe in lucky numbers, am I still affected?

Kind of knowledge: UnprovenNot enough evidence. Someone has claimed it, but no source or study is strong enough to confirm it. The five labelsAccording to existing research, the effect is mainly concentrated among buyers who already hold the belief. Non-believers are generally not affected by the final digit. However, even non-believers can be affected by other features of price setting, such as a price ending in 9 rather than 0.

References

• Westjohn, S. A. et al. (2017). Eastern versus Western Culture Pricing Strategy: Superstition, Lucky Numbers, and Localization. Journal of International Marketing 25(1): 72-90.
• Block, L. and Kramer, T. (2009). The effect of superstitious beliefs on performance expectations. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 37(2): 161-169.
• Hernandez, M. D. et al. (2008). Effects of superstitious beliefs on consumer novelty seeking and independent judgment making: Evidence from China. Journal of Consumer Behaviour 7(6): 424-435.
• Brown, P. et al. (2002). The influence of cultural factors on price clustering: Evidence from Asia-Pacific stock markets. Pacific-Basin Finance Journal 10(3): 307-332.
• Wiseman, R. and Watt, C. (2004). Measuring superstitious belief: Why lucky charms matter. Personality and Individual Differences 37(8): 1533-1541.
• Ptolemy (1822). Tetrabiblos, translated by J. M. Ashmand, Book II.