TL;DR: Yes. A price ending in a number considered lucky, such as 8 for people of Chinese origin, can make an item seem more attractive and sell at a higher price. This effect has been measured in experiments, in market data from some countries, and in retail price tags in Beijing according to research by Zili Yang (2011), but no published research exists on the Vietnamese retail market. For buyers, it is helpful to recognize that you are paying extra for a number, not for quality.
Does a price ending in 8 really make buyers find it more appealing?
Yes, for the group of 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 appealing in the eyes of buyers from a culture that believes in that number. This result does not say that all buyers are influenced, only that the effect exists and is measurable in a specific group of buyers.
What is worth noting is that the effect does not lie in the number itself. It lies in the expectation that the buyer attaches to the number. A price of 1,680,000 dong and a price of 1,670,000 dong differ negligibly in cost, but they can differ in the feeling of "getting a deal" in the buyer's mind. Sellers do not need to persuade anyone to believe in feng shui. They only need to set the price in the zone where a portion of their customers already believe.
What have studies on lucky-number price endings measured?
The study by Westjohn and colleagues (2017) compared pricing approaches between Eastern and Western cultures, focusing on superstition and lucky numbers. The main result: prices ending in a lucky number are more common in some markets, and in the experiment, it made the price look more appealing.
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 beliefs can change consumers' expectations about a product. In other words, the number affects not only the feeling about the price, but also the feeling about the thing one is about to buy. This result belongs to the group that has not been replicated many times and is still debated among consumer behavior researchers.
Hernandez and colleagues (2008), published in the Journal of Consumer Behaviour, distinguished two types of superstition among Chinese consumers: active and passive, and examined how they relate to novelty seeking and independent judgment making. This too is a result in the group that has not been widely replicated, so it should only be read as a hypothesis with preliminary evidence, not a general rule for all buyers.
Research by Zili Yang published in 2011 in The Journal of Socio-Economics looked directly at real retail data. The author analyzed a large sample of price tags in Beijing and found that sellers adjusted the digits on price tags to match buyers' superstitious number preferences, while consumers paid extra because of that belief. This is mainland China data, published in an academic journal based outside China, so it cannot be projected directly onto the Vietnamese market. Its value is in showing that the effect is not only present in the laboratory but also leaves traces on price tags in the market.
| Study | Data scope | Main result |
|---|---|---|
| Westjohn and colleagues (2017) | Experiments and comparison of Eastern and Western cultures | Lucky-number price endings are common and make prices look more appealing |
| Block and Kramer (2009) | Consumers, experiments on expectations | Superstitious beliefs change expectations about a product |
| Hernandez and colleagues (2008) | Chinese consumers | Active and passive superstition relate to consumer behavior |
| Zili Yang (2011) | Large sample of retail price tags in Beijing | Sellers adjust digits to match number superstition, buyers pay extra because of that belief |
| Brown and colleagues (2002) | Asia-Pacific stock markets | Prices tend to cluster at certain final digits |
Why do numbers carry so much weight in a purchase decision?
The final digit is the thing a buyer sees before reading any other information. It sits at the end of the price string, where the eye lingers a little longer. For someone who already holds a belief about that number, that pause of the eye is a confirmation: "this number is good." For someone who holds no such 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: sellers set the price to filter out the group of customers who already believe. For that group, a good-looking price reduces the pain of paying. For the group that does not believe, a good-looking price is just a slightly odd number.
This 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 one's fingers. These authors noted that most earlier research measured only "negative" superstition, that is, fear of bad luck, and so missed an important part of the picture. Buying an item with a good-number price ending belongs to the positive group: the buyer is not afraid of anything, they are trying to bring something good home.
How do believing buyers and non-believing buyers differ?
In the folk understanding of many communities of Chinese origin and among a portion of Vietnamese people, the number 8 is seen as the number of prosperity, 6 as the number of fortune, 9 as the number of longevity, while 4 is the number of death. This reading is based on the near-identical Sino-Vietnamese sounds of the words, not on any numerological rule. It is passed on through ways of speaking, choosing dates, choosing license plates, and choosing prices too.
The study by Hernandez and colleagues (2008) suggests that these two types of superstition can lead to two different types of behavior: actively superstitious people tend to act to welcome good fortune, passively superstitious people tend to avoid risk. With pricing, the active type may be willing to pay extra for a good number. The passive type may simply avoid a bad number, without necessarily paying extra for a good one.
This difference matters to sellers. If your customers belong to the active group, a price ending in 8 may help sell faster. If your customers belong to the passive group, what matters more is avoiding prices ending in 4, not adding prices ending in 8. Two different strategies, even though both rest on the same foundation of belief.
What is price clustering at final digits and is it real?
Price clustering is the phenomenon in which prices in a market tend to pile up at a few certain final digits, rather than spreading evenly from 0 to 9. Brown and colleagues (2002), published in the Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, found evidence of this phenomenon in Asia-Pacific stock markets, and argued that cultural factors play a role in it.
It should be said clearly: the study by Brown and colleagues looked at stock markets, not retail prices. That result shows that final digits have a pull in financial markets, but one cannot project directly from it that the price of an item at a market operates in exactly the same way. This is where the distinction between types of markets must be kept. To speak about retail prices, one must look at retail data, and the study by Zili Yang (2011) on price tags in Beijing is an example of that kind.
Even so, the direction of this result matches what can be seen in daily life. Prices set round, prices set ending in 9, prices set ending in 8, all are ways sellers choose a stopping point that means something to buyers, instead of choosing a neutral number.
In Vietnam, how are prices ending in 8 and good numbers used?
In Vietnam, prices ending in 8, 88, 168 appear commonly in retail, in rents for commercial space, in car prices, and in large purchase and sale transactions. Good phone numbers, good account numbers, good license plates are also sought out and paid for at higher prices. There is not yet any published research on the degree to which these numbers influence the purchasing behavior of Vietnamese consumers, so what is written here is only market observation, not a measured result.
In folk sayings, people often say "8 is prosperity," "4 is death," "7 is loss." These ways of speaking 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 more comfortable than one ending in 7, even when the two prices differ by a few thousand dong.
What is worth noting is that in Vietnam, the names and readings of numbers differ somewhat from Chinese. The number 8 is read as "tám," which is not close in sound to "phát" as in Cantonese. But because of long-standing cultural influence, the association still exists among a portion of consumers. This is an example showing that beliefs about numbers do not need to match the original phonetics in order to keep living in buying and selling practice.
Do sellers really pay a price for that belief?
Yes, in the sense that they accept selling more slowly or reducing marginal profit to keep a good-looking price. An item listed at 999,000 dong may sell faster than an item listed at 1,000,000 dong, even though the seller takes in less. That difference is the price the seller pays for keeping a number that looks good to customers.
But there is also the opposite direction. For some goods, especially expensive goods and goods from original Asian brands, a lucky-number price ending can sell for more than a neutral price ending. In this case, the seller does not pay a price for the belief, but profits from it. The result of Westjohn and colleagues (2017) leans toward this possibility in their experiment. The study by Zili Yang (2011) on price tags in Beijing also goes in that direction: consumers pay extra because of their belief in lucky numbers.
So the answer to the question "do sellers pay a price for that belief" is: it depends on the item and on the group of customers. With ordinary goods, sellers often pay with marginal profit to keep a good-looking number. With expensive goods and customers who already believe, sellers can charge more.
How should buyers read a price ending in a good number?
A suggestion from Nhật Nguyệt: when you look at 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 recognized like any other expense.
This does not mean one should avoid every good-looking price. It only means one should know what one is buying. A clear-headed buyer can still choose a price ending in 8 if it is lower than or equal to another price. The problem only arises when a good-looking price is set higher than a neutral price without the buyer noticing.
What remains 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. No study has shown that this effect is the same across all cultures, all income groups and all types of goods. Nor is there Vietnamese retail data to say how large the influence here is.
Studies on superstition and consumer behavior are usually measured on small samples or in specific contexts, so results can change when repeated in another context. This holds true even for results considered fairly solid, such as the study by Westjohn and colleagues.
Conclusion: the 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 of buyers, a price ending in 8 can make an item look more appealing, and sellers can charge more or sell faster. For the group of 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.
What is useful for buyers is not believing or not believing in the number, but recognizing what they are paying for. Once they recognize it, buyers can still choose a good-looking price if they want. But that will be a conscious choice, not a reflex.
Frequently asked questions
Does a price ending in 8 really sell better?
According to the study by Westjohn and colleagues (2017), a price ending in a lucky number can make an item look more appealing in the experiment, and this phenomenon is common in some markets. The study by Zili Yang (2011) on retail price tags in Beijing also shows that consumers pay extra because of their belief in lucky numbers. However, the degree of influence varies by customer group and type of goods, so one cannot say it always sells better.
Why is the number 8 considered lucky?
In the folk understanding of many communities of Chinese origin, the number 8 is tied to the word "phát" because of the similar pronunciation. This association spread to a portion of Vietnamese consumers through cultural contact, even though Vietnamese reads the number 8 as "tám," which is not close in sound to "phát."
If I do not believe in lucky numbers, am I affected?
According to existing studies, the effect is mainly concentrated in the group of buyers who already hold the belief. Non-believers are usually not affected by the final digit. However, even non-believers can be affected by other elements of pricing, such as a price ending in 9 instead of 0.
References
- Westjohn, S. A. and colleagues (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. and colleagues (2008). Effects of superstitious beliefs on consumer novelty seeking and independent judgment making: Evidence from China. Journal of Consumer Behaviour 7(6): 424-435.
- Zili Yang (2011). Lucky numbers, unlucky consumers. The Journal of Socio-Economics, volume 40, issue 5, pages 692 to 699.
- Brown, P. and colleagues (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.
