Do Price Ranges Increase Click-throughs?

TL;DR

This study investigates whether displaying price ranges on category pages increases user clicks, finding a 3.6% overall improvement with effects varying across categories.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that modifying price display to show ranges can boost click-through rates on comparison shopping sites.

Findings

Overall 3.6% increase in product clicks

Heterogeneous effects across different categories

Some categories may experience negative impacts

Abstract

An important goal of online comparison shopping services is to "convert" a viewer from general product category pages (for example product groups such as "smartphones" or "air-conditioners") to detailed product pages and ultimately to order pages. Comparison shopping websites provide a familiar web interface as well as a chance for consumers to purchase items at competitive prices. In return for providing access to a large market of potential consumers, the comparison shopping service usually receives financial compensation for product clicks and orders. This study looked at 2.5 million product listing visits at price.com.hk to determine whether a modification in the way prices are displayed on general category pages resulted in more "conversions" to product detail pages. We found a statistically significant improvement over-all as a result of the new price display resulting in 3.6% more product clicks over all categories. Additional analysis showed that the effect is heterogeneous among different categories, and in a few cases there may be some categories negatively affected by the display modification.