Price Number Relationships and Deal Processing Fluency: The Effects of Approximation Sequences and Number Multiples

Abstract

This research investigates how the relationships among pieces of numerical information in a price promotional offer (i.e., regular price, sale price, absolute discount, and relative discount) affect deal processing fluency. Across four studies (including a field study involving purchase data collected from an online group-buying website), the authors show that when the numbers constitute an approximation sequence or are multiples of one another, deal processing fluency is increased, which influences deal liking and ultimately has an impact on consumers’ price promotion predilection. In addition, this article demonstrates that when consumers are not highly motivated to process numerical information, they may choose deals that offer less economic value but feature a combination of numbers that they can more fluently process. This research has important implications for the type of numerical information marketers should include in price promotional offers.