Price Design

Place Prices Toward the Left

Prices seem cheaper on the left.

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Nick Kolenda
Last updated October 23, 2024
Sticky footer of website with $25 and buy button. Price should be to the left of the button

Overview

Where should you place a price?

Try the left side.

Left = Small Number Line

Every culture has a number line.

If you read from left to right, you conceptualize small numbers on the left:

...people typically see small numbers to the left of larger ones, [so] they are likely to associate small numerical values with locations on the left (Cai et al., 2012, p. 723)

Right = Finger Path

On mobile devices, users need to cross over prices if they're located toward the right.

A user's thumb is crossing over a price on a mobile device

These thumb paths might orient their attention toward prices, discouraging them from buying.

Right = Heavy

Objects on the right pull downward:

...because our eyes enter a visual field from the left, the left naturally becomes the anchor point or ‘visual fulcrum.’ Thus, the further an object is placed away from the left side (or the fulcrum), the heavier the perceived weight (Deng & Kahn, 2009, p. 9).

Therefore, prices feel heavy toward the right

You can try The Cliff Test to judge whether a price feels expensive:

  1. Center your price on a cliff
  2. If it falls, then it feels expensive
A horizontal strip on the edge of a cliff with $25 on the right pulling downward

If you can't move the price, insert text on the left to counterbalance the weight.

Two UI screenshots with a price on the right. One is correctly inserting more text on the left

Caveats

  • Place Calls to Action Toward the Right. You typically see a price and buy button toward the right of ecommerce pages. That makes sense. Buttons feel more clickable toward the right because most people are right-handed (and these rightward actions feel easier to do; Casasanto, 2009).
  • Positions Are Relative. Even if you place a price toward the right side of an ecommerce page, you can keep it toward the left side of this payment section.

  • Barone, M. J., Coulter, K. S., & Li, X. (2020). The Upside of Down: Presenting a Price in a Low or High Location Influences How Consumers Evaluate It. Journal of Retailing, 96(3), 397-410.
  • Cai, F., Shen, H., & Hui, M. K. (2012). The effect of location on Price estimation: understanding number–location and number–order associations. Journal of Marketing Research, 49(5), 718-724.
  • Casasanto, D. (2009). Embodiment of abstract concepts: good and bad in right-and left- handers. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 138(3), 351.
  • Coulter, K. S. (2002). The influence of print advertisement organization on odd-ending price image effects. Journal of Product & Brand Management.
  • Deng, X., & Kahn, B. E. (2009). Is your product on the right side? The “location effect” on perceived product heaviness and package evaluation. Journal of Marketing Research, 46(6), 725-738.
  • Park, J., & Ma, Y. J. (2019). Number-location bias: do consumers correctly process the number on the product package?. Journal of Product & Brand Management.