Reveal prices on cheap items, delay them on premium ones
When a price is revealed later, shoppers judge it against their expectations. That helps premium products (buyers are pleasantly surprised or reassured) and hurts affordable or discounted ones (buyers expected cheaper). Show prices immediately on value items, delay them on genuinely premium ones.
Quick Summary
Across 6 experiments and a field test with over 800,000 daily-deal emails, researchers found that when a price is revealed later rather than immediately, shoppers judge it against their expectations instead of on its own. That helps expensive products and hurts cheap or discounted ones. Buyers were 21.1% more likely to purchase a premium espresso machine when the price appeared after adding to cart, but 18.1% less likely to buy a discounted one when its sale price was delayed.
The rule: show prices immediately on affordable and discounted products, and delay them on genuinely premium ones (reveal after you have built value, via an enquiry, a configurator, or add-to-cart). Hiding prices on deals backfires, because shoppers expect a bigger saving than they get.
Key Finding
+21%
Increase in purchase likelihood for a premium espresso machine when its price was revealed after add-to-cart rather than while browsing.
Affonso et al., 2025
Whether to show a price up front feels like a branding choice. The research reframes it as a timing choice that should depend on whether your product is premium or value.
When people wait to see a price, they lean harder on their expectations of what it should cost. For premium products, those expectations are high, so the actual price lands as a relief or a pleasant surprise, and purchase intent rose 21.1%. For discounted products, expectations are low, so a delayed price disappoints: shoppers were 18.1% less likely to buy a 30%-off machine when the sale price was delayed, and 11.4% less likely to buy from a daily-deal email that hid prices.
What to do on your Shopify store
- Premium products: build value first, price second. Reveal the price after the shopper engages, for example after a configurator, a "request a quote," or at add-to-cart, rather than plastering it across the listing.
- Affordable and discounted products: show the price immediately. The low number is your best asset. Do not make people wait for good news.
- Never hide prices on a promotion. A concealed deal price sets an expectation of a bigger cut than you are giving, and underdelivers.
- Watch for price-first shoppers. The effect fades when price is the main thing people are deciding on, and some visitors simply leave if they cannot find a price. Do not frustrate high-intent buyers.
A caveat
The study tested short, low-effort delays (a click, add-to-cart), not long multi-step reveals like booking a call. It also did not model competitors who show prices, which can make hiding yours risky. Treat delayed pricing as a premium-only tactic and test it against your current setup.
This works hand in hand with where you position the price on the page and which tier you recommend.
Research: Affonso, F.M., Shiri, A., Aparicio, D., Xu, M., Wang, X., Janiszewski, C. & Bertini, M. (2025). Journal of Consumer Research. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucaf051
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