Strikethrough pricing: why a single line still drives conversions

A crossed-out price is one of the oldest persuasion tools in commerce. In one glance, it tells the shopper: "This is a better deal than it used to be."

‍But in 2025, that line carries much more weight. Behind it sits the full machinery of pricing psychology, discount anchoring, urgency signals, lifecycle marketing, compliance laws, and now AI agents that automatically judge whether your markdown is real or manipulative.

This guide unpacks why strikethrough pricing still works, where it goes wrong, and how to implement it in a way that’s effective, compliant, and margin-safe.

What is strikethrough pricing?

Strikethrough pricing, also called markdown pricing, crossed-out pricing, or reference price display, is when a product’s previous price is shown with a line through it, directly next to a lower, current price (e.g., $50 → $35).

It’s one of the most universally understood pricing signals in commerce. From a UX standpoint, it’s simple. From a business standpoint, it’s strategic. Strikethrough pricing serves as a:

• Visual anchor that reframes value.
• Reference price for comparison.
• Discount mechanism that doesn’t require codes, coupons, or extra user steps.

Most modern commerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Adobe Commerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, custom storefronts, or headless setups support strikethrough pricing natively or via API-driven dynamic pricing layers. In composable architectures, it becomes a core building block for personalized markdowns, inventory-aware pricing, and real-time incentive decisioning.

In 2025, however, a crossed-out price is no longer just a visual cue. It must be:

• Accurate (reflect a true historical selling price).
• Consistent across all channels.
• Compliant with regional pricing laws.
• Economically justified as part of a controlled promotion strategy.

Done well, it’s one of the most efficient tools to increase perception of savings and accelerate purchase decisions. Done poorly, it becomes both a legal risk and a margin leak.

The psychology behind strikethrough and markdown pricing

Strikethrough pricing works because it speaks the brain’s native language for evaluating value. When a shopper sees "$100 → $70," they're experiencing a perceived win. This reaction is anchored in one of the most well-documented cognitive biases in behavioral economics:

1. The anchoring effect

The crossed-out price becomes the mental anchor, establishing what the item is supposed to cost. The new price is then judged relative to that anchor, not relative to other market prices. Even if $70 isn’t the best price on the internet, the $100 anchor makes it feel attractive.

2. Perceived value

A strikethrough reframes the purchase from "I’m spending $70" to "I’m gaining $30 worth of value." People respond more strongly to value gained than money spent, a cornerstone of behavioral pricing.

3. Loss aversion

People fear losing a deal more than they enjoy saving money. A strikethrough turns inaction into a potential loss: "If I don’t buy now, I’m giving up this $30 saving." This is why even small markdowns can meaningfully increase conversion rates.

4. Cognitive ease

A strikethrough removes friction. No codes. No mental math. No checkout hurdles. Just a simple visual: "Old price - new price." The brain rewards simplicity; fewer cognitive steps mean smoother purchase decisions.

5. Price fairness perception

Shoppers compare not just price levels but price fairness. A well-grounded strikethrough feels like a reward. A suspicious one ("Was $299, now $99") feels manipulative and damages trust. Price fairness is a major driver of loyalty in 2025, especially among repeat buyers.

6. Contrast effect

Strikethroughs amplify contrast: the product looks cheaper not only compared to its old price but compared to neighboring SKUs in the same category. Brands use this to steer customers toward certain items without explicitly discounting everything.

7. Authenticity bias

Modern shoppers and AI shopping agents can tell when a markdown is real versus artificial. Authentic markdowns drive conversion. Fake or perpetual markdowns destroy trust and trigger higher bounce rates.

Is your strikethrough pricing compliant?

Strikethrough pricing is powerful, but it’s also one of the most heavily regulated tactics in modern ecommerce. The rule is simple: The crossed-out price must reflect a real, verifiable, recently charged price.

If your PDP always shows "−30%," regulators no longer see that as a discount, they see it as deceptive pricing. And enforcement has gotten significantly stricter in the last few years. Below are the key regulatory frameworks you must follow in 2025 to keep your markdowns compliant and your brand protected.

1. EU compliance (Omnibus Directive)

Under the EU Omnibus Directive, any strikethrough or "was/now" price must reference: the lowest actual selling price in the 30 days prior to the promotion.

This is designed to stop retailers from:

• Inflating prices right before a discount.
• Running perpetual false markdowns.
• Showing inflated anchor prices that never reflected reality.

Key implications:

• If a product has been discounted in the past 30 days, you must use the lowest of those prices as the reference.
• The rule applies across all EU member states, including marketplaces.
• Price changes must be documented and auditable.

2. U.S. compliance

States like California, Washington, and New York follow a similar principle: A comparison price must be a price actually charged within a reasonable period (usually 90 days). If the higher reference price is older than that, ads must include a clear disclosure like: "Was $199 (price as of March 2024)."

The FTC views fake strikethroughs as deceptive advertising under Section 5 of the FTC Act. Violations can result in fines, injuctions, and more.

Retailers like JCPenney, Kohl’s, Sears, and Macy’s have collectively paid tens of millions in settlements over misleading reference prices.

3. UK & global dark patterns crackdown

New UK and EU digital regulation bans "dark patterns," including:

• Fake scarcity ("Only 3 left" when untrue).
• Fake urgency ("Ends today" when automated resets are used).
• Perpetual discounts.
• Hidden or unverifiable reference prices.

4. Marketplace enforcement

Marketplaces have their own stricter rules. For example, Google will reject product listings if:

• The sale price doesn’t match the fixed price history.
• Strikethroughs appear on products without true recent higher prices.
• Price mismatches occur between PDP and feed.

Amazon automatically suppresses listings with:

• Inconsistent price history.
• Inflated reference prices.
• Violation of local price-comparison laws.

In other words: Your strikethrough pricing must be consistent and honest across every channel, or platforms will remove your listing before users even see it.

5. AI enforcement

AI shopping assistants evaluate your prices in real time. They detect and penalize:

• Repetitive, non-genuine discounts.
• Inflated anchors.
• Inconsistent markdown patterns.
• Unlawful urgency and discount combinations.

AI is becoming the strictest "regulator" of all because once an AI labels your pricing as misleading, customers will never even see your offer.

4 strategies to use strikethrough pricing profitably

Strikethrough pricing isn’t dead but the era of blanket 20% markdowns absolutely is. A crossed-out price only works when it’s intentional, contextual, and economically justified. Treating markdowns like UI decoration leads to margin leakage, noncompliance, and customer distrust.

Here are five ways to turn strikethrough pricing from noise into ROI:

1. Target the right segment with dynamic pricing tules

A universal 20% off doesn’t move the needle like it used to. Instead, layer strikethroughs into dynamic segmentation logic. Use metadata and customer profiles to trigger contextual pricing variations based on:

• First-time visitors vs. returning buyers.
• VIP loyalty tier or email subscriber status.
• Cart or product affinity (past purchases, views).
• Geo-targeting or device-type behaviors.

With tools like Voucherify, you can define real-time discount rules tied to custom attributes – for example, show "$120 → $89" only for lapsed users in North America on mobile. In the end, as BCG reports personalized offers can outperform generic discounts 3x in ROI.

2. Use real-time behavior to trigger markdown pricing

Strikethroughs don’t need to be static. Integrate with your session tracking and CX stack to trigger context-aware pricing in real time:

• Abandoned cart triggers: Email with crossed-out price + urgency.
• Scroll-depth or dwell time signals: Pop-up: "$100 → $85, just for today".
• Exit intent or tab switching: Instant offer deployment.

With webhooks or behavioral event ingestion (via CDPs or tools like Segment), you can pipe live session data into Voucherify and trigger rule-based discounts dynamically, no developer bottlenecks required.

3. Align markdown prices to the customer lifecycle

Random discounts feel cheap but lifecycle-tied markdowns feel thoughtful. Use your CRM or marketing automation to push strikethroughs that match the shopper’s journey:

• Onboarding: "First order? $25 off just for trying us."
• Reactivation: "We miss you. $50 → $30, today only.”
• Post-purchase upsell: "Bought X? Get Y at 40% off."

This is where composable infrastructure shines. Stitch your loyalty engine, email platform, and promo logic together (e.g., Voucherify + Braze + Shopify) to serve lifecycle-based price drops with minimal manual work.

4. Ensure omnichannel consistency across your stack

Inconsistent pricing kills trust and conversions. Your strikethrough prices need to sync across every consumer-facing endpoint:

• Web, app, email, and POS systems.
• Product feeds to ad platforms like Google Shopping.
• External shopping agents, bots, and price aggregators.

If your markdown logic lives in silos (e.g., hardcoded in frontend, separate logic in ESP), it’s prone to drift. Instead, centralize promotion logic in a headless API layer like Voucherify and enable consistent strikethrough prices via your CDP and PIM integrations. This also makes it bot-readable, essential as agentic commerce takes off and AI-powered shoppers filter weak offers automatically.

Real examples of markdown pricing from top retailers

1. Amazon

Amazon’s pricing engine is quite well-known. The company’s algorithms adjust product prices multiple times per day. When you visit a product page, you’ll often see a strikethrough "List Price" (typically the MSRP) followed by Amazon’s current price, anchoring value in the shopper’s mind. 

They also run Lightning Deal flashes: short-term, limited-quantity offers with countdown timers and prominent markdowns.

2. Walmart

On Walmart.com, products can appear under "Rollback," "Reduced Price," or "Clearance" tags, often with a strikethrough showing the previous price (or list price) and the discounted one. Because of that Walmart can remain true to its core strategy of low everyday pricing (EDLP), while still surfacing tactical discounts when they matter most, for example, matching competitors (like Amazon) or driving demand during promotions.

3. Best Buy

Best Buy offers a clear example of how strikethrough pricing can be targeted rather than blanket. Through its Best Buy Drops in the mobile app, it presents limited‑time deals often visible only to app users. Additionally, when members are logged in, they may see a discounted "member price" crossed out against the regular price (e.g. "$999 $949 – Member Price!"). 

4. Nordstrom

Nordstrom doesn’t use strikethrough pricing year‑round. Instead, they introduce it during major events like the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale (and other seasonal promotions like Black Friday) when deep discounts apply to pre‑season or investment items. Through the selective use, Nordstrom makes markdowns feel meaningful and exclusive.

How to power dynamic strikethrough pricing with Voucherify?

Strikethrough pricing becomes far more powerful when it's dynamic, data-driven, and rules-based. That’s exactly what Voucherify enables: turning static markdowns into real-time, context-aware price personalization.

What is Voucherify’s Qualification API?

Qualification API acts as your pricing decision engine. Rather than hardcoding discount logic into your frontend or backend, you simply query the /qualifications endpoint at runtime to get the full picture of what the customer is eligible for.

The Qualification API (POST /qualifications) evaluates every pricing scenario in real time based on:

• Customer profile: Loyalty tier, segment, region, purchase history, custom metadata.
• Cart context: SKUs, variants, quantity, item metadata.
• Order attributes: Currency, channel, POS ID, session source, time window.

The response includes:

• All eligible discounts, vouchers, and cart-level promotions.
• A detailed SKU-level discount breakdown.

Best use cases for markdown pricing with Qualification API

• Digital wallets: Display real-time eligible offers per user in personalized dashboards or apps.
• Product page pricing: Only show strikethrough prices when a user actually qualifies (preventing overexposure and margin erosion).
• Behavioral discounts: Trigger markdowns based on cart contents, inactivity, or session context.
• Loyalty tier pricing: Give Gold-tier members access to special prices without showing public discounts.
• A/B testing & offer visibility: Test price perception and discount elasticity by showing strikethroughs to different audience segments or channels.

SKU-level precision & rule-based control

Voucherify also supports fine-grained discount targeting using flexible rule logic and metadata across:

• Product hierarchy: Category → Collection → SKU → Variant.
• Inventory signals: Stock levels, sell-through rate, lifecycle stage.
• Customer attributes: Segment, region, loyalty status, acquisition source.
• Order/cart context: Bundle logic, minimum value, product combinations.
• Custom metadata: Pulled from your CDP, PIM, or ERP in real time.

Summary

Strikethrough pricing is one of the oldest tricks in the ecommerce playbook and when done right, it still works wonders. But the days of blanket 20% off are over. Today’s shoppers expect real deals, personalized prices, and discounts that actually make sense. With Voucherify, you can bring that level of control and context to every crossed-out price.