Strike-Through Pricing Psychology: The Complete Display Guide

A strikethrough price shows the old price with a line through it, right next to the new lower price. You have seen it a thousand times: $100 $80. That one little line tells the shopper: "This product used to cost more. You are getting a deal."

In this guide, you will learn what strikethrough pricing means, why it works on the human brain, how to set it up in Shopify, and how to automate it when your catalog grows. We will also look at a real example from Chewy, one of the biggest pet stores online, and cover the legal rules that keep your crossed-out prices honest.

What Does a Strikethrough Price Mean?

A strikethrough price (also called a strike-through price) means the store crossed out the original price and placed a lower price next to it. The crossed-out number is the price before the discount. The number next to it is what you pay today.

In Shopify, this works through the Compare At Price field. You put the original price in the Compare At field and the lower price in the regular Price field. Your theme then displays the old price with a line through it, automatically.

A Real Example: Strikethrough Prices on Chewy

Search for almost any dog food on Chewy and you will see strikethrough pricing in action. A bag of kibble shows something like $64.99 $54.99. The old price has a thin line through it. The new price sits next to it in a bolder style.

So what do strikethrough prices on Chewy product pages mean? They mean the item sold at the higher price before, and Chewy now sells it for less. Sometimes the higher price is Chewy's own old price. Sometimes it is the list price suggested by the brand. Either way, the line through the old number tells you one thing fast: this is a deal, and here is the proof.

You do not need Chewy's budget to copy this. Shopify has the same basic tool built in, and we will get to it in a minute.

The Psychology of Price Anchoring

Why does strike-through pricing work so well? One word: anchoring.

Anchoring means the first number a person sees becomes the reference point for every number after it. When a shopper sees $100 $80, the $100 becomes the anchor. The brain says: "This is a $100 product, and I get it for $80." Take the anchor away and $80 is just $80, with nothing to compare it to.

Shopify's own pricing guide calls this tactic anchor pricing: showing a higher original price next to a lower sale price to make the discount feel more compelling.

How Anchoring Changes Perception

But there is a catch. The anchor must feel real. If every product in your store is always "50% off," shoppers stop believing you. And as you will see in the legal section below, fake anchors can get you into real trouble.

The Hidden Problem: Checkout-Only Discounts

Here is the biggest mistake we see stores make: hiding the discount until checkout.

They email a code like SAVE20. The shopper browses the product page and sees $100. They add it to the cart. They hope the code works. They are not sure what they will actually pay.

That uncertainty kills sales. When you say "20% off," the shopper has to do math. "20% of $127.50 is... hold on..." Most people will not do that math. They see $127.50 and assume that is what they will pay. Your discount becomes invisible.

This is not a small leak. According to Baymard Institute's meta-analysis of around 50 studies, about 70 percent of online carts are abandoned, and costs that show up late in the journey are the top fixable reason shoppers give.

Why WELCOME10 and SAVE20 Codes Fail

WELCOME10. SAVE20. FIRST15. These codes look helpful. The percentage is right there in the name! But they fail at the one thing that matters most: price visibility.

The shopper still sees full price on the product page. They see $100. They know they have a code for 10% off. But what does that mean in dollars? Is it $90? Maybe. They add to cart, go to checkout, and hope the code works.

Compare that to a clean strikethrough display: $100 $80. The shopper understands the deal in half a second.

Compare At Price: Shopify's Built-In Solution

Shopify has a built-in way to show strikethrough prices: the Compare At Price field.

You open a product, put the old price in Compare At, and put the lower price in Price. The theme shows the old price crossed out. Done.

This works well for simple, store-wide sales. But it has limits:

How to Automate Strikethrough Pricing in Shopify

Setting Compare At prices by hand is fine for 10 products. It is painful for 500. And it is risky: one forgotten product keeps showing a sale price weeks after the sale ended.

This is the real question behind searches like "automate strikethrough pricing." Store owners do not want to edit prices one by one. They want the sale to switch itself on and off.

Growth Suite's Product Price Editor does exactly this. It changes real, native Shopify prices, so your theme displays the strikethrough automatically.

What Happens to Your Ads When Prices Change

Here is something almost no pricing guide talks about. When you change a price in Shopify, that price does not just live on your product page. It flows into Google Shopping and Meta Ads.

If your feed is out of sync, you get a mismatch. Your ad says $80, but your landing page says $100. Google can disapprove the product, and repeated mismatches can put the whole Merchant Center account at risk. Meta applies similar checks. And shoppers who click an ad for $80 and land on a $100 page feel tricked. They leave.

The Product Price Editor auto-syncs with Google Shopping and Meta Ads when your Shopify prices change. You change the price once, and the ad channels follow, so the price in your ad always matches the price on your page.

Legal Requirements for Strike-Through Pricing

Before you cross out any price, know the rules. The FTC in the United States, and similar bodies around the world, have strict laws about "was/now" pricing.

The core rule is simple: your "was" price must be real. The product must have actually been offered at that higher price, recently, for a reasonable period. You cannot invent a big anchor to make a small discount look huge.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Pricing rules vary by market and change over time, so if you are unsure about the rules in your region, consult a qualified attorney before you launch a was/now pricing campaign.

Native vs. Popup Discount Displays

How you show a discount changes how shoppers feel about your brand. A spinning wheel popup that screams "WIN 20% OFF!" feels cheap. A clean price element that says "Your price: $80" feels premium. Same discount, very different brand perception.

The Rule of 100: Percentage or Dollar Savings?

Should you show "25% off" or "Save $25"? A common rule of thumb called the Rule of 100 gives you a fast answer. Under $100, show the percentage: "25% off" looks bigger than "Save $20" on an $80 product. Over $100, show the dollars: "Save $50" feels more real than "20% off" on a $250 item.

Treat it as a starting point, not a law. The exact $100 line is still unproven in live store data, and we openly show what we can and cannot prove. For the full breakdown, read our dedicated guide: The Rule of 100: Discount Display Psychology.

How Growth Suite Shows Personalized Prices

Everything so far is static: the same strikethrough for every visitor. Growth Suite takes it one step further.

When a visitor receives a personalized offer, a native element appears on every product page they view. It matches your theme, so it looks custom-coded for your store. And it shows everything the shopper needs:

Implementation Best Practices

Whether you use Compare At or a dynamic tool, follow these rules: