Is it better to set a higher price with discounts? Or lower your retail price?

Ask Me Anything Q&A Trueprofitaprilama

Topic summary

A seller is uncertain whether to maintain higher prices with frequent 20% discounts or to lower base prices and run fewer promotions.

Key concern: Constantly running sales might devalue the brand, but customers are attracted to deals.

Recommended approach:

  • Avoid blanket discounts across all products, as this diminishes perceived brand value and makes promotions feel meaningless
  • Use performance data to identify high-demand products with strong traffic but high cart abandonment
  • Test smaller, strategic discounts (5-10%) on these specific products rather than aggressive store-wide sales
  • Base pricing decisions on actual metrics rather than guesswork
  • Amplify marketing efforts on discounted high-performers and monitor results

Core principle: Discounts work when strategic and data-driven, but can backfire if customers perceive inflated original prices designed solely to create artificial deals—this damages trust and credibility.

Summarized with AI on October 29. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

I’m never sure what price to sell my product. People love sales, so I keep a high price with 20% OFF sales (for example). Constantly running a sale sounds like a bad idea too. Should I lower my price and have less sales? What is the best practice sweet spot?

2

Hey @thecatthrone , thanks for posting your question!

Running a sale tag (20% OFF) or apply discounted price ($29.99 $19.99) is a proven tactic to grab attention and motivate purchases.

People do love deals—but using discounts the wrong way can backfire. If customers feel the original price was inflated just to make the discount look better, it can hurt trust and damage your store’s credibility.

Pricing and your discount strategy should always be based on solid rationale, not guesswork.

Here are a few best practices to find that pricing sweet spot:

  • Avoid blanket discounts across your entire product list. Constant sales on everything make discounts feel meaningless and reduce your brand’s perceived value.

  • Use reports to identify high-demand or best-performing products. These are your leverage points. (For example: if a product has significantly higher traffic and click-through rates but also a high cart abandonment rate—that’s a good signal to test a discount.)

  • Apply a small, reasonable discount to those products—enough to motivate action without killing your margin. You can start with a 5–10% discount, test it at a small scale, and adjust based on actual performance.

  • Double down on ads and marketing for those winning products, and monitor the results closely to optimize over time.

Let me know if you’d like to walk through a real example or dive into a specific step!