Conditional Discounts Can Backfire, Shrinking Total Sales Instead of Boosting Them
A $700 discount on a $1,000 phone sounds great, until it only applies if you sign a new two-year contract. New Journal of Marketing Research work (five studies, mixed methods) shows that pairing a big discount with a costly precondition backfires: shoppers who can't take the deal feel the full price is even worse, and they walk away. Total sales drop. The fix: shrink the precondition, or target buyers who can actually meet it.