Offer Lab — designing your pricing ladder
In plain English
If you sell one thing at one price, your customer's only question is "yes or no?" And "no" is always the easier answer.
If you sell three versions at three prices, the question quietly changes to "which one?" That's a much better question to be asking, because every answer is a sale.
This tool designs that structure for you. You give it a product and a price, and it comes back with:
- Three tiers — a basic, a main, and a premium — with names and descriptions.
- A fourth "decoy" option, priced just below the premium. It isn't there to sell. It's there to make the premium look like obviously better value. (This is a well-documented effect — when people see an option that's almost as expensive but clearly worse, the expensive one starts looking sensible.)
- Charm pricing — £59.99 rather than £60. Small, well-tested, free.
- A tripwire — a cheap, low-risk first purchase to get someone onto the ladder at all.
- Framing lines — an anchor, a loss-aversion line, and a bundle idea.
Important: this is not about discounting. It's about how you present what you sell.
How to use it
- Click "Growth Science" in the left-hand menu, then "Offer Lab."
- Choose a product and enter your current price.
- Click "Design offer."
- Read the three tiers. Check the names and descriptions sound like your brand — edit anything that doesn't.
- Look at the decoy. It's meant to be slightly worse value than the premium. That's the point.
- Check the tripwire suggestion. If you like it, you can push it straight into your offers with one click.
- Test it against your current single price before rolling it out everywhere.
⏱ ~15 min per product · 💳 Pro+ · 🎯 Change "yes or no?" into "which one?"
Why this matters for your business
Pricing gets treated as a number when it's really a structure. Most shops set a price by looking at what it cost, what competitors charge, and what feels right — and then never revisit the shape of the offer at all.
The shape matters more than the number, for a reason that's been tested extensively: people are very bad at judging whether something is worth £60 in the abstract, and very good at judging whether it's better value than the thing next to it. Give someone one price and they compare you against your competitor. Give them three and they compare your options against each other — and you've already won, whichever they pick.
The tiers also solve a problem you can't solve with one price. Some of your customers would happily pay considerably more for a better version, and currently can't. Others would buy something, but not at your price, and currently buy nothing. A single price serves the middle and loses both ends.
The tripwire addresses something different again: the risk of a first purchase. Someone who's never bought from you doesn't know if they'll like it, if delivery works, if you'll answer an email. A cheap, low-risk first purchase makes that decision small — and once someone has bought once, the second purchase is dramatically easier.
What this typically unlocks
| What you get | Typical result |
|---|---|
| Average order value | +15 to +35% when a ladder replaces a single price |
| Customers taking the premium tier | Typically 15–25% once a decoy is present |
| First-purchase conversion | Higher with a tripwire in place |
| Time to design an offer structure | ~15 min rather than a strategy session |
| Discounting pressure | Lower — you compete on structure, not price |
What you actually get
The three tiers plus a decoy
| Option | Purpose | Roughly who takes it |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | Removes the price objection | Price-sensitive buyers |
| Core | The one you want most people to buy — highlighted | The majority |
| Decoy | Priced just under premium, slightly worse value | Almost nobody, by design |
| Premium | Captures customers who'd happily pay more | 15–25% |
How the decoy works
This is the part that feels strange until you've seen it work.
Imagine two options:
Standard £40
Premium £70
Premium looks expensive. Plenty of people take Standard.
Now add a third:
Standard £40
Plus £65 ← the decoy
Premium £70
Nothing about Premium changed. But next to an option that costs £65 and offers noticeably less, £70 suddenly looks like the obvious choice — you get considerably more for £5.
The decoy isn't a trick played on the customer; it's a reference point that makes a genuine value difference visible. Without it, people have nothing to judge the premium against except the cheapest option.
The tool places the decoy automatically at just under your premium price. That placement is fixed in code, not decided by AI, so it's predictable every time.
Charm pricing
Prices are rounded to end in .99 — £59.99 rather than £60.
It's a small effect, extremely well tested, and costs you a penny. The first digit is what registers, and "fifty-something" reads differently from "sixty."
The tripwire
A low-friction first offer designed to get a new customer to buy something, rather than deciding whether to buy the main thing.
The tool suggests a type (a percentage or fixed amount off), a value, and the copy — and you can push it directly into your live offers.
Why it works. The gap between "never bought from this shop" and "bought once" is the hardest one in commerce. After it, you have their details, their consent, a delivery experience they can judge, and a reason to email them. See 2nd Purchase for what to do next.
Framing lines
Four short pieces of copy:
| Line | What it does |
|---|---|
| Anchor | A reference point that makes your price look reasonable |
| Loss aversion | Frames the cost of not buying — usually stronger than framing the gain |
| Bundle idea | A combination worth testing |
| Charm note | A one-line reminder of the pricing convention used |
What's AI-written and what isn't
Worth knowing, because it determines how much to trust each part:
| Part | Produced by | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Tier names, descriptions, value props | AI | Language should fit your brand |
| Framing lines | AI | Same |
| Tier price maths | Fixed code | Must be predictable and auditable |
| Decoy placement | Fixed code | Same |
| Charm rounding | Fixed code | Same |
The numbers behave the same way every time. Only the words change.
Your Positioning is fed in automatically, so tier names and value propositions reflect your actual brand rather than generic "Silver / Gold / Platinum."
How it works (without the technical bits)
Real merchant scenarios
Scenario A — One price to four options
Setup. Coffee subscription, single option at £24/month. Conversion 3.1%.
Designed ladder:
| Option | Price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | £17.99 | One bag, monthly |
| Origins (core) | £29.99 | Two bags, rotating single-origin |
| Reserve Lite (decoy) | £41.99 | Two bags, one rare lot |
| Reserve | £44.99 | Three bags, two rare lots, first access |
Results after eight weeks:
| Single price | Ladder | |
|---|---|---|
| Conversion | 3.1% | 4.4% |
| Average order value | £24 | £31.40 |
| Share taking premium | n/a | 19% |
| Revenue per visitor | £0.74 | £1.38 |
Revenue per visitor nearly doubled. No change to the product, the traffic, or the marketing — only the shape of the offer.
Reserve Lite sold to 2% of customers, exactly as intended. Its job was making Reserve look like the sensible choice for £3 more.
Scenario B — Removing the decoy, by request
Setup. Merchant felt the decoy was manipulative and removed it, keeping the other three tiers.
Result over six weeks:
| With decoy | Without | |
|---|---|---|
| Premium share | 19% | 6% |
| Average order value | £31.40 | £26.10 |
Why. Without a nearby comparison, the premium tier was being judged against the cheapest option, where it looked expensive. With the decoy, it was judged against something similar and slightly worse, where it looked good.
How they resolved it. Rather than removing it, they made the decoy genuinely useful — a real product some people would want — rather than a deliberately weak option. Premium share recovered to 16%, and the merchant was comfortable with the ethics.
A reasonable position. The decoy works best when it's a real choice that happens to be worse value, not a straw man.
Scenario C — Tripwire changing the economics
Setup. Skincare brand, £45 entry product. Cost per new customer: £38. Barely profitable on first order.
Tripwire suggested: a £12 travel-size trial.
Result:
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| First-purchase conversion | 1.2% | 4.7% |
| Cost per first purchase | £38 | £11 |
| Progressing to full size within 60 days | n/a | 41% |
| Blended cost per real customer | £38 | £27 |
The first sale stopped being the profitable one and became the cheap way to acquire someone who then bought properly. Combined with 2nd Purchase nudges, 41% moved up within two months.
Scenario D — Charm pricing, tiny but free
Setup. Merchant tested £60.00 against £59.99 on a single product, 6,000 visitors each.
| £60.00 | £59.99 | |
|---|---|---|
| Conversion | 2.24% | 2.51% |
A penny difference produced about 12% more conversions.
Not a large effect in absolute terms — but it costs a penny, applies to every product, and compounds across a catalogue.
Best practices
✅ Highlight the core tier. Most people take the recommended option; make sure it's the one you want them to take.
✅ Make the decoy a real product. It works better and it's easier to defend.
✅ Test the ladder against your current price before rolling it out everywhere.
✅ Set the premium higher than feels comfortable. Merchants routinely under-price the top tier — 15–25% of buyers taking it is a sign it's not too high.
✅ Use the tripwire for cold traffic specifically. It's an acquisition tool, not something to show your existing customers.
✅ Edit the AI-written names. They're a starting point; you know your brand.
❌ Don't confuse this with discounting. This designs structure; the Discount Learner optimises discounts. Different jobs.
❌ Don't build a ladder with six tiers. Too many options reduces choice rather than improving it.
❌ Don't skip the decoy without measuring. Scenario B shows what it's actually doing.
❌ Don't roll out to your whole catalogue at once. Test on two or three products first.
Plan tiers
| Capability | Free | Starter | Pro | Agency | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good/better/best ladder design | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Decoy placement | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Charm pricing | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tripwire suggestion | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| One-click push to live offers | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Framing copy | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Positioning-aware naming | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-store offer templates | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
Frequently asked
Is the decoy dishonest? It's a real option at a real price that customers can genuinely buy. It works because it gives people a reference point. If it makes you uncomfortable, make it a product some customers would legitimately want — see Scenario B.
Will the AI change my prices unpredictably? No. All pricing maths — tier spacing, decoy placement, charm rounding — is fixed in code. AI writes only names, descriptions, and framing.
How is this different from the discount tools? This designs the structure of what you sell. Discount tools optimise reductions off a price. You can use both.
Should every product have a ladder? No. It works best on products with a natural better/worse dimension — quantity, materials, service level, access. A single commodity item may not support one.
What if my premium tier doesn't sell? That's often fine — its job is partly to make the core tier look reasonable. But if it's genuinely at zero, the value difference probably isn't clear enough.
Can I edit the generated tiers? Yes, all of it. Treat the output as a strong first draft.
Does the tripwire hurt my margins? On that transaction, usually yes. It's an acquisition cost. Judge it on how many people progress to a full purchase — see Scenario C.
How do I test a ladder properly? Run it against your existing single price on comparable traffic for long enough to get a real read. See A/B testing.
See also
- Growth Science overview — all eight tools
- Positioning — feeds the tier naming
- Journey — Offer Lab is the usual fix for a weak Convert stage
- 2nd Purchase — what to do after a tripwire converts
- Variants, bundles & collections — building the tiers as real products
- Inventory & pricing — the pricing tools
- A/B testing & experiments — testing the ladder
- Cart conversion — presenting offers on-site