Red price labels work better for male shoppers

The Research Finding

Puccinelli et al. conducted multiple studies examining how red versus black price labelling affected purchase intent and price perception by gender. Their findings were consistent: red price labels significantly increased the perception of value and purchase intent among male shoppers. For female shoppers, the effect was negligible and in some conditions slightly negative - red prices did not register as a positive signal in the same way.

The researchers proposed that this may relate to different attentional responses to red stimuli across genders, with men showing stronger arousal and positive appraisal responses to red in commercial contexts.

How to Apply It Deliberately

For stores with a predominantly male customer base, red sale badges and red strikethrough pricing are a simple optimisation. This is already common practice in sports retail, tools, electronics, and automotive accessories - categories that skew male - for likely reasons beyond aesthetics.

For stores with a predominantly female customer base, or where gender is mixed, consider alternative sale badge colours: amber, teal, or the brand's primary colour. These avoid the potential slight negative effect on female shoppers while still making sale pricing visually distinctive.

The Minimal Effort

Changing sale badge colours is a theme or CSS change - typically a matter of minutes. If your store runs gender-segmented campaigns or has distinct product sections by gender, apply red sale labels specifically to male-targeted collections and test an alternative for women's or mixed-gender collections.

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Research: Puccinelli et al. (2013), Journal of Retailing - red versus black prices and gender-based price perception.