The Slow Reveal
"The price you saw is never the price you pay."
Show a low headline price, then reveal mandatory fees one screen at a time — service fees, cleaning fees, processing fees — until the user is too committed to back out.
Same hack. Three very different choices.
Show the all-in price first; let users break it down on demand.
Headline price excludes optional add-ons but mandatory fees are visible before the cart.
Mandatory fees revealed only at the final checkout step, after card details are entered.
A formula you can steal
Headline: [LOW PRICE] → page 2: [+fee A] → page 3: [+fee B] → final: [REAL TOTAL].
Where you've already seen this
- Concert ticketing's 'service fee + facility fee + processing fee' stack.
- Short-term rentals' cleaning + service fees doubling the headline rate.
- Airline ancillaries: bags, seat selection, carry-on, printing boarding pass.
Never as a primary tactic. The FTC, EU, and California now require all-in pricing in many categories.
Anywhere repeat business matters. Drip pricing is a one-shot weapon that destroys lifetime value.
Try the trick today
Take your top product. List every charge a buyer ends up paying. If the headline price is more than 10% off the real total, change the headline.
Free Marketing Hacked module included. See more cautionary tales and learn the playbook from the inside.