The Discount Architecture in Online Food Delivery Platforms: A Conceptual Evaluation of Its Effects on Reference Price Perception and Inflation Expectations Through Anchoring and Mental Accounting

1. Introduction

The transformation of consumption habits driven by digitalization has paved the way for traditional pricing strategies to be replaced by algorithmic and behaviorally based new architectures (Kahneman, 2011). Online food delivery platforms, which have gained significant momentum particularly in recent years, have reconstructed the information asymmetry between the seller and the buyer, turning price presentation into a cognitive tool (Dholakia, 2006). The instant campaign notifications frequently encountered on these platforms, such as “surprise deals,” “special offers,” or “flash discounts,” may have ceased to be mere marketing tools and evolved into fundamental elements that manage the consumer’s price perception (Grewal, Monroe, & Krishnan, 1998).

Classical economic theory assumes that the consumer is a rational decision-maker with perfect information and that prices are formed solely as a result of the balance between supply and demand (Mankiw, 1985). However, the behavioral economics literature reveals that consumers evaluate prices not through absolute values, but relative to certain reference points and via cognitive heuristics (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). The current pricing designs on online food delivery platforms rely on presenting very high list prices (strikethrough labels) immediately alongside large-scale discounts. It is highly probable that this structure creates a tendency in the consumer’s mind to normalize high prices and code the discount amount as a gain (Thaler, 1985).

This study discusses how the aforementioned discount architecture may shape the consumer’s reference price perception through anchoring and mental accounting mechanisms. Concurrently, it evaluates the possibility that these high price levels, which become perceptually acceptable, may lead to long-term societal desensitization to price increases and inflation expectations, thereby forming a silent ground for inflation (Akerlof & Shiller, 2009).

2. Conceptual Framework

2.1. The Cognitive Illusion of Anchoring

Anchoring is a condition where individuals, when making decisions under uncertainty, remain excessively dependent on the first piece of information (the anchor) they encounter and insufficiently adjust their final decisions according to this initial value (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). When consumers cannot precisely ascertain the true value of a product, they exhibit a tendency to accept the first price tag presented to them as a reference point (Kahneman, 2011). A high list price encountered in online environments may serve as an anchor for the consumer, which can cause the subsequently offered discounted price to be perceived as highly reasonable (Dholakia, 2006). Instead of starting the valuation process from scratch, the consumer’s mind makes a downward adjustment based on this externally provided high anchor (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979). However, this adjustment often remains incomplete, and the final perceived value shifts toward the direction of the anchor (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974).

2.2. Mental Accounting

Mental accounting is a concept that explains how individuals categorize, evaluate, and mentally track their financial transactions (Thaler, 1985). Thaler (1999) divides the utility consumers derive from a purchasing decision into two categories: “acquisition utility” and “transaction utility.” While acquisition utility refers to the difference between the value the product provides to the consumer and the price paid; transaction utility points to the psychological satisfaction arising from the difference between the price paid and the reference price (or the original price on the label) in the consumer’s mind (Thaler, 1985). The instant discounts and opportunity windows offered by platforms hold the potential to create a strong transaction utility for the consumer. Instead of coding the high amount paid as a cost (loss), the consumer may focus on the discount amount “gained” over the high list price, thereby experiencing the illusion of closing their mental accounting with a positive balance (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979).

2.3. The Reference Price Phenomenon

The reference price is the comparison standard utilized by the consumer to evaluate whether a product’s price is fair or acceptable (Monroe, 1973). The literature addresses reference prices in two main categories: “internal” and “external” (Mazumdar, Raj, & Sinha, 2005). The internal reference price is the price expectation formed in the consumer’s mind, filtered from past shopping experiences and memory (Winer, 1986). The external reference price, on the other hand, consists of stimuli directly presented to the consumer at the point of purchase by the seller, such as a crossed-out former price or a recommended retail price (Grewal, Monroe, & Krishnan, 1998). When evaluating prices, consumers may frequently update their internal reference prices according to external stimuli (Kalyanaram & Winer, 1995).

3. Discount Architecture and Mechanisms

The campaign architecture in online food delivery platforms is based on intentionally keeping the external reference price high (Grewal, Monroe, & Krishnan, 1998). While selecting a menu on the platform interface, the consumer is generally presented with a list price above ordinary market conditions, and immediately next to this price, a massive discount (e.g., “flash discount” or “cart offer”), emphasized to be valid only for a short time, is displayed (Dholakia, 2006).

This design may simultaneously create two distinct effects on the consumer’s perceptual mechanisms. The first effect is the embedding of the high list price into the mind as a strong anchor (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). For instance, presenting a meal, whose true market value might be lower, with a very high strikethrough price on the platform may artificially elevate the perceived value of the meal. The consumer may enter a tendency to read the product’s quality or value through this high anchor (Monroe, 1973).

The second effect is the transaction utility operating through mental accounting (Thaler, 1999). The consumer does not pay the high crossed-out price, but the final discounted price. However, the psychological satisfaction felt at the moment of decision-making may not be the acquisition utility derived from the meal itself, but rather the transaction utility of having caught the artificial opportunity created by the system (Thaler, 1985). This situation allows consumers to rationalize their decision even if they make an expenditure that exceeds their budget constraints. Combined with loss aversion (the fear of missing out on the deal), these limited-time discounts harbor the probability of weakening the consumer’s tendency to question the price (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979).

Consequently, these artificially high external reference prices, applied continuously, may eventually lead to an upward updating of the consumer’s internal reference price (Kalyanaram & Winer, 1995). The average price threshold considered reasonable in the consumer’s mind for that food category may have silently risen with each discount campaign.

4. Macro Reflection: Price Expectation and Inflation

There is a possibility that these platform algorithms, which shape consumer behaviors at the micro level, leave indirect yet permanent effects on inflation expectations at the macro level (Akerlof & Shiller, 2009). Inflation expectations are shaped not merely by macroeconomic data, but by the price tags individuals encounter most frequently in their daily lives, such as food and transportation (Kahneman, 2011).

In traditional markets, firms avoid constantly changing their prices due to “menu costs”; because updating physical labels and facing potential consumer backlash creates a cost (Mankiw, 1985). However, on online delivery platforms, digital menu costs are nearly zero, which provides a vast opportunity for algorithmic and instantaneous price changes (Dholakia, 2006). Platforms may gradually increase the final amount paid by narrowing the discount rates applied over high list prices over time.

The most critical phenomenon in this process is the desensitization of the consumer, who is constantly exposed to high anchor prices, to elevated price levels (Kalyanaram & Winer, 1995). A consumer base that has been convinced that the “real price” is already very high due to the anchoring effect may tend to perceive the net price increases that emerge when discount rates are reduced or completely removed as reasonable (Grewal, Monroe, & Krishnan, 1998). In other words, high prices are normalized in the consumer’s mind through the discount architecture.

Considering that broad segments of society use these platforms for their daily nutritional needs, it is within the realm of possibility that the general perception regarding food prices is shaped around these artificial anchors. This upward shift in consumers’ internal reference prices may disrupt general inflation expectations and pave the way for sellers to more easily reflect future possible cost increases into prices, thereby increasing the pass-through effect (Akerlof & Shiller, 2009). Therefore, the “opportunity” architecture, which at first glance appears to be in favor of the consumer, might be functioning as a silent catalyst that serves the habituation of a highly inflationary structure in the long run.

5. Discussion

When evaluated in light of the findings in the literature, the pricing strategies of online food delivery platforms offer not just a product sale, but a complex choice architecture (Thaler, 1999). Traditional economic approaches aimed at protecting the consumer generally focus on transparency and competitive conditions (Mankiw, 1985). However, behavioral evidence indicates that even if all price information is presented transparently, the way the information is presented (framing) can radically alter consumer decisions (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974).

In this context, the continuous and systematic use of high strikethrough list prices by platforms may be discussed as an asymmetrical structure that exploits consumers’ cognitive vulnerabilities (Kahneman, 2011). The consumer, who experiences a momentary sense of saving due to the illusion of transaction utility (Thaler, 1985), may fail to realize that their own reference price perception is being eroded in the long term. A consumer demand that gradually loses its elasticity (becomes unresponsive to price increases) carries the possibility of creating an appropriate market condition for sellers to continuously pull prices upward (Mazumdar, Raj, & Sinha, 2005). This situation holds important clues indicating that anti-inflationary policies should be supported not only by macroeconomic monetary and fiscal tools but also by the regulation of digital pricing behaviors at the micro level.

6. Limitations

This study is inherently a conceptual review, and the proposed arguments have not been tested with an empirical data set. Quantitatively measuring the effect of the discount architecture in online platforms on inflation expectations requires complex econometric models and large-scale consumer survey data. Furthermore, the presence of factors such as sociodemographic characteristics, income level, and purchasing frequency in the formation of price perception (Winer, 1986) are among the limitations that could not be deeply addressed in this study. The extent to which the theoretically presented anchoring and reference price effects translate into seller profit versus inflationary expectations within market dynamics should be the focal point of future empirical studies.

7. Conclusion

The discount architecture in online food delivery platforms offers consumers not merely a food choice, but a cognitive construct that carries the potential to manipulate mental accounting processes (Thaler, 1999). As discussed in this study, systematically applied high list prices and simultaneously presented large discounts create a strong anchoring effect on consumers’ decision-making processes (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). Consumers may show a tendency to normalize high prices and update their internal reference prices upwardly due to the perceptual transaction utility they derive (Kalyanaram & Winer, 1995).

The most fundamental macroeconomic reflection of this behavioral transformation is the decrease in societal sensitivity to price increases and the formation of stickiness in inflation expectations (Akerlof & Shiller, 2009). High reference prices, which become perceptually acceptable, harbor the risk of granting a silent legitimacy and foundation to inflationary processes. Future research focusing on measuring the causal effects of digital pricing designs on household inflation expectations may offer valuable contributions to both the behavioral economics literature and public policy.