What "On Sale" Means Around the World: Pricing & Discount Benchmarks from 1.3M Products

Pricing isn't universal: across 1.3M products from 100k+ shops, "on sale" can mean anything from always-discounted catalogs to rare promotions, and even the "normal" price ending (.99 vs .90 vs .00) changes sharply by country and currency. This post benchmarks global averages against local pricing cultures so merchants can price and promote in ways that feel native, not imported.

December 14, 2025
PricingDiscountBenchmark

If you sell internationally, you've probably felt this: a promo that prints money in one country can flop in another.

The product might be the same. The creative might be the same. The audience might even be the "same" on paper.

But pricing culture is not the same.

Some markets treat discounts like a steady background hum - always present, always expected. Others run fewer promos, but when they do, they go big. And even the "normal" way a price ends (like .99 vs .90 vs .00) changes by region.

This post breaks down what we're seeing in a scan of 1,300,000+ products across 100,000+ e‑commerce shops, with a focus on cross‑country/currency differences and how they compare to global averages.

The global baseline (what "normal" looks like overall)

Before we talk country-by-country, it helps to anchor on the global averages.

In our dataset:

On price endings (the "charm pricing" question), globally:

Global E-commerce Price Ending Distribution

If you only sell in one market, you can miss how unusual that pattern is elsewhere. Globally, round prices dominate, and ".99 everywhere" is not a universal truth.

1. How often products are discounted varies wildly by market

Here's the first practical insight for global merchants:

"Discount frequency" is a market-level behavior. You can't assume your home market's promo cadence will feel normal abroad.

For major currencies in our dataset, the share of products discounted looks like this:

Share of Products Discounted

Currency % of Products Discounted
INR 43.01%
BRL 36.65%
EUR 17.44%
MXN 17.60%
SGD 18.26%
USD 15.27%
GBP 13.93%
AUD 13.35%
CAD 11.82%
JPY 8.11%

Global average is 16.18%. So India (INR) is running at ~2.66× the global baseline, while Japan (JPY) sits at ~0.50×.

What this means in plain terms:

2. Not all discount cultures are "always on sale" - some are "rare, but massive"

Discount frequency is only half the story. The other half is discount depth.

Across the whole dataset, 27.6% of discounted items are 50%+ off. That's the global "extreme sale" benchmark.

But by currency, the mix changes. Among the same major currencies:

Of Discounted Products, What % Are 50%+ Off?

Currency % of Discounted Products 50%+ Off
INR 33.91%
GBP 31.17%
USD 27.55%
EUR 26.77%
AUD 26.71%
CAD 25.87%
BRL 25.10%
SGD 25.00%
JPY 23.51%
MXN 16.65%

This creates two very different "shopping atmospheres":

A. "Many discounts, and many are deep"

Example: INR A randomly sampled product has a surprisingly high chance of being 50%+ off:

B. "Discounts happen, but not as many are extreme"

Example: MXN Discount prevalence is near the EUR range, but extreme discounts are much less common.

Practical takeaway: If your global playbook is "run frequent promos everywhere," you may be under-discounting in some markets (where shoppers have learned to wait) and over-discounting in others (where it can erode trust and margin fast).

3. Price endings are local. ".99" is not the global default.

When merchants say "pricing psychology," they often mean charm pricing (.99, .95, .90). But the "right" charm ending is not the same everywhere.

Here are the dominant patterns we see:

North America & the UK: ".99 is the workhorse"

In these markets, .99 reads normal, and it's a clean signal of "retail pricing."

Eurozone + some Asia markets: ".90 is unusually common"

If you copy-paste ".99 everywhere" into markets where .90 is the familiar charm, you risk looking slightly "imported" or out of step.

4. Charm pricing is strongest on cheaper items and fades fast as prices rise

Across the full dataset, the "ending strategy" changes sharply by price band.

In the lowest price band (0–20):

In the highest price band (2000+):

This is intuitive if you've ever priced a product line:

5. The "ending" can hint at the kind of discount you're seeing

One of the more surprising findings shows up when we look at extreme discounts (50%+ off) by price ending.

Across all products with a given ending, the chance that the product is 50%+ off is:

This doesn't mean ".90 causes discounts." It's a pattern that suggests:

A simple framework for global merchants: Two levers, different cultures

When you zoom out, most pricing "cultures" are pulling on two main levers:

  1. Discount pressure (how often items are discounted)
  2. Charm pressure (how often prices end in .99/.95/.90)

You can map markets on these two axes. For example:

What to do with this (actionable steps)

If you're expanding to new countries, here's a practical way to use these benchmarks without over-complicating your pricing.

1. Don't export your discount calendar - localize it

Before you decide promo cadence, look at the market baseline.

2. Pick the "native" ending strategy before you test anything else

A fast win is simply not looking foreign.

3. Use charm pricing where it's strongest: lower price points

If your catalog has a wide range, don't apply one rule to everything.

4. Treat 50%+ discounts as a different product story

A 20% discount is "a deal." A 50% discount is "a clearance, a reset, or a seasonal dump."

If your market baseline has many 50%+ sales, your promos may need to be:

If your baseline has fewer 50%+ sales, be careful: deep discounts can train shoppers fast.

Closing thought

Global growth isn't just a translation problem. It's a norms problem.

Pricing is one of the strongest "signals" your brand sends-often before someone reads a word of copy. If your prices look native and your promos match local expectations, everything else works better: ads, conversion, retention, even reviews.

If you want more benchmark posts like this (or you want to compare your own catalog against these baselines), Product Registry is building a neutral dataset and tooling to make global product marketing more measurable.

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