Triggered Before Checkout: The Power of Price Sensitivity Scoring

Most ecommerce flows wait too long to act. They only trigger offers when a cart is abandoned, assuming the shopper's journey begins at 'add to cart.' But, that approach ignores the quieter, more telling signs of purchase hesitation; especially when it comes to price. Shoppers give off signals before they ever touch the cart button: hovering on prices, toggling between variants, filtering for discounts, or revisiting the same product page multiple times. These micro-behaviors can be scored in real time to determine price sensitivity and trigger conversion-boosting actions; before the shopper slips away.

1. What Is Price Sensitivity Scoring?

Price sensitivity scoring is the practice of analyzing customer behavior to determine how responsive a shopper is to price. Instead of waiting for cart abandonment, this model detects hesitation and discount-hunting behavior earlier in the session. By tracking metrics like hover time on price, use of price filters, and frequency of revisits, you can generate a real-time score that predicts how likely a user is to convert without an incentive.

2. Why Cart Value Isn’t Enough

Relying solely on cart value as a conversion signal is outdated. Some of your most valuable shoppers never reach the cart stage. Others load the cart out of curiosity or to save products for later. By ignoring the pre-cart stage, you miss subtle opportunities to engage shoppers when they’re still open to persuasion. A $140 average order value doesn’t mean the shopper isn’t price sensitive; it may mean they just haven’t seen the right offer yet.

3. How to Score Price Sensitivity in Shopify

To implement price sensitivity scoring in Shopify, you'll need to capture behavior that suggests price hesitation or intent. Examples include:

• • View-to-cart ratio (product views vs. cart additions)

• • Hover duration on product prices

• • Filtering by price or discount tags

• • Revisiting the same product or collection multiple times

You can log this behavior using Shopify’s Customer Events API and sync it with your Klaviyo profile data to create dynamic segments.

4. Triggering Offers Based on Sensitivity

Once you've scored a shopper’s sensitivity, you can act. High-sensitivity users can receive a tailored message or discount offer *before* they reach checkout. For instance, you might show a floating banner offering 10% off if the shopper hovers on a product price for more than 15 seconds, or send a personalized SMS if a price filter is applied twice in a session.

Subscriber Bonus: Your Price Sensitivity Toolkit