For years, drip pricing has been one of eCommerce’s worst-kept secrets. A low headline price draws customers in, only for mandatory fees – delivery charges, booking costs etc – to appear later in the checkout journey.
Now under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act, the regulatory grey area has disappeared. If a charge is mandatory, it must be included in the upfront price from the very first moment its displayed. That applies not just to checkout pages but to product listing, search results, paid media ads and email marketing.
In short: if you show a price, it must reflect the true cost.
How significant has drip pricing been in eroding consumer trust?
The damage drip-pricing has done to consumer trust is something most people have experienced firsthand. I’m sure at some point we’ve all seen a bargain fare to our dream holiday destination, only to watch the price creep up at every step of the journey. By the time we reach checkout, it’s £50 more expensive and packed with “extras” you never chose but still have to pay for.
And that’s the crux of the issue. These aren’t optional add-ons, but mandatory costs that were simply held back from the headline price. The result is a growing sense that the number we’re shown up front can’t be trusted.
It’s a model that’s been baked into multiple industries for years. I used to work in car hire, and I know it was guilty of adding an array of taxes and surcharges that propped up low daily rates. Ticketing has followed a similar path, driven by yield-based pricing and unavoidable booking fees, to the point where even printing your ticket at home can come with an added charge.
It’s no surprise this behaviour has sparked widespread frustration. In many ways, this is a major backlash from the Oasis ticket-selling scandal, just applied across entire categories.
Are brands underestimating the changes required?
The reality is that this doesn’t just start at checkout. Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act, it kicks in at the point of offer. That means every touchpoint where a price appears – from your website to Google Shopping listings to paid social – need to reflect the true, all-in cost.
In practical terms you can no longer promote a product in a social feed with a compelling headline price, if that number is going to increase once delivery or surcharges are added. Transparency has to exist from the very first impression.
That has a knock-on effect on how pricing is perceived. Brands that have historically relied on low entry prices with fees layered on top may suddenly look less competitive when compared to those that have always been more upfront. That gap between a budget airline and a full-service carrier like British Airways could narrow purely based on how pricing is presented.
In that sense, both compliance requirements and how consumers weigh values against transparency are changing how services are delivered.
How will this change customer acquisition strategies?
For brands, this reshapes the whole acquisition strategy. For years, lower headline prices have helped brands win clicks and climb comparison rankings but now they can no longer rely on psychological anchoring to drive traffic.
This change in regulation marks a reset in the trust economy. As a result, brands will need stronger propositions, clearer value narratives and more sophisticated differentiation to win customer loyalty.
Some brands are already exploring workarounds. One of the simplest is to remove price entirely from upper-funnel advertising, holding it back until the customer reaches the website. It’s a tactic that may protect click through rates in the short term, but it risks creating friction later in the journey when expectations don’t quite match reality.
Others will take a more structural approach, rethinking how pricing is built in the first place. That could mean increasing base product prices to absorb delivery costs, spreading that margin across average baskets sizes so the end price feels more seamless and inclusive.
Similarly, Etsy has begun to include delivery within its listed prices, on top of rolling out more formal, published guidance. Due to the brand being comprised of individual sellers, delivery costs have historically been higher and typically added at the end of the journey. By bringing those fees into the upfront price, the platform is taking a more transparent approach and aligning itself more closely with evolving expectations around all-in pricing.
For brands relying on a budget price attracting consumers in, the shift won’t be easy. Customers have been conditioned to expect ultra-low entry prices, even if they know costs are coming. Moving to a more transparent, all-in model may initially make those brands look more expensive, but over time, it also creates an opportunity to rebuild trust by being upfront earlier in the value chain.
And that’s the trade-off at the heart of this change. While short-term acquisition levers may weaken, brands have the opportunity to embrace transparency and build stronger, more confident relationships with their customers.
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