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How Retailers Use Personalized Prices

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Re: How Retailers Use Personalized Prices

#31

Post by firefoxd »

Slightly related. I regret not having taken a screenshot to prove it, but oh well. A friend and I both open google.com and type weather. We are on the same Wifi, both using chrome, both signed in, and we each get our very own current temperature for the exact same city. Different by a few degrees that is. We hard refresh, we sign out, we clear cookies, still different on each machine.

With personalisation I wonder if they go as far as telling you how hot it feels for me as opposed to how hot it is.

Re: How Retailers Use Personalized Prices

#32

Post by cptskippy »

mysterypie wrote: post #29
astura wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So a travel agent? What's old is new again, I guess.

> So a travel agent. Travel agents were never on the side of the consumer. If you asked travel agents who they perceived they were working for, they'd tell you it's the airlines. This is not just my opinion; in travel industry magazines, articles, etc., this definitely was their stance. They'd choose flights for you that were most profitable for themselves and/or the airlines (and those two factors coincide nicely).…

I was explaining travel agents to my kid the other day. The service of the agent was more than just booking you a flight, you were paying for their knowledge and experience with traveling in particular regions.

Resources like Zagat were helpful but could only get you so far.

In pre internet days if you were flying to far away places like India or Vietnam where your local airline didn't offer service, you would have no resources available for finding or arranging flights, hotels, or other transport. That's where a travel agent was helpful.

Re: How Retailers Use Personalized Prices

#33

Post by shubhamjain »

The extent of my profile that can be built (and is probably available) is absolutely insane. Picture this: most people use a single email ID to register anywhere. Dating sites, e-commerce, social networks, banks, and even offline stores. My online purchases can be linked with my preferences on OKCupid that can be linked to ads I am clicking that can be linked to my offline behaviour. Personalised pricing is direct result of that. Who knows what other interactions are being shaped by it. Because the power of having this profile is limitless.

There's a Gmail trick to avoid it by using "+random_name" suffix but that is easy enough to circumvent. Disposable email IDs are banned from most sites and I never found it easy to integrate in my workflow. I have been pondering about building a service that acts as a mask to your real email ID, can be configured to forward emails to your real ID and can work with your personal domain name. I know some people who are running similar kind of setup here; a service might be helpful for those who don't might not want to go through the trouble.

Re: How Retailers Use Personalized Prices

#34

Post by jimmaswell »

mgkimsal wrote: post #14
bluetwo wrote: post #12

So their basic premise is a lie.... "We find you the lowest price"... In fact they are finding the lowest prices, then trying to maximize the amount you pay for it. Disgusting.

> "We find you the lowest price"... "We find you the lowest price (that we think you'll actually purchase)". FTFY?

Supply and demand except on the individual level?

Re: How Retailers Use Personalized Prices

#36

Post by c22 »

shubhamjain wrote: post #33

The extent of my profile that can be built (and is probably available) is absolutely insane. Picture this: most people use a single email ID to register anywhere. Dating sites, e-commerce, social networks, banks, and even offline stores. My online purchases can be linked with my preferences on OKCupid that can be linked to ads I am clicking that can be linked to my offline behaviour. Personalised pricing is direct re…

I do this with one of my domains. Setting it up was just adjusting some forwarding preferences in my registrar's web interface. Not sure how a separate service could make this easier, I'd presumably still have to login to my registrar to point an mx record at it.

Re: How Retailers Use Personalized Prices

#37

Post by ozpri »

bubblethink wrote: post #13
ben1040 wrote: post #11

Orbitz also played with how they rank search results. After finding Mac users were likely to spend 30% more on a nightly room rate, they started putting higher priced rooms at the top when Mac users searched. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/06/26/155756095/...

I'm waiting for the day my Linux browser agent string pays off. So far, I've only seen random sites refusing to work for no good reason.

this.

Re: How Retailers Use Personalized Prices

#38

Post by bogomipz »

bo1024 wrote: post #16

At some point in the next 5 years, I predict there will online services that will "proxy-shop" for you. They will specialize in building profiles (cookies, logins, etc) that get offered low prices, then use these to purchase products on your behalf. Perhaps a browser plugin, so that at the moment you go to check out on a product, you send the product's link to the service and they get it for you at a lower price. The…

I really like this, why not dynamic purchasing if consumers are increasingly confronted by dynamic pricing?

Are there reasons why this wouldn't work?

I am curious what would the legal challenge be if dynamic pricing on the sell side is considered acceptable?

Re: How Retailers Use Personalized Prices

#39

Post by ChuckMcM »

I expect this to have a large downside in that it introduces a negotiable element into the price. And as such you'll see it become mandatory that you negotiate (just as frequent flier miles became mandatory) and as a result margins will decrease.

Re: How Retailers Use Personalized Prices

#40

Post by njarboe »

Spooky23 wrote: post #21
adamzerner wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know this, or are you assuming this? It is certainly possible that, at the margin, someone is willing to spend money on a charity but not spend that same money on the product. Although I suppose there's probably a correlation between donating and willingness to pay more.

It’s a way to test shoppers and evaluate their willingness to add a marginal dollar for spending. That can be correlated against buying behavior and taking advantage of discounts. Right now, for a grocery store, that means they can put butter on sale that women will buy for Christmas cookie making, and market sprinkles and decorative sugar at higher prices (or with a coupon) to increase customer value. That MDA heart…

I really like Trader Joe's that does not do all of this segmented pricing, sales, and coupons. I wonder if they can survive without all that in the long run. Maybe with having mostly store brands it will work out for them.
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