Products do not cost the same for every customer
The price of a cell phone on Amazon can change daily, if not every hour. Sometimes the desired iPhone costs more and sometimes significantly less – this is directly related to Amazon’s pricing strategy. The e-commerce retailer uses pricing that is individually based on user behavior. With “Dynamic Pricing”, the purchase prices are created based on the customer’s click behavior and other parameters such as the time of day. With the help of cookies and other tracking tools, Amazon is able to track a user’s digital footprint and understand their purchasing behavior. So it can happen that a work colleague buys the same product on the same day for five euros less than you do yourself, because he bought it at a different time and with a different digital background.
Amazon itself admitted that it uses this pricing strategy, but that it is transparent to its users. That is why it is common practice for prices to rise in the evenings and at weekends, since potential buyers make more purchases during these periods. Amazon Germany boss Ralf Kleber confirmed to the Rheinische Post in 2015: “If we have the feeling that a new market price is developing for the customer, and that can happen several times a day for some products, we react to it.”
Do Apple users have to pay more on Amazon?
In addition, after a market check study, Amazon was confronted with the fact that it designs payments in such a way that Apple users have to pay more than others because they are associated with more purchasing power. As Business Insider reports, Amazon rejected these allegations. Kleber told the Süddeutsche Zeitung as follows: “There are no different prices for one and the same product on different end devices.”
Save money despite dynamic pricing at Amazon & Co
Due to the constantly fluctuating prices, those who are willing to buy should take some time to compare prices and also check the purchase prices on other platforms. This prevents you from making a purchase one day at a supposedly low price, even though the product can be purchased at a much lower price the next day. The user can also check the prices between the app and the browser, the browser version is often cheaper. It can also be worthwhile to search for the desired object in the browser’s incognito mode, since Amazon and Co. cannot use the browser history as a guide. Deleting cookies can have a similar effect. If this is too time-consuming, you can also search for the product from another device.
Editorial office finanzen.net
Leverage must be between 2 and 20
No data
Image sources: Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock.com