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Online Shopping Discrimination?

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  • #16
    Re: Online Shopping Discrimination?

    Originally posted by The Sicatoka View Post
    OK, it'll be completely unscientific, but anyone else want to test the theory here?

    I'd say we'd need to compare:
    - item (details matter)
    - search platform (smart phone, tablet, computer)
    - time of day of search <-- that's one I'm interested in ... I've wondered
    - ZIP Code
    - search results
    Hard to say. But wouldn't Google (or MSFT) have to be involved? That seems unlikely. If so, there are potentially huge ramifications regarding price fixing/collusion in terms of nobody paying the lowest price.
    Go Gophers!

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    • #17
      Re: Online Shopping Discrimination?

      Originally posted by 5mn_Major View Post
      Hard to say. But wouldn't Google (or MSFT) have to be involved? That seems unlikely. If so, there are potentially huge ramifications regarding price fixing/collusion in terms of nobody paying the lowest price.
      Why would Google or MSFT have to be involved? Every time you go to a site, they can track your IP address, identify your browser (because sites don't all appear the same on different browsers), your tracking cookies are also read, so a site knows where you've been. GOOG and MSFT need not be involved in that at all.
      "The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." George Orwell, 1984

      "One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its Black Gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust, the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume." Boromir

      "Good news! We have a delivery." Professor Farnsworth

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      • #18
        Re: Online Shopping Discrimination?

        Originally posted by St. Clown View Post
        Why would Google or MSFT have to be involved? Every time you go to a site, they can track your IP address, identify your browser (because sites don't all appear the same on different browsers), your tracking cookies are also read, so a site knows where you've been. GOOG and MSFT need not be involved in that at all.
        Guess its still possible, just fairly limited. I would say it would be fairly risky for a etailer to start doing this. They could get caught out by individual shoppers seeing changed pricing or the media catching them. I would expect that would turn off quite a few shoppers as pricing would seem arbitrary. For most major retailers, that would not be worth the risk. More so than most other businesses, retailers are extremely careful with reputation - Whole Foods is built on it.

        Now if it were a purposeful market niche for an independent retailer and part of the strategy...it might work. But they better be careful of those cookies, because there are discrimination lawsuits awaiting.
        Go Gophers!

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        • #19
          Re: Online Shopping Discrimination?

          It could all be excused by shopping practices, and not by and racial/economic/etc categories.

          I get most OC Promos enticing me to stop in on a Mon or Tue. Why? I NEVER stop in on those days. That sort of thing.

          There's always a loophole. And it will make sense.
          Never really developed a taste for tequila. Kind of hard to understand how you make a drink out of something that sharp, inhospitable. Now, bourbon is easy to understand.
          Tastes like a warm summer day. -Raylan Givens

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          • #20
            Re: Online Shopping Discrimination?

            Originally posted by 5mn_Major View Post
            Guess its still possible, just fairly limited. I would say it would be fairly risky for a etailer to start doing this. They could get caught out by individual shoppers seeing changed pricing or the media catching them. I would expect that would turn off quite a few shoppers as pricing would seem arbitrary. For most major retailers, that would not be worth the risk. More so than most other businesses, retailers are extremely careful with reputation - Whole Foods is built on it.

            Now if it were a purposeful market niche for an independent retailer and part of the strategy...it might work. But they better be careful of those cookies, because there are discrimination lawsuits awaiting.
            And yet it happens all the time with the big retailers. From the original article Sicatoka linked:

            When Owens priced a GE 7-foot Christmas tree on HomeDepot.com with free home delivery anywhere in the U.S., her price was $399. When the same item was priced on the site from Boston and Minneapolis the price shown was $438.

            Home Depot said sometimes it does offer different online customers different prices based on the region where they log-on from. The company said it can figure out one’s location from a computer’s IP address.
            "The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." George Orwell, 1984

            "One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its Black Gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust, the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume." Boromir

            "Good news! We have a delivery." Professor Farnsworth

            Comment

            • #21
              Re: Online Shopping Discrimination?

              Originally posted by St. Clown View Post
              And yet it happens all the time with the big retailers. From the original article Sicatoka linked:
              Not the best example. There has always been regional store pricing - if for no other reason, local competition. In that arena, online pricing is just catching up.

              The big limiter on this is that outside of AMZN, the biggest online brands are either brick and mortar retailers (i.e., have stores) or are online product brand sales outlets (i.e., Coach). And most of these multi channel retailers prescribe to the concept of Omnichannel. That is that stores work in concert with their online counterpart channels. Which is in part why HD was like 'we have different prices in different markets...duh'. And product brands (i.e., Coach) are tied to their retail channels and sell at MSRP. So outside of pureplay etailers, there is headwind to the concept. That doesn't stop shop.com from doing it or industries like travel with little brick and mortar presence. AMZN is the big question. Their goal is not to win share from shop.com...that's small fish and are not strategically dangerous. Their goal is to win it from WMT, TGT, etc. and being price competitive with WMT is of critical nature to AMZN. Regardless, AMZN knows the right answer...and I promise they are working it today.
              Go Gophers!

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              • #22
                Re: Online Shopping Discrimination?

                Originally posted by Brenthoven View Post
                I know that Old Chicago World Beer Tour/Rewards Members don't get the same emails for promos and such. We're thinking it has to do when our cards are scanned (weekday, weekend), how often we go, etc. There are 6-8 people that I know personally that have talked about this. We've all gotten different emails, different promos, etc.
                I have similar results after every research project: I use Chrome to search for information about a particular topic, and then all the ads on other sites I visit are related to those searches. It can be fairly amusing sometimes as I would have absolutely no interest in any of those products.

                at other times it feels creepy.
                "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

                "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

                "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

                "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

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                • #23
                  Re: Online Shopping Discrimination?

                  I'm in.
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