Online Shoppers Don't Like The Injustice Of Overpaying
from the just-like-the-real-world dept
For some time, online retailers have been charging different prices to different people, but apparently most online shoppers still haven't caught on. A new study by UPenn's Annenberg Public Policy Center finds that a majority of internet users believed the practice was illegal. Of course, it makes perfect business sense, maximizing what consumers will pay based on their known characteristics, as long as it's not unconsitutionally discriminatory or anticompetitive. It happens all the time in the brick-and-mortar world. For example, geographic considerations have long played into pricing (higher prices in richer areas) and have already carried over to e-commerce. More problematic for online retailers, however, is another finding in the Annenberg study: a large percentage of people -- 87 percent -- strongly object to these pricing practices. It strikes them as fundamentally unfair, and perhaps too invasive when they discover that their surfing habits are being tracked to enable it. Online retailers might want to be careful with these pricing practices, especially if customers get wind of them. Logical or not, the negative PR that ensues could do more harm to business than the profits gained.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
Ya' know companies: A fair price for a quality product/service, and you should be successful. Once you start screwing at least some of your customers to further enhance the bottom line, you've got to know that sometime somehow that is going to bite you in the ass.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
If the price isn't what you want to pay, go somewhere else. It's only realistic in a capitalist economy.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
That's why...
I'm sure we'll see more of these.
[ link to this | view in thread ]