Does anyone understand Amazon price changes?

[kalniel]

So it's the "stupid" option, then?

I dunno, maybe I'm just old and jaded (quiet, you lot ) but if they're so taken by top slot and font size that they don't check out price then that strikes me as ..... well, maybe naive is a better word.

I don't know if it's stupid or not, but it's a very real effect. You can even put something more expensive in the top slot and people will go there in greater numbers. It really is about getting that top slot, and if that takes real time adjusting prices, that's what Amazon will do.

[Saracen999]

I don't know if it's stupid or not, but it's a very real effect. You can even put something more expensive in the top slot and people will go there in greater numbers. It really is about getting that top slot, and if that takes real time adjusting prices, that's what Amazon will do.

I guess the problem may be I'm trying to ascribe .... !rational thought .... to 'people', when I really know most people react at least in part emotionally, not rationally. Truthfully, probably 100% do, and no matter how rational I think I am, I'm probably just not seeing the emotionalitty because I'm stuck on the wrong end of the telescope.

Another example of consumer 'logic' from my mate with the hifi shop. He managed to secure a job lot of end-of-line amplifiers as a new model was due. He stuck an offer in the window offering the amo's prevviously priced at £400+ at £100, and people seemed to think they were so cheap there must be a catch, or something wrong. He barely sold any.

So he slightly more than doubled the price, and had to beat takers off with a stick. Apparently, £225 (or whatever) was a 'real bargain' whereas £100 was 'too good to be true' and must be some kind of trick. Go figure.

As the saying goes .... "there's nowt so strange as folk".

[Saracen999]

I don't know if it's stupid or not, but it's a very real effect. You can even put something more expensive in the top slot and people will go there in greater numbers. It really is about getting that top slot, and if that takes real time adjusting prices, that's what Amazon will do.

Also, while maybe I can understand (though I wouldn't) going for the top slot, for items at a trivial price, for anything significant I (personally) don't put much credence in it. Perhaps that's because I (and anyone on a forum like this) am fully aware how those places can be, and almost always are, manipulated.

[Galant]

FYI

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53050716 - "Amazon v EU: Has the online giant met its match?"

[Saracen999]

Time will tell. That's most likely to really bite if others, like the US, join in. We can but hope.

[Saracen999]

Just noticed another slightly weird effect.

A Synology NAS I've been watching dropped in price overnight.

Why weird? Because it's been out of stock for a few days, and remains out of stock now. So it's cheaper, but you just can't buy it right now. I wonder if the price will do an Amazon yo-yo and go back up .... if stock comes in?

[jimbouk]

Just noticed another slightly weird effect.

A Synology NAS I've been watching dropped in price overnight.

Why weird? Because it's been out of stock for a few days, and remains out of stock now. So it's cheaper, but you just can't buy it right now. I wonder if the price will do an Amazon yo-yo and go back up .... if stock comes in?

They used to only charge on delivery meaning pre-orders were risk free for the customer, then they started charging on or shortly after purchase. Now it seems to vary per item, but even when they don't 'charge' you I still had a charge on my CC that apparently was just holding and wouldn't effect my balance (BS from customer support).

Amazon are now known for cancelling pre-orders, where as they used to be very good with their pre-order price promise, didn't charge before and generally honoured orders.

I did eventually get my monitor which I pre-ordered, though annoyingly missed out on the random £30 price drop which existed for less than a day (would have had to cancel and re-order to get the price). Not sure I'd go through the faff again though.

[Saracen999]

I must admit faff-avoidance is important to me. I feel as if I have a Ph.D in it. I'd rather pay a premium on the price, if necessary, than have hassle. Life is busy enough without unnecessary faffing. I think I'm actually allergic to faff.

Which is why, largely (when they're open and 'normal') I prefer bricks and mortar shopping to mail order. Couriers! Need I say more?

But, given either Covid lockdown, or post-lockdown 'distancing' measures, even brick shops are a faff.

I am not, except where necessary for absolute essentials, standing in a queue merely to get in to a shop. At that point, online (even with couriers) is my faff-minimising strategy.

[Saracen999]

A bit of a thread necro, this.

My latest example of Amazon weird behaviour.

I put an item in my basket about 10 days ago, but then didn't checkout. Over nearly a week, it went down, and always down by the way, virtually every time I looked. Usually, by a few pence or even a singe penny but once or twice by, are you sitting down .... 30 or 40 pence in one go. I was getting excited, I can tell you.

It dropped by nearly £4, over several dozen changes.

I mean, an item that was only about £14 (just under, IIRC) to begin with got nibbled at by the Amazon ducks until it hit £10.04. I watched it just for the hell of it. I'd decided that I was going to buy if it dropped below £10. Then it jumped back to pretty much it's starting price and neither it, nor anything else in my basket have changed price in getting on for a week.

I'm getting feelings of abandonment.

Come on, Amazon, don't you love teasing me any more?



Okay, more seriously, I was (and probably still will) buy whether at £10 or £14 (or £20, frankly, because it'll do what I want and is pretty good value IMHO, either way) but now, their beggaring around with prices has got me feeling like I'm getting ripped of at £14, becayse I now know they were willing to sell at £10.04. Instead of buying and feeling happy about it, I'm going to be a bit resentful every time I look at it, because of Amazon playing silly beggars with the price, so I might well end up buying something else, just so as to not get wound up. So thanks ever so much, Amazon, for messing about so much you actually put me off.

Still, touch wood, they seem to have stopped messing with my prices. Which suits me. Once I've basketed it, guys, leave the price the bleep alone, will ya for pities sake. Nickel and diming it, as the Americans might say, does not impress me, will not induce a purchase and just winds me up.


/Now off for a stiff drink. Rant over.

But what's the odds that the Great Gods of Amazon, me having publicly noted that they've stopped messing with my basket .... that they promptly start again? It's a bit like telling Fate "You wouldn't dare".

[Saracen999]

Oh, and just for a hoot, I just went and checked my basket. And guess what?




Nope, no change. I was shocked, too.

[Duckboy79]

Honestly, what I do is, look at what I want.... don't buy it, leave a week, some times 2, Amazon will email me a better price if I don't buy it.

[Unique]

some stuff changes regularly and others don't. it depends on the item and the popularity. third party sellers may have less changes (they probably don't have it configured to price match on purpose). but then sometimes i go back to buy and it's out of stock everywhere, and looking around it's going for crazy money. there's a couple of records (which i have on cd) i wanted on vinly, in particular certain new coloured pressings, and no availability anywhere, and the few second hand copies are going for crazy money

[matts-uk]

I mean, an item that was only about £14 (just under, IIRC) to begin with got nibbled at by the Amazon ducks until it hit £10.04. I watched it just for the hell of it. I'd decided that I was going to buy if it dropped below £10. Then it jumped back to pretty much it's starting price and neither it, nor anything else in my basket have changed price in getting on for a week.

IT is a commodity market. Bot manipulated prices can go up as well as down

• Price reductions are often a response to competitors listing the exact same item on the same platform, at a cheaper price. The supplier's algorithm adjusts the price just enough to give it an edge in search results. When other suppliers runs out of stock, the price goes back up.
• Drop shippers sometimes sell at full price until the cargo container leaves China. The price is reduced while the ship is in transit to try to shift all the stock before the ship is unloaded. Once the ship is offloaded, the price goes back up.
• Currency fluctuations can cause retail prices to go up and down.

I'm getting feelings of abandonment.

Don't take it personally By the time the platform has taken their cut, the remaining margin is too tight to care much about individual consumers.

Okay, more seriously, I was (and probably still will) buy whether at £10 or £14 (or £20, frankly, because it'll do what I want and is pretty good value IMHO, either way) but now, their beggaring around with prices has got me feeling like I'm getting ripped of at £14, becayse I now know they were willing to sell at £10.04.

Yep, it's powerful psychology at work.

Take a look at the white goods price comparison sites over Christmas. The cheapest prices are often advertised by suppliers who have no stock. The low price gets the supplier to the top of the comparison search rankings and that feeling of being ripped off deters potential customers from buying from competitors, who do have stock at a higher price. When the out of stock supplier gets stock, their price goes up. Inflation creep being what it is, the new price may be even higher than the competitor was advertising. A change to the base price will force competitors to raise their price as well.

[ik9000]

@Saracen That £10.04 was probably as good as it will get and will be auto-generated due to a third party seller's (possibly temporary) price. To check use camelcamel or keepa.com or similar. You can get a time history chart of the item price and can see whether it's worth paying or not. It's a little more broken on some items since brexit and the severing of certain EU lines, but generally works.

There is one kitchen knife I'm looking at that should be £15-17. On Amazon it oscillates between £25 occasionally dipping to £19.90. Once it hits £17 I will buy it. But not until.

[jimbouk]

Personally when I know prices change regularly (e.g Amazon's 'random' up and downs, Steams regular sales, Eurocarparts continuous sales) then I'm less likely to just buy something straight away. I'll hunt around more shops, check price history and wait for a price drop rather than just beleiving I'm getting a reasonable deal and purchasing there and then.

[Saracen999]

@Saracen That £10.04 was probably as good as it will get ....

Yeah, it probably will. It wasn't quite my point, though. I will be buying either this item, or one very similar, either at Amazon or elsewhere (*), and to be honest, whether the price is £10, £14 or £20 isn't really relevant. I'd have bought it at £20 had that been the price, and price isn't why I waited. That was because I was still sorting out other items I need. Meantime, Amzon started playing silly beggars with the price.

I can understand a bit of price volatility. What seems weird is that it spent several days, nearly a week, changing sometimes in minutes, sometims a couple of hours, but always downward. Every single time. barnone. For several dozen changes. I don't know how many, but at a guess, between 50 and 100 changes.

Then, all of a sudden, back up to the original price (to the best of my memory). And then noting, on that or anything else.

Normally, I get periodic changes in item prices in my basket, and two or three times a day, among up to half a dozen (ish) items in the basket, is not unknown. It's rare for a day to go past without something changing.

But since the shennanigans with this item, nothing had changed .... until this morning. Two "saved" items changed a bit this morning, but still, nothing actively in the basket, and it must now be nearly a week since the last of that series of item changes. It's almost as if their algorithm decided to progressively discount an already cheap item - remember, it was dozens of micro-changes, always down, probing for the point at which I'd click "Buy".

And then, having ignored several dozen drops, it's as if software says "Okay, he's not price sensitive" and turned that procedure off.

And at least in that particular situation, it would be right. Price isn't the issue. I'm working on other things and would (past tense) have bought if it was several pounds higher than their initial price. There is a limit to that, mainly because this is a very cheap but allegedly pretty good "clone" of an "industry standard" item, but at a much lower price. As that margin narrows, though, it becomes less of a "try it, and dump in bin if it's trash" punt, and I'm more likely to just go for the brand name one.



(*) I'm having to go elsewhere for another item or two in a similar category, that Amazon don't do, so it can be added to either order easioly and without either undue mucking about or extra cost.


Note: The item in question is a Behringer XM8500 dynamic cardiod mic which, reportedly, comes pretty close to the sound of a Shure SM58 and with a bit of minor tweaking in post, can be virtually indistinguishable. As the audio will be processed anyway, running a bit of EQ is the work of moments. Thing is, even the Shure original is only about £70-ish, and the Behringer is very much a punt I'm prepared to dump. But with the mucking about, I'm inclined to just "Ah, nuts to it" and go Shure.

Also, during the time I was watching the price games, I also saw a bit of info about some of Behringer's alleged business practices that's making me think twice anyway.