I’m Not a Fan (of dynamic pricing)
What a ceiling fan’s price chart on Amazon showed me
On Monday, November 2, I was interested in buying a ceiling fan. Fifty-two inches, dark wood blades, a light in the middle. Must have voice control compatible with Google Home. The page said $159.99.
One reason I wanted to buy a fan for my library is because Juan, our construction manager, had told us he would arrange to have an electrician or handyman install a ceiling fan, a chandelier, and three pendant lights at no cost to us.
I noticed a small blue button beside the price. Price history.
I seldom click this, but this time I did.
A panel opened on the left. In the past 30 days, this exact fan had ranged from $118.74 to $159.99. Below that was a chart.
A flat line. A small dip in early October. A long, calm stretch.
Then one sharp spike, like a single tooth in a flat comb, straight up to $160.
The fan had been $30 cheaper for most this month.
That's when the sh#t hit the fan!
I'm almost positive that Amazon's algorithm, when it realized I'm really interested to buy a fan, jacked up the price temporarily.
Dynamic pricing!
I'd recently watched a Short called "Why dynamic pricing could be a $100B business."
Because here's the question I can't put down: if one fan can do that in a month, what else is moving that I never look at?
Next time something on Amazon shows you a big red discount number, click the small blue button and check the price history.
But this story has a happy ending.
I decided to put an alert when the price drops $30. And put the fan in my saved list rather than buy outright.
And would you believe it? That very night the price again dropped to $129 and I saved $30!
So to sum up, if you are in no urgent hurry, and you notice the current price is at a high for a month, just put a price alert and it could save you big bucks.
I use a similar strategy on eBay. I use a website called Gixen to "snipe", or basically put in automatic bid(s) at the very last seconds before an auction closes.
And though I'm "not a fan of dynamic pricing", I do own Amazon stock so if they are making a bigger profit perhaps it does indirectly benefit me?
Do you have any stories where you noticed dynamic pricing while you were shopping?