News

The results of KDnuggets Poll on Amazon.com pricing suggest that
most people do not like it.  Over 40% were directly against it, and
about 25% thought it would be OK only with some explanation.

While the practice of different prices for different buyers is as old
as the bazaar, KDNuggets reader comments suggest that the anonymous and
hidden way in which the differential prices are implemented make
people uncomfortable.

Would you be buying a DVD on-line if you suspect that you
could get a better price by logging on with another browser ?

Perhaps a better approach would be to inform the users
explicitly if they get a discount or a coupon off the
regular price. On the other hand, H.L. Mencken once commented
that no one has lost money underestimating people's intelligence.

For full results and comments, see
www.KDnuggets.com/polls/2000/amazon_prices.htm

ZDnet reports Amazon.com's variable DVD pricing puts the average
performance of loading the home page toward the bottom of the
bug consumer sites (around 27-29 seconds). This pricing scheme is
nothing new, say Keynote experts. They're used to
"preferential performance" based on a number
of factors, including connection speed, Internet backbone, ISP and
content distribution.