Scam or science? How not to get fooled (Marketplace)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB4w4DelP3t2WKE8SKxrk1lFdvatGU3bk_tbteFD6RPYtyTbQrFgB2dQOZCfJvI2rwc-GkQYOVTJsXzRu6DKnprlsdEJhBBE51WKg2uvFLgab50lxTN2lIblhpE_FHDDd74IlvZR8dzi8R/s1600/maxresdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB4w4DelP3t2WKE8SKxrk1lFdvatGU3bk_tbteFD6RPYtyTbQrFgB2dQOZCfJvI2rwc-GkQYOVTJsXzRu6DKnprlsdEJhBBE51WKg2uvFLgab50lxTN2lIblhpE_FHDDd74IlvZR8dzi8R/s400/maxresdefault.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> Charlsie Attention online shoppers., The Black Friday special. You can't afford to miss. On your Marketplace. Charlsie. Imagine this. Three shoppers at the same store at the same time buying the same product. At the checkout. The first shopper is charged $ 5., But the next shopper pays just $ 3. And the last one just $ 2.. No one was using coupons or loyalty points. So what's up, If it doesn't seem fair, tell that to the internet.. Our shoppers are about to hit the web to help us investigate an emerging trend in online sales. Retailers, charging different customers, different prices for the same product, all based on your personal data., > >, I'm Ali Minton, and I rarely shop online. > >, I'm Grant Leclerc.. I regularly shop online and I look for the best deals. > >, I'm Nadia Rashwan.. I almost only shop online., >, >, Charlsie, Okay c'mon in everybody. Grab a seat. Welcome welcome.. Our expert is Jesse Hirsh.. A tech guru who says price discrimination is a way for online retailers to make more money. > >. This is about information., The more information they have on an individual, the more they can prey upon your needs or your desires to charge you something more for something. You really want and maybe charge you something less for something you're on the fence about as a way to persuade you to make that purchase., >, > Charlsie, So the bottom line you could be getting charged a different price for the same product.. I want to ask you guys: are you willing to kind of give up some of your personal information if it means you're going to get a better price, > >, Maybe in some instances, but not overall., > >? Is it specifically for that transaction? Is it for other purchases? Do they sell it? > >? I am a private person and I like to protect my information. > > Charlsie. So how do online retailers track your digital footprints? What kind of shopper you are The websites you go to Cookie anyone? A computer cookie is a small file. Websites can place on your computer or smartphone.. It allows them to pick up certain information while you surf the web, so they can target you with ads.. For instance, I'm on wayfair.ca., I'm gon na go shopping for new towels and I come across these blue ones and I like'em., But I'm not ready to buy them just yet.. Now I'm going to go check out the latest news and when I get here guess what Wayfair is here too. Now they're, not the only ones doing this, but it's an example of cookies in action.. Retailers can also use this information to judge what you're willing to pay for something., >, >, Charlsie, All right., So you've all brought with you. A laptop you've also brought a cell phone, and that means you've also brought with you all of your online personal history. So that's good news for us today because that's exactly what we want to test out. We're gon na. Have you look up hotel rooms, even a couple of rental cars? We want you each to look at the same city for the same dates.. The question is: will you get the same price? Can you guys plug in and hook up for us, please [ ♪♪, ], > > Charlsie On their laptops. Each of our shoppers opens a regular browsing, window. And then another one where you've gone incognito. That allows them to browse the web in private., And then we've also asked you guys to open up another regular browsing window on your cellphone, because evidence suggests prices on those Devices could be different. First up we're gon na go to Travelocity., Search for Panama City, Panama, November 15th, checking out on November 24th., All right, so everybody's all set., Your screens are loaded. On your marks. Get set search, [, ♪♪, ], >, >, Charlsie Travel bookings are one of the biggest components of e-commerce. > >. Let all your travel worries drift away. ... > >, Charlsie Travel giant Expedia owns several sites like Travelocity, which is known for its gnome and its promise of low rates. > > Wander wisely ... > > Charlsie, As we pour over the results, some other ones to share as well. A Marketplace. Survey of the habits and attitudes of online shoppers., We asked about 2,000 Canadians and found nearly half shop online, at least once a month. About three-in-four of us compare prices before buying.. Half of us have also booked a hotel room, online. We're at travelocity.ca.. It'S travel, we're booking back at our pricing, test. Hotel rooms on Travelocity.. The first thing we notice across our nine windows is not everyone's getting the same results.. What was the first one that came up for you, > > They're different in different browsers., >, > Charlsie. That'S known as `` steering'' Websites display search results in an order. That'S based on what they know about you and your spending. Habits. You've got Aloft Panama as your first and what was the first one that you got in incognito Country, Inn, Suites., > >. It'S significant .... It indicates the difference in price points of what each individual's perceived as being able to afford.. So it does speak to a certain level of customization. > > Charlsie On your marks, get set search, We're now searching for hotels in London, but so far barely a blip. > >. I got $ 2 off on my cell phone versus the web browser incognito. > > Charlsie. Oh so you got $ 282 on your cell phone $ 280 on incognito and $ 280 on your desktop. > >. I got the difference as well, and the cell phone was $ 2 more than on the laptop. > > Charlsie. Our team ran a pre-test of Travelocity beforehand and found several examples of different prices for the same room. In one case $ 144 versus $ 154. $ 181 versus $ 200. $ 270 versus $ 278, a night. Imagine a week., So you guys have fresh windows open.. We switch to a different site. Now. What we want you to do is go to Priceline and we're going to test out another city. > > Just go to Priceline., They add new thousands of new deals, everyday up to 60 %. Off. Priceline became the world's largest online travel company, with guarantees of the lowest price on everything you book. > >. We even dated the same guy. > >, Who > > Charlsie This time, we're going to have you search for Orlando and you're going over March break.. The best time to be in Florida right Take me to Florida hit search. Anything jump out at you right away, > >, So on a regular browser. The Radisson Hotel in Orlando is $ 124 as compared to incognito is $ 198 for the same. > > Charlsie. That'S a pretty big difference., > >, Big difference. > > Charlsie, Is that the biggest so far > > That I've seen. > > Charlsie. This time it seems to pay for Grant to show his cookies. But it's hard to know when and where it applies.. For instance, does it apply to car rentals on Priceline? Now, I'm going to ask you guys to add a car rental into this search.. What did you get? > > Both of mine, were exactly the same. > > Charlsie, But Grant notices something immediately. A mid-size rental for $ 61 incognito.. It'S just $ 53 in his regular browser. > >. I have, in the past, been very focused on getting and driving the car price down on websites. So I'm wondering if it knows that I'm a bargain shopper and that's why I'm getting the discount. > > Charlsie. Is he onto something Jesse, > >? Absolutely I think, Grant's past consumer behaviour has very much influenced. They know that he haggles they know he's looking for a deal and they're trying to close that deal as quickly as possible. > >. Charlsie Haggling is more often found at street vendors like this.. So this one's $ 20., Can I give you $ 10 In the war between buyers and sellers, it used to be the only way to go. > > $ 15. > > Charlsie $ 15. Is that the lowest you can go? You won't take $ 10 > >, No $ 15. > > Charlsie, But when the fixed price was invented, a truce was called.. These days, though, the truce is over, and technology is the new weapon as we're finding out in our test of online travel. Sites. > >, It inflates the regular price from $ 567 to $ 572. > >. If you think about it from a negotiating position, the provider is actually haggling, with us. They're, showing us different prices, and yet we don't have the opportunity to negotiate back, and I think that would be possible if we knew their logic. If we knew what time of day was better, if we knew of gender or age or geography made a difference., These are factors that I think should be disclosed., >, > Charlsie. That'S what Canadians think too. We'd like to know. What'S going on on the other side of the screen. 88 % say online companies should be more transparent about the customer data they collect, use or share., Maybe because only 18 % believe we have control over what marketers know about us: online. >, > Charlsie. Next: stop Seattle. To one of the world's biggest travel companies.. So what do you say to the Canadians, including our testers, who got different prices for the same thing? > >? I say that they should keep shopping, around., >, > Charlsie. This is your Marketplace. > > Charlsie, The pricing game on your Marketplace. > > Charlsie, We're testing online travel sites, uncovering numerous examples of different prices for the same hotel room on the same site at the same time. > > Grant is getting a far greater substantial Discount than Ali is getting. > > Charlsie. Could it be price discrimination? Our survey shows Canadians are concerned about companies offering different prices to different customers based on our online shopping. Habits. 72 % are concerned about companies tracking those habits. Without us, knowing. 66 % don't know how to prevent it. > >, The best dot com for booking hotels is hotels.com., >, > Charlsie For our final test, we're at hotels.com and though you can't tell from the ads it's also owned by Expedia. > >. All those words are spelled: correctly. >, > Charlsie. Let'S try New Year's Eve in New York City. As we search on the results are raising suspicion.. Oh my gosh. $ 734 for the Belvedere. > > Versus $ 712 for the Belvedere. > > Charlsie. Oh so there you go, you got $ 712 for the Belvedere Ali. > > And even the original price is different. > > Charlsie. So you got --. What does yours say, Ali for the original price there > > $ 918 and $ 896. > > Charlsie. That'S a pretty big difference. New Year's Eve in New York is clearly a pricey affair. Many of us can't afford., But even if you can, you might wan na look twice, especially on your phone. > >. Another one I found was the Highline Hotel on the computer. It'S $ 675 and it's $ 655 showing the same base starting price., >, >, Charlsie, Nadia and Ali also see a price difference for the Highline Hotel., Cheaper on their phones and incognito than in a regular browser.. But you have to wonder why [ ♪♪ ] > > Charlsie, So we book some travel of our own and go looking for answers in Seattle., > >. How are you doing >, > Charlsie? So do you make these yourself? You do We wan na know why there's so many price discrepancies from one person to the next. One browser to the other., Even on different devices.. What does Expedia actually mean > >, So what it means is speed plus encyclopedia. > > Charlsie We're at the world headquarters for Expedia, whose brands include Travelocity and hotels.com. > > About 600 million people come to our sites. Every month. > > Charlsie, Sarah Gavin, is their VP of communications. We've already shared our test results with her. > >. You guys gave us enough information that we were able to completely retrace the steps for what these customers did. > > Charlsie Gavin offers a surprising explanation for the price differences uncovered by our testers. > >. They went to the hotels.com site first, which is our U.S. site., So they got tagged as a U.S. customer and then in their incognito browser they went to hotels.ca first.. So even though, on the first one they went back to hotels.ca, they were still a US customer. As far as our site was concerned, and our hoteliers were concerned. >, >, Charlsie, So open up a new incognito window and we're going to go to hotels.com now. Here's. What Expedia is saying. When our testers opened a browser and typed in hotels.com the actual name of the company they were taken to its American site. > > Ali your left window? There is actually the U.S. rather than Canada. There, you go. > > Charlsie, So it's ca.hotels.com., So they clicked on the site's Canadian flag and were taken to the Canadian site.. But Expedia's system still viewed our testers as American and showed them different prices, though in Canadian dollars. Bottom line Price discrimination.. So is this the way that the site is supposed to be working >, > Absolutely.? In the incognito example, the incognito traveler was seen as a Canadian traveler and the other traveler was seen as a U.S. traveler and there's absolutely different deals to be had. > > Charlsie. So you agree, then, that giving different people different prices is exactly what you do. > >. We love giving great deals to customers and if that means that they're travelling internationally, if that means that they're on mobile, if that means that they're booking as a package, if that means that they're, a member absolutely., >, > Charlsie, And that is price, discrimination. > >. Our customers tell us it's awesome., > > Charlsie, It's awesome. Awesome, maybe but not very transparent. Or in keeping with the company's motto.. If the motto is the best price guarantee, why does it matter if I'm shopping incognito or on a regular browser? Why are the prices any different at all If it's just supposed to be the best price guaranteed > > They're not going to be different if you're, a Canadian customer. > > Charlsie Tell that to our testers, who are Canadian and got different prices and had no Idea, why. > > Big difference between the incognito price tends to be higher for all the cars. > > Charlsie. As for Priceline the site where we found differences in hotel and rental car prices, it says [ ♪♪, ], >, > Charlsie. So how widespread is this kind of price discrimination In the off-line world like at this movie theatre, seniors, pay, less., That's a form of price discrimination., But it's transparent and it's a discount that's available to many people. Online. How do we even know when it's happening [ ♪♪, ], > >? I actually did all my Christmas shopping online. Last year. >, > Charlsie. You did Every single thing., >, >, Charlsie, Doug Stephens warns these new ways of pricing there's more coming., > >. The whole world is basically changing. The entire world of retail. Everything.. All of the conditions that gave rise to the retail we see around us today are completely unravelling. > > Charlsie Doug is a retail futurist and advises some of the biggest names in the business.. He says personal prices make a lot of sense for retailers. > >. If we step back even 20 years ago, when your only choice as a retailer was to pick a price and put it on the product, you were doing two things. You were either selling too low to consumers, who might have paid more for the item or you were turning consumers away. Who didn't want to pay that much., So retailers are always trying to get the optimal price for a product.? The difference is now they can.. Now they can actually use technology to do that., >, > Charlsie. We show you how to game the system. Plus price tracking on Amazon. > >. Well, that's crazy., > >, It is unfair.. > > You'd feel ripped off. > > Charlsie. This is your Marketplace. Write to us: ... >, > Charlsie, The real deal on your Marketplace. [, ♪♪, ], >, > Charlsie Need more proof. Online pricing is all over the map Just hop in a Uber when it is rush hour or after the bars get out.. Suddenly, a ride that normally costs $ 10 is now $ 15.. Uber calls it surge. Pricing., [, ♪♪, ], >, >, Charlsie And lots of others are doing it. Too. Take Amazon for example., It is the biggest e-commerce site, going. 61 % of people. We asked shop on Amazon., But many are surprised to hear it too uses surge. Pricing., >, > Amazon is actually changing. Its price is millions of times a day across just about every item on the site. > > Charlsie. That is going to be huge news to people. >, >, Yeah and Amazon is doing this because they're taking into a wide variety of different considerations.. What is the popularity of that item? What are the seasonal factors that may be affecting the price of that item? What are the competitive factors They put all of that together into these algorithms that are constantly sort of hashing out these different prices. > > Charlsie? In fact, Amazon's prices fluctuate. So often it is like a guessing game. [, ♪♪, ], >, > Charlsie. You guys want to play a guessing game with us, So we thought we would play one using this webcam.. So you've seen one of these things before > > Yeah. Wait. What is that? Is it a webcam, > >? It is a webcam. > > From like 1998 > > Charlsie. I want you to tell me how much you think that costs. $ 60 $ 80 or $ 120 > > Online > > Charlsie Yep. > >, I'm going to go with $ 80. > > $ 80. > > Charlsie. What do you think > >? I mean I would never spend $ 100. $ 60. > > Charlsie $ 60 > > Yeah. > > Charlsie. What if I made it easy for you guys It actually costs all three of those prices. > > That doesn't make it easier.. That makes it more confusing > > Charlsie, To clear up the confusion. We bring out a chart from a site that tracks prices on Amazon.. This is actually a chart of what this webcam costs over the last year. > >, Oh wow., > > Charlsie. Do you see how it goes up and down like that? > > Oh yeah., >, > Yeah., How interesting. > > Charlsie Bottoms out over here $ 60 and then it went up to $ 80 and then the highest price is $ 120. >, >, Wow., >, >, Charlsie, Yeah. And then look at this.. This is just the last couple of weeks. Okay, So here it was. October 15th, just $ 60 and then they are. You go in just a matter of weeks. Almost a 50 % increase. > > Wow., That's crazy., > > Charlsie Same webcam different price.. How would you feel if you're, the guy that paid $ 120 and somebody else got it for $ 60 > > Right., You would feel ripped off. > > Charlsie Prices have always been a mystery., But who really knows what something should cost, But it's even more So with things like dynamic pricing and price discrimination., So here are some tips on gaming, a system that is trying to game you., [, ♪♪, ], >, > Charlsie Go incognito., Look at products using a private browsing window to see if the price is higher or lower. In that mode, free of your history. Or you can also delete your third-party cookies. If you want to see prices unaltered by your history, along with fewer targeted, ads. Use price tracking tools to watch prices and get alerts when prices drop.. As for our testers, they have their own take away., > >. It is not fair that our spending habits, our buying habits, are being tracked., > >. You are only one way, bartering and that is kind of unfair. Being able to set the parameters of what they can see. Then at least you've got some control back in your hands. > >. I need to be a bit more diligent and using different platforms technology to really find the best price. > > Charlsie, Especially when prices might cost you. Your privacy. [ ♪♪, ] >, > Travel, nightmares., > >. We got delayed about three times before they decided to cancel our flight. > > Lost luggage., > > Customer service hell.. What are your flight rates? > >? They did not seem to care it. All. > > We're chasing the people with power. > >. If an airline isn't fined when they break the rules, then why should they follow the rules? [ ♪♪ ]<br /> <div> <br /></div>

Scam or science? How not to get fooled (Marketplace)

Charlsie Attention online shoppers., The Black Friday special. You can't afford to miss. On your Marketplace. Charlsie. Imagine this. Three shoppers at the same store at the same time buying the same…

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