3 ms·
I find Amazon’s acceptance of CCC interesting. If they see value in CCC, why not natively add the feature themselves? If price history is made transparent, con
by zxienin 6y ago
I find Amazon’s acceptance of CCC interesting.
If they see value in CCC, why not natively add the feature themselves? If price history is made transparent, consumers also don’t have trust issues.
- ycombinete 6y agoOff the cuff I'd think that they accept it because they view almost anything that causes people to buy from Amazon to be a good thing. They think that most people aren't seeking, or missing, such a feature. That suspicious/especially frugal people who want to see a price history would actively seek such service, and find it anyway.
- pottertheotter 6y agoI just noticed today that an item on Amazon had a little notice that said something like, "This is the lowest price in the past month." Not the same as CCC, and the statement could be true even if the price didn't change all month, but I found it interesting.
- zxienin 6y agoCan you post the direct link or screenshot?
- gmac 6y agoIf they added the feature themselves, likely many more people would find it and use it, and the average price paid would drop. The way it currently works represents a kind of price discrimination, just like providing coupons that people have to find and cut out. Price sensitive people make the effort to track down pricing information and may be prepared to wait for a better deal. Price insensitive ones don’t and aren’t.
- avipars 6y agoThey actually did something similar with Amazon Assistant (chrome extension). But it only has 30 days of history. They don't want people to stop shopping because it's not a "good deal"
- CapriciousCptl 6y agoI don't know the history exactly but I think it's been kind of rocky. Amazon limits CCC to physical (that is, Amazon's lowest margin) goods, ostensibly because of licensing agreements. Amazon benefits here by sanctioning a price history tool with restrictions when others could take its place and include its higher margin goods (if you look, there are CCC competitors that aren't sanctioned in this way, but you have to look). Less measurably, the price history tracker provides better consumer experience, in line with Amazon's customer obsession. And finally, Amazon's warehouse space isn't unlimited, so informed consumers who know a particular price is extraordinary may help it free up space more quickly.
- zxienin 6y agoI’d say Amazon even has more value from CCC (and the likes) by reverse picking data on “acceptable price”, which is avg. price watch set by watchers.
- zaptheimpaler 6y agothey play a delicate balancing act between many parties. if the real trend of prices became too obvious on a platform so big, it would reduce the effectiveness of limited time sales and marketing spend by a lot.