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Udemy is a great example of a company that devalues their product by offering so many sales. They constantly advertise that for a short time, courses that cost

Udemy is a great example of a company that devalues their product by offering so many sales. They constantly advertise that for a short time, courses that cost > $100 are selling for $12.99. But anyone who has visited their site more than once knows it's trivially easy to always pay $12.99, regardless of popularity/rating/length. The result is that instead of seeing them as a great deal, I view all Udemy courses as lower quality (whether deserved or not). Which is a shame, because some of their creators do a fantastic job and have a high quality products that could sell for Wes Bos-level prices.

dlkinney 6y ago
JCPenney, Macy's, and Kohl's were sued (successfully) for the same kind of perpetual sale racket. A "sale" is a "misleading advertisement" if the product never actually sells at the "original" price. Note that this is distinct from Amazon's stricken price, which is the suggested price. You'll see that none of Amazon's own products have a stricken price unless it's actually on sale. Since Udemy defines their own pricing, this forgiveness does not apply. They're ripe for a lawsuit, frankly.
- skinnymuch 6y ago
  Getting away with it until you’re worth $3.5B through fundraising is pretty good. Makes it seem like you shouldn’t care about the issue. It only becomes an issue when you’re already really successful.
- Chris_Newton 6y ago
  This can be a tricky area to navigate at the moment, even if you’re an honest merchant. A lot of people in one industry I’m familiar with that has been badly hit by the coronavirus situation got together and started a movement to basically do discounts across the industry for as long as the virus lasts. It really is a sincere attempt to help customers who will in many cases be taking a hit themselves. This is a small world, and many of the businesses in it are small and might be on first-name terms with at least their regular customers, so I think there is a genuine sense of everyone being in it together at the moment. However, it does also make sense as a purely commercial decision. Some sales making at least a slight profit is clearly better than almost no sales at normal margins in the current environment, and it’s in everyone’s interests, including merchants’, to avoid losing customers for good because they can’t themselves afford to continue in the field after all this disruption. So, at what point does having a price that is X% below what you would normally charge cease to be that, because it has itself become what you normally charge? Is it deceptive to say prices are reduced by X% right now if you reduced them 3 months ago as the virus started to affect your market? What if it was 6 months, or 9, or 12? Does it make any difference, either morally or legally, if you intend (but presumably can’t prove it) to put your prices back to normal once the virus situation has been sufficiently dealt with? If so, does it make any difference how long that takes? What if you discover in time that your reduced rate is actually a better price point and you do want to keep it even after things get more back to normal? These seem to be surprisingly difficult questions at the moment, even if you’re just trying to keep your business afloat and help your customers out a bit.
retsibsi 6y ago
In Udemy's case, I don't think the sales devalue the product, so much as the 'regular' prices are an attempt to inflate it. Semantics perhaps, but if you frame it that way then their strategy makes sense: they're not cheapening a premium-priced product, they're giving a premium sheen to a low-priced product. The downside (setting aside questions of morality and consumer law) is that it makes them look a bit dodgy, and also they presumably have some upset full-price customers who only belatedly realise they've been taken for suckers. Sidenote: can you get every course for $12.99? I've recently started using Udemy, and I've cottoned on to the fact that if I'm not getting 80-90% off I'm doing it wrong, but it seems that the real prices range from about $13AUD - $30AUD or so. Is there a way to routinely get the (nominally) more expensive courses at the same price as the cheaper ones?

dlkinney 6y ago

JCPenney, Macy's, and Kohl's were sued (successfully) for the same kind of perpetual sale racket. A "sale" is a "misleading advertisement" if the product never actually sells at the "original" price. Note that this is distinct from Amazon's stricken price, which is the suggested price. You'll see that none of Amazon's own products have a stricken price unless it's actually on sale. Since Udemy defines their own pricing, this forgiveness does not apply. They're ripe for a lawsuit, frankly.

skinnymuch 6y ago
Getting away with it until you’re worth $3.5B through fundraising is pretty good. Makes it seem like you shouldn’t care about the issue. It only becomes an issue when you’re already really successful.
Chris_Newton 6y ago
This can be a tricky area to navigate at the moment, even if you’re an honest merchant. A lot of people in one industry I’m familiar with that has been badly hit by the coronavirus situation got together and started a movement to basically do discounts across the industry for as long as the virus lasts. It really is a sincere attempt to help customers who will in many cases be taking a hit themselves. This is a small world, and many of the businesses in it are small and might be on first-name terms with at least their regular customers, so I think there is a genuine sense of everyone being in it together at the moment. However, it does also make sense as a purely commercial decision. Some sales making at least a slight profit is clearly better than almost no sales at normal margins in the current environment, and it’s in everyone’s interests, including merchants’, to avoid losing customers for good because they can’t themselves afford to continue in the field after all this disruption. So, at what point does having a price that is X% below what you would normally charge cease to be that, because it has itself become what you normally charge? Is it deceptive to say prices are reduced by X% right now if you reduced them 3 months ago as the virus started to affect your market? What if it was 6 months, or 9, or 12? Does it make any difference, either morally or legally, if you intend (but presumably can’t prove it) to put your prices back to normal once the virus situation has been sufficiently dealt with? If so, does it make any difference how long that takes? What if you discover in time that your reduced rate is actually a better price point and you do want to keep it even after things get more back to normal? These seem to be surprisingly difficult questions at the moment, even if you’re just trying to keep your business afloat and help your customers out a bit.

retsibsi 6y ago

In Udemy's case, I don't think the sales devalue the product, so much as the 'regular' prices are an attempt to inflate it. Semantics perhaps, but if you frame it that way then their strategy makes sense: they're not cheapening a premium-priced product, they're giving a premium sheen to a low-priced product. The downside (setting aside questions of morality and consumer law) is that it makes them look a bit dodgy, and also they presumably have some upset full-price customers who only belatedly realise they've been taken for suckers. Sidenote: can you get every course for $12.99? I've recently started using Udemy, and I've cottoned on to the fact that if I'm not getting 80-90% off I'm doing it wrong, but it seems that the real prices range from about $13AUD - $30AUD or so. Is there a way to routinely get the (nominally) more expensive courses at the same price as the cheaper ones?