7 ms·

"Dynamic pricing" -- does anyone really like that? I've seen reports of online booksellers (no, not Amazon) giving people different prices based on the account

"Dynamic pricing" -- does anyone really like that? I've seen reports of online booksellers (no, not Amazon) giving people different prices based on the account they use. No one really likes to feel like a sucker. EDIT to add: Some people might bring up airline tickets or hotel rooms. Limited analog inventory, not infinite digital inventory.

kaoD 14y ago
Analog? You mean planes and hotel rooms are non-quantized? Sorry, had to say that :) It's fun for me how analog/digital have become synonyms for material/virtual.
- jacquesm 14y ago
  Even more fun because the material world seems to operate in mostly quantized steps at its most fundamental level.
r00fus 14y ago
It's also called value-based pricing [1]. You're correct in your edit, hotels/airline tickets where you're auctioning off a limited value is one thing, selling a inexhaustible commodity at different rates without any reasonable factor like location (water in a desert = more valuable) just feels dishonest. Amazon and Travelocity rightfully caught a lot of flack when they were caught trying this (perhaps pricing A/B test?) years ago. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-based_pricing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-based_pricing
- nobodysfool 14y ago
  Yes, perhaps it would feel dishonest, but think about it for a bit, you are a musician, and you want your music heard. So you give out your music for free. Later, people want to support you, so you start selling at $1. Now you are getting play on the radio, whatever - you are hot now. Bump that price up automatically to $5 or whatever and get paid because your value increases.
ljd 14y ago
This is not dynamic pricing. This is subtracting a dollar after every sale. Companies like this make it very hard to explain what we do which is use machine learning to maximize profits.

7 ms·

"Dynamic pricing" -- does anyone really like that? I've seen reports of online booksellers (no, not Amazon) giving people different prices based on the account

by mikecane 14y ago

kaoD 14y ago
Analog? You mean planes and hotel rooms are non-quantized? Sorry, had to say that :) It's fun for me how analog/digital have become synonyms for material/virtual.
- jacquesm 14y ago
  Even more fun because the material world seems to operate in mostly quantized steps at its most fundamental level.
r00fus 14y ago
It's also called value-based pricing [1]. You're correct in your edit, hotels/airline tickets where you're auctioning off a limited value is one thing, selling a inexhaustible commodity at different rates without any reasonable factor like location (water in a desert = more valuable) just feels dishonest. Amazon and Travelocity rightfully caught a lot of flack when they were caught trying this (perhaps pricing A/B test?) years ago. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-based_pricing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-based_pricing
- nobodysfool 14y ago
  Yes, perhaps it would feel dishonest, but think about it for a bit, you are a musician, and you want your music heard. So you give out your music for free. Later, people want to support you, so you start selling at $1. Now you are getting play on the radio, whatever - you are hot now. Bump that price up automatically to $5 or whatever and get paid because your value increases.
ljd 14y ago
This is not dynamic pricing. This is subtracting a dollar after every sale. Companies like this make it very hard to explain what we do which is use machine learning to maximize profits.