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Why Do Amazon Prices Change?

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Ever wonder why items on Amazon change prices so often? Amazon has become rather famous for its strange pricing strategies. They’ve developed a reputation for often raising or lowering prices for a product without a clear reason as to why.

Items becoming less expensive is typically seen as a good thing, however, Amazon prices increasing, even in your cart, are just as likely, sometimes going up by as much as 25%.

What Amazon is using here is a tactic called ‘dynamic pricing’. This is where retailers will change the price of a product based on a number of factors related to the individual potential buyer. This is done automatically, and factors in things like your browsing and purchasing history, what operating system you’re using, and even what your zip code is.

How are they actually able to determine and do all this? How is it that they’re able to know so much about you? The answer is that they use cookies. These days, it seems like it’s practically impossible to go on any website without first being prompted to allow the site to use cookies.

Most people aren’t really aware of what they are allowing when they accept them, nor do they really care, as to them it’s just something getting in the way of shopping. Even so, cookies have a huge impact on your Amazon browsing experience.

If you’ve ever been wondering “Why are Amazon prices changing so much?”, then read on. We’ll go over everything that you need to know about how cookies impact you, answering “Does Amazon change prices based on users”, and how you can try to prevent Amazon from changing the prices of products after you’ve looked at them.

What Are Cookies? Do They Affect Your Amazon Products Pricing?

Also known as HTTP cookies, these are essential but annoying parts of the modern internet. They allow web developers to give you more personalized and convenient website visits, as they let sites remember you, your website logins, shopping carts, and much more.

Cookies are text files with small pieces of data on them, that are used to identify your computer as you use a network. They’re used to identify specific users to improve your online experience.

Data stored in a cookie is created by the server when you connect. This data is then labeled with an ID that’s unique to you and your computer or whatever device you’re using to access the internet.

When the cookie is exchanged between your device and the network server, the server reads the ID and knows what information to specifically show you.

Have you ever looked at a product, possibly saw that their Amazon price changed, and then suddenly found that you’re seeing the same product advertised to you on other sites, especially social media? That’s cookies at work.

What Else Are Cookies Used For?

First off is tracking, which is what we mentioned above. Shopping sites use cookies to track items previously viewed by the user, allowing other sites to suggest goods that they might like and keep items in shopping carts while they go off and do other things.

This is quite useful as if your shopping is interrupted or you accidentally close the page then you don’t have to refill your cart, everything is just as you left it.

Cookies are used for personalization, which is where we see custom advertisements come in. After you view a product on a website, the cookies use this data to build targeted ads that you will see on other websites.

Cookies are also used for session management, which is where websites recognize users and recall their individual login information and preferences. This is mainly used in news apps to show people the stories they’re interested in.

Does Amazon Prices Change based on Cookies?

Although they have never come right out and said it, it is almost certain that Amazon does change the prices of their products based on your cookies.

Thanks to cookies, Amazon has enough data on you to know all about your shopping habits and the price point you’re most likely to buy at.

For example, if you tend to shop on the higher market, pricier online shops, then Amazon will know that you have more money to spend and will raise their prices because they know you will probably still buy the product.

What’s crazy is that this isn’t the only way Amazon uses cookies. They have a thing called the “Anticipatory Shipping Model”, which is where Amazon predicts if you’re going to buy something based on your online activity.

They then ship this product to a warehouse near you so that if you do end up buying it they can get it to you faster.

But if you don’t want Amazon to have all this data on you, and you want to put a stop to them always changing their prices, what can you do about it? Well, a lot actually.

Why Does Amazon Do This?

Why do Amazon prices change so much? Amazon’s dynamic pricing strategy is to use your browsing habits, purchase history, and the type of device to tailor a dynamic pricing strategy to the profile they have on you. 

By doing this, Amazon can optimize its prices to increase the odds that you will make a purchase while, at least in theory, having a good experience in the process.

For example, let’s say that you have a habit of buying items when they were priced higher, or tend to buy products that are considered more premium like a Mac. Amazon may, as a result, decide that you’re not very receptive to price changes, and show you higher prices as a result.

All of this carries with it a question of ethics. Dynamically altering the prices of goods based on an algorithm that looks at various personal details of the buyer, can not only feel unfair, but even unethical. Even more so if the customer isn’t aware that Amazon does this in the first place. 

Critics argue that this approach takes advantage of consumers who might not realize they’re being charged more simply because of where they live or how they shop.

The debate on all of this isn’t contained to just Amazon, however. The very core of digital commerce has been shifting towards this approach for a while now. 

As more and more companies begin to use their customer’s data to adjust their pricing strategies, questions about transparency, fairness, and the ethical implications of all this are only going to grow louder.

While dynamic pricing certainly can provide a benefit to businesses, as well as consumers if they happen to be algorithmically determined to be offered lower prices, it very much highlights the growing tension between convenience, personalization, and privacy in the online shopping world. 

Ultimately, the reason why do prices fluctuate on Amazon is due to the fact that they’re trying to optimize their business to maximize profit, like any other corporation. It’s not a bad thing, just the reality of running a business.

How To prevent Amazon Price Changes 


Disable Cookies 

This one is easy. If you disable or clear your cookies then Amazon will no longer have those tiny pieces of information on you that make them change their prices. This will also stop them and other online retailers from targeting you with ads and changing the prices of their products as well.

Disabling cookies won’t have any negative effect on your online shopping experience and is usually quite simple to do, though you will have to be careful not to build them back up again when visiting other websites.

Browse In Incognito Or Private Mode

Using this method and clearing your cookies together is the best way to put a stop to dynamic pricing. By browsing in these ways, none of your browser history is stored on your computer.

This doesn’t make you completely anonymous, as each website you visit still has access to your IP address, but it does prevent online retailers from changing the prices of products based on your browsing history.

Shop And Buy On Separate Browsers

For this method to work you should do any of the research you want to do on a product, like read the reviews and do price comparisons on one browser (like Firefox), and then actually buy it on a different browser (like Google Chrome).

This tricks the retailers into thinking that you’re a brand new customer with no browsing history, so they’re less likely to raise or change price on Amazon.

Enter A Different Zip Code

This method won’t work for everyone, as usually when you buy online the product will be delivered to your house. Retailers like Amazon sometimes look at your zip code when creating a price for the product you want to buy.

If you live in a neighborhood with a high medium income, you’re more likely to be charged more for products than people in a lower-income area.

To see if this is happening to you, search for a product and enter a different zip code during checkout. If the price lowers then you know they are taking your address into account. To try and overcome this there are only really two things you can do.

You can ask a friend or family member who is living in a different neighborhood if you can use their address to have the package delivered, or you can have your product sent to an Amazon locker instead of your home. You will then have to go to the locker to pick up your parcel.

Use Price Tracker Tools

If you really want to make sure that you’re going to get the best deals on Amazon, then you’re going to want to be using price tracker tools. These tools keep track of the prices of any products on Amazon that you specify, and will notify you about any drops in price, helping you to figure out what the best time to buy is.

We’ll go over two of these tools, but remember, there’s nothing wrong with using both!

Camelizer: This popular browser extension will integrate right into all Amazon product pages. It provides a historical chart of price history and sends you notifications in your web browser if a product you’re following drops in price. Even just installing the browser extension and doing nothing else with it will still show the price history of whatever product you’re currently viewing on Amazon.

Slickdeals: While the above is a browser extension, Slickdeals is a website. Combined with its robust and popular community forum, this site displays a constant showing of any and all popular deals that are found and submitted by the community. More than just Amazon, the site supports showing deals for just about any site you can imagine. You can also set up alerts for specific products or categories of things, ensuring that you’ll never miss an opportunity for you to save. They also display community reviews, making sure that you can trust the site you’re seeing a deal for.

Price Matching

Unlike other large retailers, which have policies in place for price matching to entice people to keep shopping with them even if they find a better deal elsewhere, Amazon does not. In addition, while many stores will refund the difference to the customer if the price of a recently purchased product lowers, Amazon doesn’t do this either. Amazon’s pricing strategy is entirely non-negotiable, subject to the dynamism of its proprietary algorithm.

Over time, shoppers have found some workarounds, such as getting a return on an item and then rebuying it at that lower price. However, this has some serious drawbacks, as making too many returns over a period of time will cause them to monitor your account more closely, and may even put it at risk of losing access to convenient returns, or even be outright suspended.

If you’re set on getting the best deal, tools like price trackers or keeping an eye on lightning deals might be a safer alternative to repeatedly placing and canceling orders.

Can I Make Prices Lower By Leaving Them In My Cart For A Long Time?

Even though Amazon has never admitted it, there is a lot of evidence that suggests that they lower the price of a product if you have had it sitting in your cart for a while.

While this tactic does seem to work for a lot of people, Amazon does warn that “Items in your Shopping Cart always reflect the most recent price displayed on the product detail page of the item.

The price of an item may increase or decrease between the time you place it in your cart and the time you purchase it”. That said, you might as well give this strategy a try and see how it works out.

Other Factors that Affect Pricing on Amazon

If you’re wondering if Amazon does change prices based on user, it’s a resounding “yes”. Setting aside tracking your browsing data though, there are several other factors that Amazon uses to track and ultimately determine the price you see for products in their store.

One significant factor is where you live in the world, or even in the county and state. Just as prices in your town may be noticeably higher or lower than surrounding ones, Amazon appears to simulate this as well to some degree, presumably taking into account the average buying power of the people in a geographical area. They may also factor in things like the cost of shopping, what the local market demand is, or even your regional taxes.

Another thing is just time. Many retailers will now alter their prices not just on the day, but even on the time of that particular day. Prices can fluctuate based on the inventory level of a product being affected by supply and demand, as well as in response to what a competing product is pricing itself at. You’re also likely to see big price changes on big holidays and sale events like Black Friday and Prime Day. These periods often see huge discounts designed to drive sales volume.

 

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in November 2021, and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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