This Amazon ‘deal’ Could Actually Be a Price Hike in Disguise
With so many different retailers participating in the Black Friday Early Sale , it’s no surprise that they will try to make you think their deals are the best of the best. But how far are some retailers willing to go? If you have a hunch Amazon’s “deal” price was lower a week ago ( before the Prime Early Access sale ), you’re not wrong: new research reveals dubious tactics used by Amazon to trick consumers into thinking they’re getting a deal , while in reality the savings are at best negligible, and at worst even larger than before.
The trick is called “raising the price and synchronizing the list price”. Essentially, the seller disguises the price increase as a discount by increasing the “list price” of an item and then lowering that list price to show you a “sale price” that may even be higher than the original price. Here’s how Insider explains it :
In the real world, it might look something like this: A Dyson vacuum cleaner sells for $250. One day, a “List Price” of $300 appears on the page with a slash. Simultaneously, the seller raises the asking price to $275. After all, buyers think they are making a deal when in fact the opposite is true.
The researchers observed the same increase in the price of books 3% of the time and more than 13% of the time for digital cameras, blenders and drones. Although the study is focused on the 2016-2017 period, the researchers told Insider that they have found evidence of similar price increases recently.
Lifehacker contacted Amazon about the study and received a response from a rep: “Amazon provides clear and accurate pricing information on our product pages. This study was conducted over five years ago and does not accurately represent today’s shopping experience. We are constantly working to help customers make better buying decisions and have since changed how we describe pricing information.”
However, take this 2020 Apple MacBook Air laptop. At the time of this writing, it is currently listed as $998 with a “Prime Exclusive Deal” where you “save 17%” or $200 off the “list price” of $1,198. But when we look at the MacBook price history on camelcamelcamel , the price tracker page, here’s what we find:
Despite being discounted from its lowest price, the chart above shows that the Macbook’s list price was never the advertised $1,198. And most recently, the laptop’s price conveniently rose shortly before Amazon’s October 11-12 Prime Early Access sale, only to then be discounted again in connection with the event. It’s still the cheapest price of the year at $998, but it’s not as nice as the new, higher “list price” might seem.
There is no official market value for any product, since the free market sets the price of any product, so the practice of Amazon and other companies is not illegal. However, this does not mean that you should be deceived. To avoid falling into this trap, be sure to use price tracking pages like camelcamelcamel or Honey for large purchases or deals that seem fishy to you. Look at their price history to make sure the “deal” is indeed a deal.