Dynamic prices when buying online – how much do sales prices fluctuate? | Market check SWR
Price comparison on platforms
Fabian Erdmann from Saarlouis is a passionate online shopper. He compares the prices of the products on various comparison portals such as Amazon, Idealo or guenstiger.de.
He is looking for a new electric toothbrush for himself. Here too he compares the prices: the package costs 169 euros directly via Amazon. The same product, same model costs 229 euros through another dealer. 60 euros cheaper and even on the same platform.
Where do the price differences come from?
Prices change even more frequently, especially in the run-up to Christmas. Bernd Vermaaten from the e-commerce specialist Solute explains that retailers are forced to quickly deliver competitive prices on the market due to high inventories, Corona and supply chain bottlenecks. That would lead to a high price range.
Price monitoring: products under review
Marktcheck checks the price development based on ten products. These include smartphones, a games console, shoes, an electric toothbrush, a coffee machine, a razor and a tablet. There is also a vacuum cleaner robot and a washing machine. The fluctuations on the Amazon, Otto and Kaufland platforms will be monitored for ten days.
Price observation results
The prices have changed significantly within a few days. Bernd Vermaaten finds the different price ranges of 30 to 35 percent surprising. Especially after large sales campaigns, where there is a lot of sales and price pressure, you can see that the prices sometimes even seem to be higher, especially at large retailers, than at smaller competitors. That's why it's worth researching on the Internet.
The consumer advice center also advises making precise comparisons. Even if retailers want to entice you to make a quick purchase using countdowns, the prices are usually not higher afterwards.
Price fluctuations for Christmas presents
Solute's pricing experts also checked how prices have changed for popular holiday gifts. Perfumes, for example, have all become significantly more expensive, while electronics items are even cheaper.
Reject cookies if possible
According to the consumer advice center, the price differences on the Internet will probably develop even more rapidly. Because companies are learning more and more from our surfing behavior on the Internet. Cookies in particular should therefore be rejected if possible.
The Bavarian Consumer Center has just presented the browser extension “Nervensapper”, which automatically limits the cookie consent of many websites to a minimum. This saves time and, above all, unwanted data leakage.
Source / Author: Marktcheck SWR / Sven Marcinkowski
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