ShoppingTechnology

eBay and Amazon Hack: How to Overcome Price Discrimination

E-commerce giants like Amazon and eBay are fan favorites. That is just right, considering how much of a convenience they provide the general population. The ones that shop, that is.

One of the main reasons why the online shopping model has caught on is the convenience it offers. You can be anywhere – anywhere at all – and buy all the things you need without moving an inch.

Beyond that, the fact that a rich range of products is made available in one central location sweeten the deal even further. That advantage is linked to why many people also prefer the deals and great pricing they could get on these websites.

What you might not be aware of, though, is that you don’t always get the best prices.

No, we are not talking about a seller inflating their prices. Of course, you can always try price matching when this happens. But then, what if the selling platform itself was somehow manipulating the prices automatically to fool you?

The Dynamic Pricing Model

Prices of goods and services are usually fixed across different regions, or so it should be. When a dynamic pricing model is put in place, though, that argument is thrown into the bin. In fact, a single product could be viewed by a dozen different people and they would be charged different prices.

Advertisers usually invest in this type of model to get the best out of their sales. What they are also doing is making excess profits at the expense of the buyer – that is, you. Perhaps more disappointing is the way they go about dynamic pricing.

VPN and online shopping

Basically, dynamic pricing allows for the fluctuation of a product price based on a handful of variables. Some of the factors that determine what price you see are:

  • The product demand in your market
  • How much you spend shopping online (your perceived pocket)
  • What country you are shopping from (perceived affluence) and
  • The type of products you look at

Beating the Dynamic Pricing Model

No online shopper should be made to pay higher just because of where they are from, or how much they had to spend. Unfortunately, Amazon and eBay might not subscribe to that school of thought.

That does not mean you should close your accounts with them, though. You can continue shopping at the best prices with the use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

One of the core features of a VPN is in how it helps to change the location of where you’re accessing the internet from. This fools Amazon and eBay into thinking you’re a shopper from another location rather than your physical IP address. That way, the dynamic pricing algorithm doesn’t work on you.

Does This Work?

Theoretically, yes.

Dynamic pricing is not set for all locations in the world. Advertisers will only invest in this type of model for areas where they feel they can get more out of their customers. Going by that, you should be able to get lower prices in other regions.

This makes it a logical argument that a VPN helps to overcome price discrimination of any nature.

Speaking of, it would be in your best interest to get a VPN that offers servers in multiple countries of the world. The more the locations available to you, the higher your chances of overcoming price discrimination.

 

Also Read:

  1. How to Protect Your Android smartphones from Cyber attacks?
  2. Defending Your Startups Against Cyber Attacks
Tags

Vivek

Vivek is a writing enthusiast fond of healthy and happy living. He believes Knowledge gets better when shared. So he founded The Mindful Bytes as a platform for people who love to read and write anything that has to do with Health, Tech, Business, Finance, and Lifestyle.

Related Articles

Check Also

Close
Close