Recently I was looking for a badminton racket in one of the renowned online shopping sites. I became extremely happy on seeing a racket which is cheaper than other offers present there. It also got a fair amount of good reviews and five star ratings. But when I tried to purchase the item I realized that actually there is no cost benefit for the end buyer as whatever is left is added to shipping charges. In short the net cost is almost similar to other costly options available there. In other offers it may look pricey but their shipping charges are low which makes it almost equal to this offer. Finally I bought a premium brand with almost same price and it is a nice durable product with no complaint at all. Have you ever noticed such deals in online shopping? I wonder why companies play games like this while the end customer can easily catch it while paying the money.
That's the key to online shopping, making sure the savings don't get eaten up by shipping and handling charges. My guess is that they continue to do this because it's working for them. It must be working on enough people that it's still a viable tactic. Some people don't care about costs. Some are so excited over the purchase that they shrug and hit the button, even though they probably cringed at least a little bit when they saw the shipping costs. If they still hit the button, it's a win for the company. People are getting better at shopping online all the time, but there are also new people who try it every day. If they can get over on a few newbies or people who aren't savvy shoppers every day, they'll keep doing it. Those of us who like to save money will keep looking for the best deals (including free shipping).
In theory, sellers should be able to set whatever reference price they please. A list, original, or suggested retail price makes no pledge to represent the fair market value. Viewed in the most positive light on the selling side, these are aspirational prices around which the seller hopes to make sales.
Since it's all in black and white it is a simple business tactic that is fair and acceptable. I have noticed tgis difference however, shipping charges are almost always location based and hence donot vary greatly. The item prices vary much and just three days back I shopped for an item on an online store and the same store had multiple sellers, one had cost of 1800 while the other seller was selling the same stuff at 48,000. Yes, in fact he had reduced it from 68,000.
Irrespective of the shipping charges, I would first look at the product itself in terms of durability and performance. There are many online transactions where individuals were enamoured by the prices only to get an inferior product. With regard to online shopping, the best thing to do is to look into the long term. As for the discounts, its wise to compare items in the same category rather than across brands.
My opinion slightly differs. Yes, there're eye wash discounts in some deals. But many are there which I found worthy enough. In most of the cases, shipping charge is taken for the buy of an amount which is pretty low. Online shopping is mostly profitable when a bulk discount is going on which occurs during festive seasons. I generally keep an eye and buy most of my requisites during that time.
I have been studying commercial law when I took my commerce degree in our humble college in our local place. We've been discussing the different style of business and the different methods of generating a profit. One which is always used by any business venture is giving promo or discount for every purchase made. The discount is already included in the cost of the goods or items. Once it is discounted the actual price has still a marginal cost added which make the supplier or the merchant earns a profit. Therefore, you are right. There is no discount on the product. What principle is that. We call it "Caveat Emptor" which means let the buyer beware.
My usual online purchases are from Lazada, reputedly the largest online store in our country. However all prices exclude shipping so when I would purchase the delivery charge increases the amount to pay. That is an old trick in sales so their products will look cheap but in effect you are paying more.
My thoughts exactly, I have been trying to calculate and compare them with off season/season, online/offline and reached to a conclusion that this is all market's strategy but in fact there is no discount whatsoever. I don't think any company would like to sell its products in loss so either they were charging too high or want to clear their unsold stock selling it for a reasonable price.
I've thought of this before since I seldom shop online and in my computation, I don't think there are really discounts. I used to shop at Lazada and whenever I look for items to buy, I always see huge discounts like 50-70% discount on some items which is a wow for me and would let me hit the order button. However, when I compare prices with other websites, I noticed that there isn't really a discount, in fact, it is much pricey. They just tend to put a discount like for instance, the original price would be $80 and they will highlight that it is discounted 50% off so you'll just get it for $40 but in reality, that item only costs $40 or less when you check on other websites. Very much tempting but can be deceiving as well.
This is my take if the shipping is going to cost too much money, I may have to consider shopping from a store where I wouldn't have to pay so much to ship. Really the initial price, some of these stores that give robust discount on their items fix is way too high. When you do a calculation of the final price of the item after discount you are just arriving at the normal price elsewhere. I think this is to protect loss on the long run.
Wow, that is too much of a price variation which is quite unbelievable. Are you sure that the first one was just 1800? Sometimes we may end up buying duplicate products while searching such incredible offers. But in some cases they are quite true. A few months back I purchased a Huawei 4G WiFi dongle for Rs.3500/- (approx $55) from Amazon while the same product was priced at Rs.4500/- ($70) in eBay. The product is original and I am very much satisfied with its performance. So there are good deals but we need to be careful and remain alert of shopping scams.
When I see such a big difference on the same product on two different sites I look at the specification and in most cases I found that either the product was unboxed or it was on a website like eBay which sells used products.
