Re:Ask HN: A new way of online buying and selling. Viable?
by lazyjones on Sunday September 21, 2014 @12:33PM
(#8347517)
> why would he spend one minute on confirming the deal for a lousy 9 dollar, he doesn't care and he already has his lowest price on Amazon.
Despite the strong competition, no merchant/supplier will publicly advertise his lowest possible price because that would be incredibly short-sighted. They advertise the lowest price they can offer OR the highest price sufficient to undercut the competition, whichever of these is higher. So it's effectively 1 cent below the second cheapest offer for merchants who can go (sometimes much) lower.
Therefore, it's reasonable to expect them to accept lower priced offers made to them directly in some cases.
In cases where there is no direct competition (i.e. authors who are the sole providers of said product), prices are strategically chosen (not dictated by competition) and therefore direct sales at lower prices are much more likely.
(Amazon will never know the lower price, I presume)
Despite the strong competition, no merchant/supplier will publicly advertise his lowest possible price because that would be incredibly short-sighted. They advertise the lowest price they can offer OR the highest price sufficient to undercut the competition, whichever of these is higher. So it's effectively 1 cent below the second cheapest offer for merchants who can go (sometimes much) lower.
Therefore, it's reasonable to expect them to accept lower priced offers made to them directly in some cases.
In cases where there is no direct competition (i.e. authors who are the sole providers of said product), prices are strategically chosen (not dictated by competition) and therefore direct sales at lower prices are much more likely.
(Amazon will never know the lower price, I presume)