Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian's Information Rules has a good discussion on this point. If price comparisons are easy, then every seller's output is an excellent substitute for every other seller's output. Bill Sjostrom
----- Original Message ----- From: "Wei Dai" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2002 9:06 PM Subject: undisplayable prices > Why do some Internet merchants refuse to display prices on some items > until you put the affected items in your online shopping cart? I first > noticed this at BestBuy.com, but now Amazon.com and CircuitCity.com have > also picked up this practice. > > Here's Amazon.com's explanation, which doesn't explain anything at all: > > Price "Too Low to Display" Explained > > The "too low to display" message indicates an additional discount is in > effect, and this discount is calculated in the Shopping Cart. You can see > this price by clicking the product name and then selecting the Add to Cart > button on the product information page. Please be assured that simply > adding an item to your cart does not obligate you to buy it--you can > always delete the item from your cart if you decide not to purchase it. > > So what's the real explanation? How do these stores benefit by making it > slightly harder for shoppers to compare prices? > > >
