Amazon dynamic pricing (or price shenanigans)

[ExGingi]

I put these shoes on a price watch with Keepa and got an alert last night of a significant price drop. I placed an order and received a shipping confirmation by this morning. When I got to my office this morning, I happened to have an open Amazon tab for those shoes. Lo and behold the price was even lower. I couldn't cancel the original order so I started a return process, and placed a new order. After placing the new order I happened to look at the item again, and it was $1 less. Several minutes later the price was way up back to the original (pre drops) price.

Checking the Keepa price tracker doesn't even show the changes since my order last night. CamelCamelCamel seems to show a price higher than what I ended up paying for my last order, but lower than the order I placed last night.

What's the rhyme and reason behind this? What's the best strategy to nail the best price? Will Amazon do a price adjustment, or is it best to just order at the lower price and return whatever was purchased at the higher price?

[jj1000]

It's algorithms based on stock, trends, other sites pricings, etc.

They got smart and stopped doing price adjustments and say to just return it, which probably the vast majority of people don't bother with for a few bucks.

[ah giten]

IIIRC Dan mentioned once that Amazon will match the price up to 3? Or 7? Days.

[ExGingi]

It's algorithms based on stock, trends, other sites pricings, etc.

They got smart and stopped doing price adjustments and say to just return it, which probably the vast majority of people don't bother with for a few bucks.

So when it said 2 left in stock price dropped 10% from what it was when it started dropping. When one of those sold, the price dropped by another $1. When that one was sold price was back up to original (pre first price drop) price and not showing limited stock. How does that work?

I haven't seen these shoes discounted on other websistes.

[AsherO]

Weird stuff, nothing new. Bugs the <bleep> out of me:

Welcome to Amazon, where price fluctuations make no sense.

[ExGingi]

Weird stuff, nothing new. Bugs the <bleep> out of me:

One just needs to be smart about how to shop.

Keepa has a Telegram BOT which is what alerted me to the initial price drop of almost 20%. Even though the BOT gives you the option to update your price target for alerts, which I did, it did not alert me to the additional price drop this morning. It was just because I was doing browser-tab housekeeping that I saw it. I don't know how alerts work with CamelCamelCamel but even that website didn't seem to capture all the price drops (the lowest price CCC is showing is about $10 below what Keepa is showing, when the lowest I've seen in the last 24 hours was about $11 below CCC's lowest tracked price).

So what's your strategy? Which price tracker do you use?

[AsherO]

One just needs to be smart about how to shop.

Keepa has a Telegram BOT which is what alerted me to the initial price drop of almost 20%. Even though the BOT gives you the option to update your price target for alerts, which I did, it did not alert me to the additional price drop this morning. It was just because I was doing browser-tab housekeeping that I saw it. I don't know how alerts work with CamelCamelCamel but even that website didn't seem to capture all the price drops (the lowest price CCC is showing is about $10 below what Keepa is showing, when the lowest I've seen in the last 24 hours was about $11 below CCC's lowest tracked price).

So what's your strategy? Which price tracker do you use?

I don't typically use a price tracker because I either buy items when the price is optimal (LEOA, or close based on historicals on CCC) or when I need it in which case I can't afford to wait for the price to fluctuate.

My guess (no proof or extensive evidence) is that Keepa is likely to pick up pricing changes more frequently than CCC, but it's still hit or miss).

[ExGingi]

I don't typically use a price tracker because I either buy items when the price is optimal (LEOA, or close based on historicals on CCC) or when I need it in which case I can't afford to wait for the price to fluctuate.

My guess (no proof or extensive evidence) is that Keepa is likely to pick up pricing changes more frequently than CCC, but it's still hit or miss).

My case in point, I needed shoes. I was able to wait a bit, but wouldn't want to wait long, so I wouldn't wait for LEOA. Since I've seen the price fluctuate on Amazon, I would occasionally check. I then decided to use a trackeר (and found Keepa with its Telegram BOT which I decided to try). The tracker triggered, I placed an order but updated the BOT to notify me if an even lower price was detected. The bot (or Keepa website) didn't detect the lower price, which I happened to stumble upon. CCC is showing a lower price detected today than what Keepa is showing, but still above the price I paid (which is above the LEOA price).