http://www.wsj.com/articles/now-prices-can-change-from-minute-to-minute-1450057990
Backed by vast amounts of data and powerful software, more businesses are varying prices by the day, the hour, or even the minute. Online sellers have used such tactics for years, but frequent price changes are increasingly common in the physical world, amplifying the effects of supply and demand on everything from parking spots to golf-course greens fees.
A Dallas highway can shift toll prices every five minutes depending on traffic. Kohl’s Corp. uses electronic price tags in 1,200 stores to change prices for busy and slow times. More than 250 ski resorts in North America adjust the price of advance-sale tickets daily, based on tickets already sold.
Among the latest incursions: retail. Internet retailers like Amazon.com Inc. have long adjusted prices based on demand and other factors. Now, Kohl’s uses electronic price tags to remotely raise and lower prices—through short-term sales—depending on expected demand, said Sunit Saxena, CEO of Altierre Corp., which makes the electronic tags. With traditional tags, Kohl’s sales typically lasted days; now they last hours, Mr. Saxena said.
“It’s tough to predict, even for me,” said one store manager. Kohl’s declined to comment.
French retailer E.Leclerc uses the tags in roughly one-third of its 600 stores to make more than 5,000 price changes a week, roughly 10 times as many changes as before the tags, said Michel Itie, a technology consultant for E.Leclerc.
The tactic is likely to spread. A Toyota Motor Corp. dealership in North Carolina is testing electronic tags that alter prices based on competition online, Mr. Saxena said. In the grocery aisle, Kroger Co. is testing electronic price tags at one store in Kentucky. And Drink Exchange, a software firm, enables 15 bars across the U.S. to raise and lower drink prices with each s
And Gogo Inc. shifts the price of its in-flight Internet between $8 and $40 based on a flight’s route, day and time to limit the number of users and keep speeds high.
Andrew Sullivan, a products manager at a California manufacturer, recently paid $34 for the Wi-Fi. “It’s a drag as a consumer,” he said. “You’re not getting any additional value when you’re paying twice as much for the same commodity.”
Backed by vast amounts of data and powerful software, more businesses are varying prices by the day, the hour, or even the minute. Online sellers have used such tactics for years, but frequent price changes are increasingly common in the physical world, amplifying the effects of supply and demand on everything from parking spots to golf-course greens fees.
A Dallas highway can shift toll prices every five minutes depending on traffic. Kohl’s Corp. uses electronic price tags in 1,200 stores to change prices for busy and slow times. More than 250 ski resorts in North America adjust the price of advance-sale tickets daily, based on tickets already sold.
Among the latest incursions: retail. Internet retailers like Amazon.com Inc. have long adjusted prices based on demand and other factors. Now, Kohl’s uses electronic price tags to remotely raise and lower prices—through short-term sales—depending on expected demand, said Sunit Saxena, CEO of Altierre Corp., which makes the electronic tags. With traditional tags, Kohl’s sales typically lasted days; now they last hours, Mr. Saxena said.
“It’s tough to predict, even for me,” said one store manager. Kohl’s declined to comment.
French retailer E.Leclerc uses the tags in roughly one-third of its 600 stores to make more than 5,000 price changes a week, roughly 10 times as many changes as before the tags, said Michel Itie, a technology consultant for E.Leclerc.
The tactic is likely to spread. A Toyota Motor Corp. dealership in North Carolina is testing electronic tags that alter prices based on competition online, Mr. Saxena said. In the grocery aisle, Kroger Co. is testing electronic price tags at one store in Kentucky. And Drink Exchange, a software firm, enables 15 bars across the U.S. to raise and lower drink prices with each s
And Gogo Inc. shifts the price of its in-flight Internet between $8 and $40 based on a flight’s route, day and time to limit the number of users and keep speeds high.
Andrew Sullivan, a products manager at a California manufacturer, recently paid $34 for the Wi-Fi. “It’s a drag as a consumer,” he said. “You’re not getting any additional value when you’re paying twice as much for the same commodity.”
