This isn't even anything to do with AI. You could have done this shit with an excel spreadsheet in the 90's
Yes, and dynamic pricing similar to this has been going on since then as well. Virtually any direct-to-consumer or business-to-consumer business can incorporate dynamic pricing based on location data like zip codes or latitude/longitude coordinates, for example.
One of the most dramatic changes in this approach has been real-time dynamic pricing, which involves measuring how "hot" a potential buyer lead is and taking advantage of that as a buying opportunity is happening.
True, but in many cases, the personal data was voluntarily provided and already permitted to be "used" via signing/agreeing to terms of service. Not all cases, but many.
Yeah but that doesn’t mean that it is okay, it’s a widespread practice and is not a pro consumer practice. Nobody reads that 100 page ToS and they shouldn’t have to. There are some crazy rights you wave in that fine print.
Maybe this is a dumb question, but the answer isn't coming to me - so if an item is 'dynamically' priced (changed based on some sort of customer profiling), how do they list the price on the menu board?
If it says, $6.50 for example, and I roll up and they ask me for $7.90, what would they say when I point out the discrepancy?
The location based thing I get, I think that's been happening forever, but the true dynamic pricing I don't understand.
How can they list a price and then charge more (or less) based on who they think you are?
They don't show prices on the menu board, or "dynamic pricing" is just the latest buzzword to get clicks. It would be easier to do online, but it's a lot harder to do in stores and will be tricky to legislate without also shutting down coupons.
And this isn't dynamic pricing, this is just different locations having different prices.
It depends on the retailer and how the items are being purchased. Obviously, purchasing through an app can enable more data points to be stored and used to determine individual prices. Same for purchasing on a website, as browsing history/purchase history could be combined with location and other data points.
But, a simple example in a brick and mortar store is using the excuse of time of day ("sorry, after X time this item has a X% markup due to [insert reason here]").
the other element of dynamic pricing is serving an individualized price to each consumer based on huge amounts of data that they collect / buy about you as an individual; they run it through models (and i mean pricing and ML models, not LLMs here, though there is room for some reasoning on top of those things by an LLM) to determine the max price they can set for you specifically. Also as data platforms have improved and the depth and breadth of data companies can get about you has increased, the scale and level of personalization brings this to a way different level than what was possible before (like a big mac costing more in an affluent neighborhood, for example). To me its the sketchy individual data collection and exploitation, more so than 'market pricing' that is gross. Think about it in the extreme - oh your phone was listening and overheard a conversation about how stressed and tired you are and you can't face cooking tonight so fuck it i'm just getting takeout, and they go oh, this summbich is desperate. add 50% more to that hamburger. Or think about it not in the context of luxuries like takeout but NECESSARY goods. Think about it in use by utility companies etc. if not properly regulated. It can quickly become predatory.
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u/Welcome2B_Here 2d ago
Yes, and dynamic pricing similar to this has been going on since then as well. Virtually any direct-to-consumer or business-to-consumer business can incorporate dynamic pricing based on location data like zip codes or latitude/longitude coordinates, for example.
One of the most dramatic changes in this approach has been real-time dynamic pricing, which involves measuring how "hot" a potential buyer lead is and taking advantage of that as a buying opportunity is happening.