The online industrialists may be getting
ahead of themselves.
Many sites track customer online
behaviour. If a consumer shows intent over
a period in a specific product, the price is raised. This is personalisation gone wrong. Personalisation and data analytics are fantastic
digital tools, improving a consumer experience.
But how do you feel if it is used to raise the price because they know you
are likely to buy?
Google’s recent trouble with the EU shows
another troubling sign. “The European
Union’s antitrust regulator fined Alphabet Inc’s Google USD2.71 billion for favouring
its own comparison-shopping service in search results and ordered the search
giant to apply the same methods when displaying rivals’ services, in a move
that could have far-reaching implications for the tech industry” – 28 June
2017, The Wall Street Journal. I usually
do not side regulators but if true this seems an over-reach by an online
industrial complex.
Digital business is all about great user
experience but this could redefine the term – “Amazon granted a patent that
prevents in-store shoppers from online price checking” – 15 June, 2017, The
Verge. From the article, “If, for
example, the retailer sees you’re trying to access a competitor’s website to
price check an item, it could compare the requested content to what’s offered in-store and then
send price comparison information or a coupon to your browser instead. Or it
could suggest a complementary item, or even block content outright”. The writer of the article could be wrong in
her interpretation on the use of the patent but if she is right, it changes the
term customer experience to vendor experience.
If the digital industry continues in this
trajectory, it may blow up in their face.
Already when I’m researching to buy something online, I try to thwart
such abuse. Perhaps I’ll browse for the
prices and use it to negotiate similar prices at a physical shop.
And if history is a guide, the anti-trust
regulators could be just starting to play a larger role in the digital industry
and will step in like they did to the over-dominant JP Morgan & Company at
the turn of the 20th century to break it up as the nascent banking
industry was emerging. I expect the same
with the digital ‘Morgans’.
