Interesting Results

Showing Competitors’ Prices

The Web makes it easy to compare vendors’ prices, and one 2003 study¹ examined what happens when the vendors themselves make this information available (rather than forcing the buyer to look at several Web sites or visit a site that specialises in product and price comparisons). An experiment revealed that showing competitors’ prices increases buyer trust in the site showing the comparative prices and that increased trustworthiness leads to an increase in the proportion of people choosing that site for future purchases. This effect was most pronounced for sites whose prices were neither consistently above nor below those of its competitors, but rather sometimes higher and sometimes lower.

¹ Trifts, Valerie and Gerald Häubl (2003), “Information Availability and Consumer Preference: Can Online Retailers Benefit from Providing Access to Competitor Price Information?”, Journal of Consumer Psychology, 13(1&2), 149-159.