My girlfriend works at a retail store in Bellevue Square and tells me not to do a last minute shopping because retailers jack up the price of products just before Christmas. While I cannot statistically prove this phenomenon, I would not be surprised if it’s the tradition.
I recently installed a add-on program for Firefox browser called The Camelizer which shows historical price of the product sold online such as on Amazon.com. I use it mainly to check out if the price shown on the product page is relatively expensive or cheaper than before. If the price seems to be higher than previous prices, I’d wait until the price drops down again. While looking at historical prices of many products sold online, I noticed a price pattern around X’mas times.
First, please look at the price chart of the Samsung TL220. This product features double LCD screen one in front of camera for the consumers who take self-portraits with background often.
It is hard to see but you can see that the Amazon price and New (3rd party) price drops down around Dec 12-13 period, and it goes back up, then drops again for couple days after X’mas.
Now let’s look at ASUS UL30A-X5. This is a Amazon exclusive custom model and the laptop is very attractive in terms of its mobility and power.
You can see that the price drops significantly from Dec 5-19 period and the price goes back again, then drops down after 27th.
My theory for the pattern is that Dec 10th-13th is the ‘last minute’ purchase point online to get the product delivered before X’mas. Sellers reduce price to give extra incentives for consumers to buy their product online. So why does the price jack up after that period? Consumers can still purchase products on Amazon and get it delivered to their house before X’mas if they choose more expensive shipping option. If such consumers are willing to pay premium for the shipping price, they should be able to pay for the higher product price as well. So the sellers take advantage of those real last minute sales online. It is interesting to see how the rule changes when you sell products online.
I also noticed that it is not predictable what happens to the product price after X’mas. I have seen ones that goes up in price, but I also see ones that goes down in the price. Although the price pattern illustrated here do not apply to every product, it is good to be alert for the price change around the X’mas season.
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