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St. Louis Post-Dispatch Jim Gallagher column [St. Louis Post-Dispatch](St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 23--Where you click -- and the device you use -- can dictate what you'll be nudged to buy and the price you'll pay when shopping online, according to one new academic study. Another study tells us when to shop for airline tickets: They're cheaper on Sunday. Researchers at Northeastern University in Boston compared the results of online shopping based on the cookies on a computer and browser history. "There is mounting evidence that e-commerce sites are using personalization algorithms to implement price steering and discrimination," the researchers concluded. The found: --Cheaptickets and Orbitz offer cheaper hotel prices to people who set up accounts as members. The difference is about $12 per night. --Travelocity offers cheaper prices on certain hotels to people who shop using Apple's iOS operating system for mobile devices. The difference averages $15 per night. --Priceline alters the hotel results that customers see based on their history of clicks and purchases. People who have clicked on cheaper hotels get a slightly different list to choose from, but the researchers observed no difference in prices. --By contrast, Home Depot steers mobile-device users toward more expensive products, and it offers slightly higher prices to Android users. The researchers said the couldn't determine why Android shoppers were charged more. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that Sunday has replaced Tuesday as the best day to shop for cheap air fares. It quotes data from Airlines Reporting Corp., which processes tickets for travel agencies. Tickets bought on Sunday have the lowest average price at $432. Tuesday, which used to be the cheapest day, averages $497. Jim Gallagher is a reporter at the Post-Dispatch ___ (c)2014 St. Louis Post-Dispatch Visit the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at www.stltoday.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |