Maybe I'm the odd ball because I don't have a WSJ subscription (and maybe everyone else does) but the pay wall for this is incredible annoying. I hardly ever read the WSJ so it's not worth buying a subscription but at the same time, I wouldn't mind reading an article here or there like this. It's a crumby catch-22 situation.
I expect this will lead to some price fixing. The article mentioned Newegg and BestBuy jumping up their price briefly by $100 or so. To me that sounds like signaling. They are signaling that they are willing to raise prices by sending up a flag.<p>If others find that agreeable, then they raise their price too. The desire to be in the "buy box" drives prices down, but this kind of maneuver would act as a reset mechanism.<p>As a counterpoint, the sheer number of competitors will help mitigate this.
I have seen a shop display a lower price if you came from one of the price comparison engines, a higher one if you searched the shop itself. Caveat emptor.
> Sellers such as children's clothing store Cookie's use software to change prices every 15 minutes<p>Why does Amazon not provide this service to sellers? It seems similar to bidding for keyword-based advertisement.
The article is good as far as it goes but it leaves out the use of consumer tracking information by sellers. Vendors selling through Amazon might not have that info but major retailers do.