評論
打印
Business
商業報道
Personalising online prices
個性化網購價
How deep are your pockets?
你的錢包有多鼓？
Businesses are offered software that spots which customers will pay more
能發現愿意多付錢客戶的軟件現可供企業使用
IN MANY types of face-to-face retailing,
在許多面對面的零售過程中，
it pays to size up your customer and tailor your offering accordingly.
揣測客戶需求并對其進行針對性銷售往往會得到應有的回報。
In a 2006 study of Fulton fish market in New York, Kathryn Graddy of Oxford University found that dealers regularly charged Asian buyers less than whites because the Asians had proved, over time,
根據2006年牛津大學Kathryn Graddy對紐約Fulton海鮮市場的研究，跟白人相比，賣家經常以更低的價格賣給亞洲人。
more willing to reject high prices, and readier to band together to boycott dealers who ripped them off.
因為經驗顯示亞洲人更容易對高價產生反感，而且更愿意很快地聯合起來抵制奸商。
The internet, by allowing anonymous browsing and rapid price-comparing, was supposed to mean low, and equal, prices for all.
具有隱身瀏覽和快速價格比較功能的互聯網，本應代表著所有人都能享用低廉，平等的價格。
Now, however, online retailers are being offered software that helps them detect shoppers who can afford to pay more or are in a hurry to buy,
然而現在，網上零售商可利用軟件幫他們篩選出更有承受能力或急著埋單的消費者。
so as to present pricier options to them or simply charge more for the same stuff.
對應地，零售商可推薦更昂貴的商品或直接將同樣的商品標更高的價格。
Cookies stored in shoppers' web browsers may reveal where else they have been looking, giving some clues as to their income bracket and price-sensitivity.
存儲在消費者瀏覽器內的小型文字檔案可能透露了他們曾經逛過哪里，并提供了估算他們收入狀況和價格敏感度的信息。
A shopper's internet address may be linked to his physical address,
一名消費者的網絡地址可以跟所在地地址聯系在一起，
letting sellers offer, say, one price for Bel Air, another for Compton.
這讓賣家給貝沙灣可標一個價，給康普頓標另一個價。
Doug Bryan of iCrossing, a digital-marketing consultancy,
數字市場營銷咨詢公司iCrossing的Doug Bryan解釋稱，
explains that the most up-to-date price customisation software can collate such clues with profiles of individual shoppers that internet sellers buy from online-data-aggregation firms. All this is fairly cheap, he says.
時下大多數個性化價格軟件可以使用自身收集的數據對網絡賣家從其他在線數據匯總企業的數據進行校驗。而且他稱這一切都十分便宜。
One of the few big online firms to admit to using such techniques is Orbitz, a travel website.
其中一個少數承認使用該手法的大型網絡旅行社企業是Orbitz。
Its software detects whether people browsing its site are using an Apple Mac or a Windows PC and,
公司使用的軟件檢測用戶究竟是用蘋果電腦還是普通電腦瀏覽公司網站。
since it has found that Mac users tend to choose pricier hotels, that is what it recommends to them.
因為公司發現用蘋果電腦的用戶更傾向選擇更貴的酒店，所以網站也應勢推薦給他們。
Orbitz stresses that it does not charge people different rates for the same rooms,
Orbitz強調他們絕對沒有同房不同價，
but some online firms are believed to be doing just that,
但是人們相信一些網上公司就是這么操作的。
for instance by charging full whack for those assumed to be willing and able to pay it, while offering promotional prices to the rest.
例如對那些有能力也愿意付全價的用戶則收全價，而對其它用戶打更多折扣。
Allocating discounts with price-customisation software typically brings in two to four times as much money as offering the same discounts at random, claims Ravi Vijayaraghavan of 247, a Bangalore-based firm that develops and operates such software.
基于班加羅爾開發和運營這種軟件的公司247，該公司Ravi Vijayaraghavan稱，通過個性化價格軟件來分配折扣，通常可以帶來比隨機分配折扣多兩到四倍的營業額。
One way to do this is to monitor how quickly shoppers click through towards the online seller's payment page:
其中一個方法是監測消費者在網站點入付賬頁面的速度：
those who already seem set on buying need not be tempted with a special offer.
那些看起來已經決定了的買家不需要通過特價來吸引。
Firms like 247 and RichRelevance, another price-customisation software firm, from San Francisco, are somewhat keener to talk about their software than the internet retailers who are trying it out.
另一家來自三藩市的價格個性化軟件公司RichRelevance和247公司一樣，它們跟嘗試軟件的網上零售商相比，感覺更愿意暢談這類軟件。
Mr Vijayaraghavan names United Airlines, for example, as among his big clients,
Vijayaraghavan稱聯合航空便是他們其中一個大客戶。
but the airline declined to comment for this article.
然而該航空公司拒絕對此文章置評。
Andrew Fano, a consultant in Accenture's Chicago office, reckons that at least six of America's ten biggest web retailers are now customising prices in some way,
埃森哲咨詢公司芝加哥分部的顧問Andrew Fano稱，美國最大的十家的網絡零售商中，最少六家現在或多或少地在使用個性化價格，
but it is hard for shoppers to spot when this is going on.
但消費者本身很難發現自己所在的處境。
If they knew, many would feel that it is pushing the boundaries of fairness,
如果他們知道，很多人將感覺在試探公平原則的底線。
notes Werner Reinartz, a University of Cologne marketing professor and consultant to two Fortune 500 companies that use customisation techniques.
這是由Cologne大學市場營銷教授Werner Reinartz提出的，他同時也是財富500強里兩家使用價格個性化技術公司的顧問。
Mr Reinartz preaches caution lest companies be dragged through an ordeal pioneered by Amazon in the autumn of 2000.
Reinartz提醒公司要預防陷入2000年秋亞馬遜為此成為先烈的經歷。
Word broke that the internet giant was selling DVDs at differing prices, to see which web browsers happened to be favoured by shoppers least concerned about cost, former executives say.
時任總裁稱，在網上流傳這家互聯網巨頭以不同價錢賣DVD，用來分析哪個瀏覽器的用戶更不在意價格。
The resulting backlash prompted it to refund those who paid more, and Amazon now declines to discuss its pricing system.
引起的反彈致使公司給多付錢的客戶退款，亞馬遜現已拒絕對其標價系統置評。
Users of price-customisation software have so far been reluctant to peep at potential customers' social-media pages, for fear that this would provoke a privacy backlash.
個性化價格軟件的用戶至今還不敢窺視潛在客戶的社交網頁，因擔心這將引起關于私隱的反彈。
But the operators at the call centres 247 runs for its clients are beginning to scan Twitter for gen on the shoppers they are talking to—and sometimes, says Mr Vijayaraghavan,
但247公司客服中心的客戶代表，已經開始代客戶在Twitter上追溯消費者聊天的關系網。Vijayaraghavan稱，
their tweets give useful hints about whether a discount is needed to clinch the sale.
有時候用戶的微博會透露究竟是否需要折扣來達成交易。
