Browser cookies* are markers that web sites put in your computer.
I will describe several examples of how cookies can be used to manipulate the prices of products and services you shop for online.
The way to defeat these pricing tactics is by browsing in privacy mode. When you browse in privacy mode, that window (or tab) does not write or read cookies from your computer. It is as if you were a brand new user to that site.
Back to the examples:
I browsed for tickets to a Broadway show. I did not buy them. Each subsequent time I went back to check prices, the prices had increased. I felt pressure or urgency to buy, even at the higher price. When I looked at the same tickets on the same web site in an incognito window**, the price reset to the original lower price.
A friend browsed for airline tickets but did not buy initially. The next day the same tickets were notably more expensive. This can happen when seats in certain price categories sell out. But, when I looked on my computer I saw the lower price. So friend used an incognito window and found the same original lower price... and bought the tickets.
Here's a way it can work to your advantage, however.
I was shopping for a major kitchen appliance. I added it to my cart, because I wanted to see the delivery, installation and removal charges, delivery scheduling, etc. I did this at a few shops (though I'm not sure this is relevant). Right before purchase, I abandoned the item in my cart. When I went back to one of the sites several days later, that item had a discount associated with it. Hm. I still wasn't ready to buy.
...Here's the interesting part. A few months later, for various reasons, I did the same thing. Checked prices, put in cart, checked fees, etc, but abandoned it. A few days later I went back to buy it (for real this time), and it was on sale again!
This could be an amazing coincidence, but based on the pattern, I feel it was cookies working to my advantage. I believe the store was trying to motivate the purchase of a big ticket item buy putting it on "sale" just for me based on my cookies. In this case cookies worked to my advantage.
If you were shopping for a surprise or gift, and you don't want ads for those items to show up in your web sites afterwards, you should do your shopping in a private window.
*Brower cookies: You know when you shop or research online for a pair of shoes, and then all the advertisements you see seem to suddenly be for shoes? How do they know? Cookies.
**Chrome calls the privacy mode "incognito window". Safari calls it "private window". Firefox calls it "private window". Microsoft Edge calls it "inprivate window".
I will describe several examples of how cookies can be used to manipulate the prices of products and services you shop for online.
The way to defeat these pricing tactics is by browsing in privacy mode. When you browse in privacy mode, that window (or tab) does not write or read cookies from your computer. It is as if you were a brand new user to that site.
Back to the examples:
I browsed for tickets to a Broadway show. I did not buy them. Each subsequent time I went back to check prices, the prices had increased. I felt pressure or urgency to buy, even at the higher price. When I looked at the same tickets on the same web site in an incognito window**, the price reset to the original lower price.
A friend browsed for airline tickets but did not buy initially. The next day the same tickets were notably more expensive. This can happen when seats in certain price categories sell out. But, when I looked on my computer I saw the lower price. So friend used an incognito window and found the same original lower price... and bought the tickets.
Here's a way it can work to your advantage, however.
I was shopping for a major kitchen appliance. I added it to my cart, because I wanted to see the delivery, installation and removal charges, delivery scheduling, etc. I did this at a few shops (though I'm not sure this is relevant). Right before purchase, I abandoned the item in my cart. When I went back to one of the sites several days later, that item had a discount associated with it. Hm. I still wasn't ready to buy.
...Here's the interesting part. A few months later, for various reasons, I did the same thing. Checked prices, put in cart, checked fees, etc, but abandoned it. A few days later I went back to buy it (for real this time), and it was on sale again!
This could be an amazing coincidence, but based on the pattern, I feel it was cookies working to my advantage. I believe the store was trying to motivate the purchase of a big ticket item buy putting it on "sale" just for me based on my cookies. In this case cookies worked to my advantage.
If you were shopping for a surprise or gift, and you don't want ads for those items to show up in your web sites afterwards, you should do your shopping in a private window.
*Brower cookies: You know when you shop or research online for a pair of shoes, and then all the advertisements you see seem to suddenly be for shoes? How do they know? Cookies.
**Chrome calls the privacy mode "incognito window". Safari calls it "private window". Firefox calls it "private window". Microsoft Edge calls it "inprivate window".