ORLANDO, Fla. – Before you hit click to buy that item, take a minute to make sure you're getting the best price.
[WEB EXTRAS: Shopping tips | Northeastern University study]
Companies track your search and purchase history and know your spending habits, and they are using the information to their benefit.
"It's really designed to do one thing and it's to extract more money from you and I," professional savings expert Josh Elledge said.
Elledge is CEO of an online savings website. He said he was not surprised to hear the results of a recent Northeastern University study that shows some companies are using your online shopping info to customize prices. The bottom line is that some people pay more, while others pay less for the exact same product.
For example, using your iPhone you get a $15 discount looking for tickets on Travelocity, but not if you use a desktop computer.
Local 6 spoke to study co-author Christo Wilson via Skype, who said if you need to book a flight you should use your mobile device.
"It appears at least on the travel sites many of them give discounts to people who have smartphones. Whenever you connect to a website, you send information that lets them know your browser, your operating system and your platform," Wilson said.
However, the study showed you're better off using your desktop at Home Depot.
Doing a search on Home Depot averages $120 per item on desktops. But the same search on an iPhone or Android phone comes up with $230 per item. And get this, a mobile device only shows you 24 items versus 48 items to choose from on a desktop.
"They appear to have a completely different inventory of products for desktop users versus mobile users," Wilson said.
Home Depot had the largest percentage of different prices in the study, followed by Cheap Tickets, Orbitz , Priceline, Sears, JCPenny and Macy's.
Susan Horwitz was surprised to hear the news.
"I did not know that. That would change how I purchase in the future. That's a significant difference. It adds up. It definitely does," she said.
According to the study, every site Wilson's team looked at was doing something different, so it's very hard to figure out.
But, Wilson said there are a few things you can do to ensure you're getting a good deal.
- Open up different browse, such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. Each browser could potentially give you a different price.
- Clear your cookies or go into private browser mode.
- Don't make final purchase until you check both smartphones and desktops for the lowest prices.
"Pricing discrimination is just something, unfortunately, we kind of have to deal with, but it doesn't mean we can't be informed," Elledge said.
On Monday, JC Penney issued a statement about the Northeastern University study.
"This study was conducted in April 2012 under previous leadership using a price strategy we no longer use. Today, as part of our omnichannel strategy, our prices are consistent no matter what device our customers are shopping from. We do sometimes offer online only offers that may differ from pricing/offers we have in our stores," the statement said.
Macy's said as its prices are typically the same, whether the purchaser uses a phone or computer.
"The only variation is when a customer uses the Macy's app to physically scan a Macy's bar code while standing inside a Macy's store. Sometimes, the price of an item at Macy's may vary from store-to-store or from store-to-site. In those cases, a scanned bar code will show the price in the store where the app is being used to avoid confusion with the customer. This is a circumstance that is very rare, but it does happen on occasion," Macy's said.
The Home Depot said it disagrees with the study's findings.
"The conclusions being drawn about Home Depot are misleading. The fact is that we never steer customers to more expensive products based on the device they use to search, and we never adjust pricing based on their device," the company said.
Orbitz said, "The interest in the Northeastern study is really misplaced, since it concluded that 'overall, most of the experiments do not reveal evidence of steering or discrimination.' We freely tell our customers that they can sometimes find special price deals if they open a free membership account or use our mobile apps, just like a Kmart blue light special, a Groupon deal of the day or a frequent customer who gets a targeted offer in the mail might also result in a short-term, limited deal."
And Sears told Local 6 in an email that it does not discuss pricing strategies for competitive reasons.