Negotiation and Purchase
Every customer wants a good deal. But what's considered a good deal is different from buyer to buyer. Most everyone would admit that they got a good deal when they purchased their last car. Yet, the chances of any two buyers paying the same price for the same car are slight. Another example is an airline ticket. The odds are not good that two travelers sitting next to each other paid the same price for their airline tickets. Still, both probably felt they got a good deal on their tickets at the time.
The car and airline game of different pricing for different people will pale in comparison to the dynamic pricing schemes that are hatching on the Net. Over the last few years, companies such as Priceline (http://tickets.priceline.com/), uBid (http://www.ubid.com/), MobShop (http://www.mobshop.com/), and Respond.com (http://www.respond.com/) have given consumers the power to negotiate the price they pay for products and services.
Companies using these types of dynamic pricing schemes and new ones to follow will add value to the shopping experience and command more loyalty from consumers than their traditional fixed-price cousins. Information gathered here can tell an e-business what kinds of products or services a consumer wants and what price they're willing to pay for it–information that both e-tailers and manufacturers will find valuable for their pricing strategies and production forecasts.
Until this point in the Customer Buying Cycle, a company went a long way toward creating a personal profile of the customer. The closing of the deal offers an opportunity for the e-business to apply this knowledge of the customer either to up-sell him or her or offer an add-on sale at the time of purchase.