The term ‘Invisible Hand’ is a term originally coined by the economist Adam Smith. Boiled down, this term is meant to describe how in free markets, people are free to pursue their own self-interests. Smith believed that when people pursued their own self-interests, the free market would provide for these interests and society would therefore be better off.
While the invisible forces of the market may be difficult to spot, the product that goes by the same name as Adam Smith’s infamous term is anything but. InvisibleHand is a browser plug-in that subtly lets a shopper know whether the product they’re looking at is available for different prices at other e-retailers. It’s helpful for casual shoppers who may not always know the different sites where a product can be bought on the web.
It seems the plugin is helping consumers reign in some serious savings. So far their homepage lists their total savings found for consumers to be $410,049,783, with an average savings per product of $11.65.
However, while InvisibleHand does offer great savings to its users, it also helps illustrate a major trend in e-commerce: pricing convergence. A simple search for a Samsung flat-screen television reveals the number of retailers selling the same product for more or less the same price.
Below you can see the InvisibleHand (the yellow bar at the top of the page, and the corresponding drop-down menu) listing the prices different retailers are offering for that same product.
In addition to the Amazon.com price of $807.00, you’ll notice that the circled prices deviate at most by two dollars. Including Amazon.com, that’s a total of 10 sites with a near identical price (and we’re not even displaying all of the search results). Next, take a look at some of the sites offering the television: Walmart.com, CompUsa.com, Newegg.com, Bestbuy.com, Sears.com and Buy.com. Given the enormity of these retailers, we’re willing to bet that in addition to this particular television, they offer many identical products at near identical prices.
While pricing may not be identical for EVERY product across the web, it’s becoming increasingly true for mass-produced items. With that in mind, pretend you’re in the market for a television and you see several different models available for the same price across 10 different sites. At that point, what information would YOU use to make your decision? Here at STELLAService, we’d like to think we know…
