Report: Amazon Shifts Away From Advertised Discounts

The New York Times reports that Amazon is gradually dropping list prices entirely as it tweaks how it appeals to customers.

Amazon.com believes its customers will buy the products listed on its website without added encouragement from an advertised discount.

The e-commerce giant — the world's largest — long provided a both a list price and the reduced sale price since its debut more than 20 years ago.

The New York Times, however, reports that Amazon is gradually dropping list prices entirely as it tweaks how it appeals to consumers.

Although discounts — or the perception of a sale, at least — generally work as a retail tactic, analysts speculated that Amazon believes its business has moved beyond them.

The e-retailer is overhauling its supply chain operations and deployed a number of delivery systems designed to quickly move goods to customers.

Eventually, the company hopes its rapid delivery business will be ingrained enough in consumers that it won't need to try to prove its pricing bona fides.

"Amazon doesn’t have to seduce customers with a deal because they’re going to buy anyway," Clarkson University consumer studies professor Larry Compeau told the Times.

The shift away from list prices also comes amid questions about the veracity of those claims. The Times noted that past Amazon listings showed discounts as high as 99 percent — and that Amazon was among numerous targets of consumer lawsuits over sale price claims.

More in E-Commerce