Amazon prices not showing correctly

I'm noticing that the prices that are shown on the Amazon modules on my pages aren't the same as shown on Amazon.com itself.  For example on my yoga for arthritis DVD page (don't mean to drop links, but it's the easiest way to show what's going on)  some of my DVD recommendations list the Amazon price about $1 less than what's actually shown on Amazon itself.  One (the Mayo Clinic one, near the bottom) is way off, over $10 less than what's shown on Amazon.com for that product ($5.26 on my page vs. $15.51).

Have any of the rest of you noticed this with your Amazon modules?

 (edited to add the following:)

I'm noticing some other pages besides mine are showing discrepencies too.  Not all that I've checked, but most are a little off.

I was thinking it showed the lowest price offered, but even that's not right. The Mayo Clinic one says "31 new from $7.50". None of the sellers have it for $5.26 today.

I had been assuming the modules were showing  List Price and Amazon Price, but if so, the Amazon Price is really outdated.    

I just checked several ads, and the prices are either the same or very similar to the Amazon.com showings. 

Most of my Amazon modules show a price less than what people can actually buy it for.  Most are off by a dollar or two, but some are off by a few dollars, and one, as mentioned above (Christene also included a link to it) is off by about $10.   My module says people can buy it for $5.26, but the Amazon price is  $15.51.   Even the used prices are higher than $5.26.

One of my Amazon modules (so far) lists a higher price, which is better than listing a lower price.

I worry that people who click to buy will be irritated that the price isn't correct, especially if they're expecting to pay $5 and they have to pay $15.   I wouldn't buy if I saw that.

As a test, I added a second module of the same product on my yoga for arthritis DVD page.  It shows a different "lowest price" than the first, original module.   So the module doesn't look like it automatically updates.  That's awkward.

What I'd like to show is "list price" and "amazon price", not lowest used price.   That would be more in line with what other sites show when they display Amazon ads.

We get our info directly from Amazon. If there are any price changes on Amazon.com, it may take a while to update in the module script. Maybe you're showing a cached version of your page, maybe you need to refresh your browser...in any case, there's nothing we can do about it.

I don't think this will have any negative effect on your sales potential. People understand that prices are subject to change, at any time.

Thanks, I won't worry too much about it.

But the same item for sale on one of my Squidoo pages shows correctly right now, while it doesn't on my Wizzley page.  I don't think it's a problem with the cache, since as I mentioned two modules of the same item on the same Wizzley page are showing different prices.  

We posted at the same time.  :)

The module should update everytime a new reader opens the page. So, if you hold the page in a browser tab, it will not update without a new page load.

Same time again...hehehe. Let me see if I can find Simon for an opinion on this.

chefkeem: 01. Aug 2011, 10:06

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Same time again...hehehe. Let me see if I can find Simon for an opinion on this.

We're just too speedy :-)

....It shows the same in both my Firefox and Chrome browers.  This is after closing browsers and re-opening.

Hey Karen,

unfortunately, our modules can't update the prices on every page impression. We could implement it technically, but on the one hand, Amazon would kick us in the a.. for it (we need to contact their servers for the information) and on the other hand, the page loading time would increase dramatically if we did so.

Right now, prices are updated every 10 days. I believe that's quite reasonable, since most of Amazon's products rarely change dramatically in price.

Cheers,

Simon

Aah...I didn't know that. I should have consulted Simon right away. Well, I'm glad it's cleared up.

Thanks for the explanation :-)

I do hope that when the site gets more popular you can update that frequence to once a day. 10 days can make quite a difference when it comes to seasonal sales like black friday. 

Yeah, you're all right: 10 days is too much. We'll be fixing that very soon, maybe tonight :) I guess 2 or 3 days should be fine? The longer the time interval, the faster pages are loading...

Is it possible to have it updated to "Amazon price" rather than "Best price"?   When I shop on Amazon.com I usually buy from Amazon, not "Best price" options because I can get free shipping.  I would guess many Amazon shoppers make decisions based on that as well.  

I would think that shoppers would want the best price available because that usually means a lower price doesn't it?

Even if the Amazon price was the one showing, once someone has clicked the link they are going to shop around and probably find the lowest price  (maybe or maybe not) but they don't always purchase the item they clicked on first, anyway. That is why we see sales from an article that have absolutely nothing to do with the topic we wrote about. It was the "click" that earned us the commission.

For me, the object is to entice someone to click on one of my links and then actually buy something once they did. Certainly it is nice when they purchase the one with the highest dollar amount but I'm thrilled with every sale.

bev-owens: 02. Aug 2011, 09:22

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I would think that shoppers would want the best price available because that usually means a lower price doesn't it?

Even if the Amazon price was the one showing, once someone has clicked the link they are going to shop around and probably find the lowest price  (maybe or maybe not) but they don't always purchase the item they clicked on first, anyway. That is why we see sales from an article that have absolutely nothing to do with the topic we wrote about. It was the "click" that earned us the commission.

For me, the object is to entice someone to click on one of my links and then actually buy something once they did. Certainly it is nice when they purchase the one with the highest dollar amount but I'm thrilled with every sale.

"Best price available" may still be more expensive overall if the buyer has to pay shipping, which usually s/he would have to for the companies that are offering that price.   Many items on Amazon can be shipped for free with orders $25 and over, or if you're an Amazon Prime member (which I am), but that's not usually the case with the "Best price available" option.

You're right in that it's a good way to get people in the door, even if they don't end up buying what they clicked on to get them to Amazon.     I may be making a mountain out of a mole hill :-)

I also think with Best Price, we simple get more leads :)

Okay, each product in Amazon modules is now updated every 2 days.