According to a report from ForeSEE Results, online retailers shouldn’t be getting too smug when it comes to grading themselves on their service to online shoppers. The ForeSEE Results report cites pricing as the leading thorn in the side of online shoppers. People are becoming very aware and very sensitive to dynamic pricing practices of some etailers. Not surprisingly they are not very thrilled about it.

Dynamic pricing is where online retailers monitor purchases and then adjust website pricing on the fly based on what they think they can wring out of shoppers. It seems a losing venture when you consider that most times consumers quickly realize they’ve been taken advantage of simply by doing a little comparison shopping.

The need for consistency

Credible retailers or brands better do not engage in these practices: the cross-channel consumer is everywhere, shares everything and controls the reputation of your brand. And one of the keywords in cross-channel marketing is consistency. In contact moments, user experience, brand interactions and, as it seems, pricing.

If you offer quality products at good, consistently competitive prices then you shouldn’t have to resort to such tactics as dynamic pricing. If you want to ensure that I (and many others) will never shop your online store again, be sure to raise prices on key items when you think you can get away with it.

The internet and all it’s community power gives brands the ability to build much stronger relationships with consumers so long as they never forget that there is a human being at that IP address shopping their site – a human being who doesn’t like being treated like a number any more than a brick & mortar shopper does. This could be a reason why some retailers resort to this kind of tactic, perhaps they forget there is a person there.

Optimizing cross-channel experiences instead of pricing

Fair pricing is fair pricing and there’s no wiggle room on this point. Consumers have an expectation that prices online will be less expensive because they often assume your overhead is lower. They also assume that shopping at your site will be less of a hassle and products will be easier to find.

The new cross-channel consumer shops on your site and at your store. It’s all seamless to them (or should be) and if you alienate them online you can be pretty sure they won’t be back into your store anytime soon.

The report makes it clear consumers want more from online retailers and they have every right to expect more. Smart businesses do their business consistently across all channels and respect their customers online, on the phone and in person, always.

If you are going to track anything regarding online customers, than use that data to provide them with relevant information and product on the channel they prefer when they want it. You shouldn’t be “optimizing” prices online, you should be optimizing the experience. And talking about pricing: use promotions and rebates more in relationship and community marketing than in agressive sales practices.