Do I correctly understand advertised prices and % discounts?

[EricC]

I'd like to express my view on the way sales are advertised. I'm commenting on the current sale of TDOT, but I think this is relevant for all recent sales.

 

It seems to me that the savings should be advertised as the difference between the regular price ($699) and the discounted price ($549). In this case this sale offers a savings of $150 or 21.46% off the regular price of $699.

By advertising the savings in relation to an irrelevant price ($975*), we're likely to think we are saving more than we are. If I had bought this at regular price ($699) and my friend bought it during this sale, he would not have saved $426 (43.69% of $975) compared to me.  Rather, he'd have saved $150 (21.46% of $699). The percentages really confuse me since they are what I look at first.

 

I've learned that I must do my own math, since I don't consider this method of advertising to present reliable and relevant information.

 

The attached screenshot was taken from this page on 10 Jan 2017: https://www.accordancebible.com/store/details/?pid=TDOT

 

(*To the best of my knowledge this is an irrelevant price. I guess it might reflect the cost of the paper edition or something like a "list price", but I don't think it's a price that is normally charged for TDOT in Accordance, and this price doesn't have a "name". We don't know if it's a "list" price, a "paper book" price or what it is. If my terminology is inaccurate ("irrelevant"), please don't be offended. I was just seeking a way to express this using terms as neutral as possible.

 

[Andrew G]

+1

 

i was meaning to post the same thing, so thanks for bringing this up.

 

usually the blog post will indicate the savings off of the regular price, which is good. however, if you go to the product page it shows the discount off the list price, which makes it seem like its a bigger discount than it is. so one has to find the blog post to figure out the real savings, which is a bit of a hassle. it would be good to always show the percentage/amount saved off the regular price and never the list price.

 

this link bases it off the regular price

https://www.accordancebible.com/Old-Testament-Studies

 

while this link bases it off the list price

https://www.accordancebible.com/store/sale

Edited January 10, 2017 by gugu009

[mortenjensen]

+ 1 

This seems to stem from a confusion of the print price with the regular Accordance-price. Perhaps it would be best to spell out both prices and savings. Otherwise I would also prefer that only the regular Accordance price is used as reference, since this is to what we as customers would make a comparison (most likely).

Morten

[Helen Brown]

This is a longstanding issue stemming from the fact that until recently only the list price and current sale price were stored in the database. A "regular" price was just an indefinite length sale.

 

It will take some programming on the website to make this change, but please note that in the Newsletter we always quote the regular price (if different from the list) so that you can see how much you are really saving.

[jeremyduncan]

Amazon just paid a $1.1M settlement for doing exactly this in Canada. Although, for some reason, I doubt the Canadian government is going to go after Accordance