Dynamic pricing algorithms can be programmed to maintain or maximize profit margins based on shoppers' willingness to spend.

Price discrimination is a business practice in which different customers are charged different prices for the same product or service. It's one way for a business to boost profits and take advantage of its market position. There are three levels of price discrimination, differentiated by the consumers targeted and the reasons for discrimination.

The psychology of coupon users can feel counterintuitive: Research suggests regular coupon users actually prioritize coupon availability over actual price comparisons.

Technological innovation can drive down costs and prices for businesses, which can increase real wages for employees. As a result, people have more money to spend and demand increases.

AI innovation will likely decrease costs for companies and lead to a large increase in supply. That dramatic increase could conceivably bring prices down but keep supply high. However, AI's real impact will likely be complicated by its impact on human labor and the cost of new technology.

Economists have noticed some restaurant goers prefer a flat pricing model despite it usually being more expensive than per-dish costs. The strategy behind endless servings includes concepts such as economy of scale, cross-subsidization, diminishing returns (of enjoyment of excess food), and more.

That psychological aspect is referred to as "the deflationary spiral." When prices start decreasing, people tend to hold on to their money to pay the lowest prices. But as prices start stabilizing, people resist increasing prices.

American Express cardholders tend to spend more money per transaction than other credit card users, which makes the interchange fees merchants have to pay to accept American Express cards worth it while incentivizing other companies to pay the interchange fee as well.

Because economies are complex systems, a wide variety of issues influence this balance—including some things generally considered to be positive, like rising wages.

Recent reports suggest that dollar stores regularly practice 'shrinkflation,' the practice of making products smaller while keeping the price the same or even raising it.

When regulators and economists evaluate whether a company constitutes an illegal monopoly, they often consider its overall market share or its relatively high price markups. This piece argues that the Olley-Pakes decomposition is a better measure, identifying whether customers within a market are switching to more productive companies.

From making someone feel as though a resource is scarce (“only one item left in stock!”) to invoking a sense of authority (“top dentists recommend this toothpaste”), marketers use a variety of psychological tactics to elicit a desired response from their target audience.

Online shoppers shelled out some $11.3M per minute between 10 am and 2 pm on Black Friday 2024, according to Adobe Analytics data. The $10.8B online shoppers spent on Black Friday 2024 was more than double the amount they spent online in 2017.

Experts suggest avoiding asking AI for investment advice, but say it's useful for basic budgeting help. Read this article to learn more.

Historically, you don't want people to know you have a knock-off luxury item. But today's younger generations are embracing the "dupe" economy, an open celebration of luxury knock-off items where consumers are proud to pay less for something roughly equivalent to premium brand offerings.

When a merchant partners with a buy now, pay later app, consumers are more likely to spend more money with that merchant—meaning that the merchant is willing to pay a small fee in exchange for the ability for customers to pay with buy now, pay later.

In recent years, companies such as Square and Toast have created touch screen technologies prompting customers at coffee shops and casual restaurants to tip upwards of 25%. Despite the interesting psychological conundrum this presents to consumers, one tech columnist argues that shoppers don't need to succumb to the pressure.

Capital One estimates that 169.2 million Americans redeemed digital coupons in 2025. The bank compiled many different coupon statistics on how both shoppers and businesses used coupons last year, most of which reveal the increasing dominance of digital coupons over physical ones.

Dollar store retailers experienced significant fiscal gains during the 2010s, which were then accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. But in recent years, dollar stores have been closing in large numbers and suffering financial hardship. Experts point to Walmart's strategy of decreasing prices to cater to inflation-fatigued customers, and point out that when Walmart does well financially, dollar stores typically suffer.

Card-shuffling mathematics has been applied to solving problems in biology to estimate the evolutionary distance between organisms and in computer science to determine the optimal distribution of files and folders in databases.

This is partly because a recent spike in inflation raised prices permanently, so even though the pace of price growth has slowed, prices have still gone up for good.

Advent calendars have shifted into a high-margin branding vehicle, with retailers prioritizing elaborate design and reusable packaging. This episode questions whether premium calendars—despite their rising prices, environmental concerns, and flashy marketing—actually deliver products worth the cost.

In order to keep prices cheap, dollar stores source this merchandise from a variety of places, including liquidation sales (an event that happens when retailers need to sell off inventory quickly), directly from distributors, foreign markets, and more.

Some apps, like EarnIn, allow users to get money from their paycheck in advance. These apps access users' banking information, allowing the company to immediately take back any borrowed money and track users' financial situations to evaluate their risk. Unlike traditional payday lenders, these apps often waive the right to sue users who don't pay back the initial principal and don't charge interest, but rather ask users for a tip.

They also profit from interchange fees, the fee the retailer has to pay the credit card network in order to facilitate a transaction. The fee is typically between 1% and 3% of the transaction amount.

Despite these merchants paying roughly 2% to 8% of each sale's cost (more than they pay for most credit card processing fees), they're signing on, in part, because BNPL can help them improve their conversion rates at checkout.

Research on pay transparency's impacts has been limited given the short amount of time since American states began passing pay transparency legislation. However, this early study from researchers out of Brown and Harvard found that increasing pay transparency could have the potential to decrease worker bargaining power, resulting in lower average wages for employees. Read the research here.

While these apps are designed to help people create romantic relationships, dating apps lose money when people find a monogamous relationship and stop using the app as a result. Some call it the dating app paradox.

Is it possible to out-eat the price you pay for a buffet? How do these places make money? We looked at the dollars and cents behind the meat and potatoes.

Algorithms are instructions for accomplishing a goal and typically take the form of a step-by-step procedure. Given the conditions, these procedures can take various paths, increasing an algorithm's complexity. While traditional computer algorithms are programmed to account for all possible scenarios within a given process, machine learning systems build their own rules from data-driven patterns.

It employs machine learning to prioritize posts and ads based on user interactions, content type, and post timeliness, creating a personalized, engaging experience for each user.

In the past few decades, dual-class stock structures have become an increasingly popular way for companies to raise capital in public markets without allocating traditional shareholder voting rights. Meta, Estée Lauder, and The New York Times are companies that are famously dual-class.

That’s compared to 28% for physical coupons, representing the year the balance of power shifted in digital’s favor. The COVID-19 pandemic era’s lockdowns increased online shopping, which accelerated digital coupon adoption.