إنستاكارت تنهي استراتيجية التسعير المثيرة للجدل

Instacart said on Monday that it’s discontinuing a recently exposed program that offered some customers different prices for the same items.

Why it matters: The controversial program called attention to the concept of dynamic pricing, in which businesses set variable price points for goods and services based on different factors.

• “But here’s one fact we want to be clear about: Our customers have high expectations for Instacart. And for some, we fell short of those expectations,” the company said in a blog post.

Zoom in: Instacart acknowledged that it ran “tests” with “a small number of retail partners that resulted in different prices for the same item at the same store,” saying it “missed the mark for some customers.”

• “At a time when families are working exceptionally hard to stretch every grocery dollar, those tests raised concerns, leaving some people questioning the prices they see on Instacart,” the company said. “That’s not OK —especially for a company built on trust, transparency and affordability.”
• Different customers will now see the same prices at the same time for the same items, with retailers continuing to set their own prices.

Context: Controversy over the initiative erupted after the publication of a report by Groundwork Collaborative, Consumer Reports and More Perfect Union involving 437 shoppers in four cities.