Be careful how you promote your online product, because one computer manufacturer is paying the price for what the Australian Federal Court said this week was a deceptive practice.
According to a government declaration, Dell misled online shoppers by implying adding a monitor to their purchase would get them a discount on the display. Problem is, actually, some customers ended up paying more for that monitor than if they'd have bought it by itself.
Quoting ArtsTechnica:
The website would display the add-on price alongside a higher price that had a strikethrough line, suggesting that the monitor was typically sold at the price with the line going through it but that customers would get a discount if they added it to their cart at purchase.
However, the strikethrough prices weren't actually representative of what Dell was charging for the monitors for most of the time before the purported discount…
The Australian Federal Court also found that Dell's Australian website used deceptive language, like “Includes x% off,” “Total Savings” plus a dollar amount, “Discounted Price” and a dollar amount.
The Australian Court ordered Dell's regional division to refund to affected customers and hire an independent compliance consultant.
For its part, Dell acknowledged the mistake.
Again, ArtsTechnica reporter Scharon Harding:
It's no secret that online marketplaces with third-party sellers use dodgy practices. For example, I've seen various vendors on Amazon claim that a years-old price is the typical price of a product.
The sure-fire way to ensure you're getting a good price is to compare rival products. Just because a Dell monitor, for example, is technically discounted from its recent MSRP, it doesn't mean it's the best value among monitors with similar specs.
☑️ Marketers: Check, Then Check Again
For marketers, this is a cautionary tale to not only inspect what you've put into your commerce listings, but also to double-check the commerce platform's own adjustments. In this new world of AI automatically changing things on the fly, with the promise of adapting offers to each individual buyer, that AI bot might just adapt your brand into a fine.
Image: Canva
