Name Your Price Goes Online

What would it cost to get a better price for both customers and merchants? Name your price

The haggling I’ve done in my life was all in a sprawling night market in a suburb of Taipei called Shilin. There, when the lao ban, or proprietor, tells you that the knock-off Oakley sunglasses cost $20, the key is to scrunch up your face, wave your palms and start to turn away from the stall. Then comes the appeal: “Wait, wait,” he calls. And you halt on the threshold.

Vancouver-area e-merchant Lavish & Lime has just brought this concept to the Internet. It claims to be the first electronic retailer in Canada to offer what it calls “name your price” pricing. It works like this: At the Lavish website, where you’ll find eco-friendly tchotchkes such as necklaces and shower caps, when you click on an item of interest, you’ll see the full retail price. Don’t like that number much? Click on another tab to offer a lower price (up to 50 per cent off full price) and the time (up to three months) you’re willing to wait for it.

The technology, says founder Colin Campbell, “gives the customer the opportunity for a favourable price, without all the awkwardness of haggling.” More importantly for him, the draw of a lower price turns a no-sale into a potential sale. And the juice you can squeeze out of all those increased “maybes,” according to Price Whispers, the Toronto company behind the technology, is an across-the-board profit increase of six to 12 per cent.

As the Canadian pioneer of the Price Whispers service, Campbell is worried about bumps in the implementation but excited at the fresh prospect of being able to retain his top-level customers (who pay full price) and appeal to price-sensitive customers (who’ll buy only at a discount). And if the privacy of haggling from behind a computer terminal has advantages for shy customers, it also benefits the vendor. No one but him and the customer sees the final price: there are no raised voices, no pained expressions and no need for bright placards in the window screaming “60% OFF SALE.” It’s as though you’re not in a marketplace at all.