When the same item suddenly has several prices

You search for a particular pair of headphones and see three different prices for what seems to be the same item in the results. That can quickly make the price in search results look unreliable, but there are usually several different reasons behind it, each of which is fairly logical on its own.

If you do not know the cause, you may take the lowest amount shown as the only real price and then be surprised when a higher amount appears after you click. Usually this is not down to a mistake, but to one of several quite different effects.

Different sellers for the same product

A product is often sold by more than one shop. Several retailers offer the same item, some new, some refurbished, with different stock levels and different margins. Each of these sellers appears in the search results with its own price, so you get several results for the same product whose amounts have nothing to do with an error, but simply reflect different sellers.

Variants with their own price in the overview

A hoodie in blue costs 24.99 euros, while the same hoodie in petrol blue costs 27.99 euros, because the second colour is in lower demand or produced in smaller quantities. The overview often shows only the lowest price of all the variants, usually with a word such as "from". If you click on the result and choose the more expensive colour, the price changes without anything about the item itself having changed.

Why a price shown may be out of date

Search engines often take prices from a retailer's data feed that is updated periodically, not in real time from the product page itself. If the retailer changes the price between two such updates, the search results show the old amount for a while, even though the new one is already on the product page. This works both ways: the price shown in search results can be either lower or higher than the one that actually applies right now.

Discounts that only show up at checkout

Another reason is discount codes that are not yet included in the price shown. Say a shop advertises a code outside the search results that takes ten percent off the petrol-blue hoodie from the previous example: 27.99 euros times 0.9 comes to 25.19 euros. The search results still show the full price of 27.99 euros, because a code you have to redeem is technically not part of the product data feed, but only takes effect when you pay.

Different prices depending on country or domain

Another reason for differing prices mainly stands out when you compare across borders. If you search for the same item once on one country's version of a site and once on another, for example a UK and an Irish version, or a US and a Canadian one, a different price may appear, because behind it there is a separate national shop with its own price list, its own sales tax or VAT, or its own delivery terms. A price you see on one country's domain does not have to be the same on another country's version of the same brand.

Especially when you look across borders, it is therefore worth an extra look at our shops to see which country a particular offer actually applies to before you rely on a price shown in search results.

Don't confuse unit price with total price

With groceries or toiletries, there is another source of seemingly contradictory prices: the unit price per kilo or litre shown alongside the actual selling price of the pack. Two search results can show the same selling price and still have different unit prices, because the pack sizes differ. The article on what an online shop has to show as the unit price helps you keep these two figures apart, and the piece on how pack sizes can disguise the unit price shows a related trap in exactly this kind of comparison.

An example of how two prices come about for the same item

Say you see a camera in search results for 349 euros at Retailer A at first. At Retailer B the same camera is listed for 359 euros, but with a visible note about free delivery, while Retailer A charges 6.95 euros for delivery. If you work out both offers in full, the camera costs 355.95 euros in total at A, and still 359 euros at B. In this case A really is cheaper, but only by 3.05 euros, a difference the plain tile overview without delivery details would not have shown. Knowing how to tell such an add-on apart from a genuine pricing error or bait offer also helps when one of the two figures looks way out of line.

Frequently asked questions

Why do search results show different prices for the same product?

Because the results are often from different sellers, different variants of the same item or data feeds that were updated at different times. The difference is usually not a mistake, but the result of several separate offers.

Why does the price in search results not match the price on the product page?

Because search engines take prices from a data feed that is updated periodically. Some time can pass between a price change in the shop and the next update of the feed.

Why isn't a discount code already reflected in search results?

Because a discount code is only redeemed when you pay and is not part of the product data sent to the search engine. The full price therefore stays visible in the overview until the code has actually been entered.

Is it worth deciding based only on the price shown in search results?

Not without a second look. Delivery costs, variants and how up to date the price shown is often change the actual final price enough that it is worth clicking through to the shop before you decide.

Why does the same brand show a different price on another country's domain?

Because there is often a separate national shop behind it, with its own price list, its own sales tax or VAT and its own delivery terms. A price on one country's site therefore does not have to match the price on another country's version of the same brand.