How does Amazon calculate deals?

[PaulJunior]

Hi,

I was wondering if there is any specific pattern or algorithm that Amazon uses to bring the prices down on some movies. I've noticed that some fresh movies like District 9 are just $18, while other are around $27. Why is that, and is there a way to estimate when a certain movie gets a better deal?

Thanks,

[DetroitSportsFan]

I believe the studios determine the lower prices by giving Amazon better wholesale deals, which Amazon then passes on to us, the customer.

[skatalite]

I thought it was some algorithm that calculates a product's popularity and how much money they can make off it. For instance, they can make more selling some titles for $18 a piece (more people buy a title at that price) than they can selling a title at $29 (less people would buy a title at that price).

[BluBonnet]

If they did have some sort of algorithm or something like that, it'd probably be considered proprietary information and be kept closely under lock and key.

[jknuss01]

[GamerPS3-X360]

Originally Posted by jknuss01

+1...It just depends on what deal they get from studios/distributors, then they just set a price and most of the time it is pretty good for the customers...There is also a lot of other variables that determine prices...

[jw]

product cost+markup= retail cost
Thats the business model for any business.

However I do notice if a product goes stale they will discount it to move it.

Only Amazon knows this answer, we can only speculate