{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,6]],"date-time":"2026-04-06T22:55:29Z","timestamp":1775516129902,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":21,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,31]],"date-time":"2022-08-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1661904000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JTAER"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Online markets offer sellers access to buyers\u2019 information and, thus, the potential to alter prices and products accordingly. In light of this, we undertook an empirical analysis to test for individualization on Amazon.com. We collect data from individuals recruited to shop for household items. Our results indicate evidence of individualization of search results and net prices (via coupons). We found, contrary to what was expected, that demographic, geolocation, and account information play an insignificant role in individualization of search results. Thus, we conclude that individualization is based on more dynamic information, e.g., online browsing behavior. This highlights the fact that sellers\u2019 need for (and use of) buyer information goes beyond the simple information accessible from the buyers\u2019 accounts to a more rigorous monitoring of buyers\u2019 online behavior.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jtaer17030061","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,1]],"date-time":"2022-09-01T01:50:51Z","timestamp":1661997051000},"page":"1204-1218","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Do Online Firms Individualize Search Results? An Empirical Analysis of Individualization on Amazon"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Rasha","family":"Ahmed","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Economics Department, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 06106, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7918-4791","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sahar","family":"Al Seesi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Computer Science Department, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, CT 06515, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0059-0277","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gerardo","family":"Ruiz S\u00e1nchez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Economics Department, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 06106, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Young, J. (2021). US Ecommerce Grows 14.2% in 2021, Digital Commerce 360."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Valentino-De Vries, J., Singer-Vine, J., and Soltani, A. (2012). Websites vary prices, deals based on users\u2019 Information. Wall Str. J., Available online: https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/SB10001424127887323777204578189391813881534."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Venture Beat (2022, July 30). Staples, Home Depot, and Other Online Stores Change Prices Based on Your Location. Available online: https:\/\/venturebeat.com\/."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"347","DOI":"10.1007\/s10603-017-9354-z","article-title":"Online price discrimination and EU data privacy law","volume":"40","author":"Poort","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Consum. Policy"},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"BBC News (2022, March 29). Travel Site Orbitz Offers Mac Users More Costly Hotels. 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Rev."},{"key":"ref_9","first-page":"1","article-title":"The limits of online price discrimination in Europe","volume":"21","author":"Sears","year":"2019","journal-title":"Columbia Sci. Technol. Law Rev."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1572","DOI":"10.1080\/13642987.2020.1743976","article-title":"Strengthening legal protection against discrimination by algorithms and artificial intelligence","volume":"24","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int. J. Hum. Rights"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kliman-Silver, C., Hannak, A., Lazer, D., Wilson, C., and Mislove, A. (2022, January 25\u201327). Location, location, location: The impact of geolocation on web search personalization. Proceedings of the 2015 Internet Measurement Conference, Nice, France.","DOI":"10.1145\/2815675.2815714"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"683","DOI":"10.1093\/yel\/yex015","article-title":"Big data and personalized price discrimination in EU competition law","volume":"36","author":"Townley","year":"2017","journal-title":"Yearb. Eur. Law"},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"Hindermann, C.M. (2018). Price Discrimination in Online Retail, ZBW-Leibniz Information Centre for Economics."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mikians, J., Gyarmati, L., Erramilli, V., and Laoutaris, N. (2012, January 29\u201330). Detecting price and search discrimination on the internet. Proceedings of the 11th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics Networks (HotNets-XI), Redmond, WA, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/2390231.2390245"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mikians, J., Gyarmati, L., Erramilli, V., and Laoutaris, N. (2013, January 9\u201312). Crowd-assisted Search for Price Discrimination in E-Commerce: First Results. Proceedings of the Ninth ACM Conference on Emerging Networking Experiments and Technologies, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/2535372.2535415"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hannak, A., Soeller, G., Lazer, D., Mislove, A., and Wilson, C. (2014, January 5\u20137). Measuring price discrimination and steering on e-commerce websites. Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Internet Measurement Conference (IMC\u201914), Vancouver, BC, Canada.","DOI":"10.1145\/2663716.2663744"},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"Badmaeva, T.V., and H\u00fcllmann, J.A. (2019, January 24\u201327). Investigating personalized price discrimination of textile-, electronics-and general stores in German online retail. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference in Wirtschaftsinformatik, Siegen, Germany."},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Vissers, T., Nikiforakis, N., Bielova, N., and Joosen, W. (2014, January 18). Crying wolf? On the price discrimination of online airline tickets. Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on Hot Topics in Privacy Enhancing Technologies (HotPETs 2014), Amsterdam, The Netherlands."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2282","DOI":"10.3390\/jtaer16060126","article-title":"Price discrimination in the online airline market: An empirical study","volume":"16","author":"Azzolina","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer."},{"key":"ref_20","unstructured":"Bomey, N. (2021, April 08). Panic Buying? Not Anymore. Suddenly There\u2019s a Surplus of Hand Sanitizer. Available online: https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/money\/2021\/04\/08\/hand-sanitizer-deals-donations-surplus-panic-buying-pandemic\/7120815002\/."},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"Loren, B. (2018). Amazon\u2019s search engine ranking algorithm: What marketers need to know. Search Engine J., Available online: https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/amazon-search-engine-ranking-algorithm-explained\/265173\/."}],"container-title":["Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/0718-1876\/17\/3\/61\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T00:20:47Z","timestamp":1760142047000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/0718-1876\/17\/3\/61"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,31]]},"references-count":21,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,9]]}},"alternative-id":["jtaer17030061"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/jtaer17030061","relation":{},"ISSN":["0718-1876"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0718-1876","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,31]]}}}