Economic power of e-retailers via price discrimination in e-commerce

The issue of the online power of producers has been widely discussed. The Internet can make the distribution of products or services more effective for ‘the most trusted’ producers and contribute to the increase of their market power. In the context of e-commerce this may result in the employment of the strategies of price discrimination by online companies. However online opportunities for charging different prices may be distorted in the case of individuals’ awakening. Therefore buyers’ attitudes are a prevailing factor in the examination of e-commerce. It is noticeable that investigation of the economic power of online retailers via the employment of the strategies of price discrimination versus consumer power to withstand unequal price targeting is lacking. Thus this study is a topical issue analyzing whether or not the consumer power in the Web opposed to the economic power of e-retailers is weak. This research directly covering the issues of online ‘media power’ should be useful to professionals in Communications fields. Moreover this research makes some relevant contributions to the understanding of media economics and B2C online market.