Online retailers often send discount offers to shoppers who abandon their carts without completing a purchase. Customers who buy immediately reveal a willingness to pay the posted price, while those who abandon their carts may need a discount to complete the sale. A recent Fortune article describes how retailers use these offers to recover lost sales. If buyers behave passively, the strategy makes sense. The retailer charges full price to customers with high willingness to pay and offers discounts to those who appear more price-sensitive.
But what happens when buyers figure out the strategy? A 2026 Omnisend survey found that as many as 60% of American respondents sometimes abandon shopping carts expecting a discount or reminder email. What began as price discrimination becomes bargaining: customers strategically withhold their purchases to induce a better offer. Even customers willing to pay full price now have an incentive to pretend otherwise. The retailer's attempt to identify low-willingness-to-pay customers can backfire by teaching high-willingness-to-pay customers how to get lower prices. Strategic behavior by buyers could blunt the price premiums sellers expect from personalized pricing.
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