Amazon is quietly eliminating list prices

San Francisco

IN A major shift for online commerce, Amazon is quietly changing how it entices people to buy.

The retailer built a reputation and hit US$100 billion in annual revenue by offering deals. The first thing a potential customer saw was a bargain: how much an item was reduced from its list price.

Now, in many cases, Amazon has dropped any mention of a list price. There is just one price. Take it or leave it.

The new approach comes as discounts both online and offline have become the subject of dozens of consumer lawsuits for being much less than they seem. It is also occurring while Amazon is in the middle of an ambitious multi-year shift from a store selling one product at a time to a full-fledged ecosystem. Amazon wants to be so deeply embedded in a …