DEFINITION of 'Geographical Pricing'
Adjusting an item's sale price based on the buyer's location. Sometimes the difference in sale price is based on the cost to ship the item to that location or what the people there are willing to pay. Geographical pricing might result in a California-grown avocado costing less in San Francisco than in Omaha, for example. Companies will try to gain maximum revenue in the markets in which it operates, and geographical pricing enables such practices.
BREAKING DOWN 'Geographical Pricing'
A type of geographical pricing called "zone pricing" is common in the gasoline industry. This practice entails oil companies charging gas station owners different prices for the same gasoline depending on where their stations are located. The wholesale price, and thus the retail price, is based on factors such as competition from other gas stations in the area, the amount of traffic the gas station receives and average household incomes in the area - not on the cost of delivering gas to the area.