Shrinking Informational Asymmetry Will Erode Nearly Everyone's Pricing Power

Given the option, all of us would prefer to walk into a negotiation knowing more than the other side, but some industries have been built on an informational advantage that’s difficult to maintain in the digital age. Travel agencies have been essentially wiped out by the change, and mid-market retailers don’t have anywhere near the pricing power they once did. But shrinking information asymmetry hasn’t finished and Goldman Sachs analyst Hugo Scott-Gall argues that it’s important for businesses and investors to gauge how much time they have to adjust.

“On one end, air travel is an example of a mostly commoditized product where aggregator websites have made it harder for similar carriers to maintain a pricing premium. On the opposite...