Saving: Different people see different prices shopping online

These days it's hard to beat the convenience of online shopping. But now a newly released study by Northeastern University claims that some of the most popular e-commerce websites don't always offer the same products and prices to everyone.

Depending on how you're shopping online, researchers say you could be spending even more and not even know it!

Jessica Plautz, travel editor at Mashable, says, "Different companies are deciding based on what computer you're using, what device you're using, they really want to learn what your preferences are and as they learn from you, and as they learn from your purchase history, they can try to show you those specifically."

The researchers call it price steering - when two shoppers searching the same website receive different product results.

Most of us are only going to look at that first page of results.

Plautz explains, "Exactly. So with price steering, what a website would do is put the more expensive products at the top because they know that most users are not going to go all the way down to see if there are cheaper prices."

And that's not all. The study also found that two shoppers can be offered different prices for the same product on the same website.

The study's authors call that price discrimination, though they point out that, in general, this is not illegal.

Plautz says, "They saw price discrimination when people were logged into websites versus when they were not."

When asked if it's better to be logged in or to be completely anonymous, Plautz said it depends on the site.

So how do you make sure you're getting the best deal? Well, that depends. Experts say to do your research before you buy.

Always shop on both a computer and a mobile device; try your search logged in to an account versus as a guest; use different browsers; clear your cookies; and if all else fails, ask a friend to check for you on his or her computer.