As Amazon has led the online retail revolution, the manner in which companies price their goods has been permanently changed.

A new study from Harvard Business School assesses the impact of these changes on consumers as well as on the Federal Reserve, which watches prices closely when making monetary-policy decisions.

Over time, it has become a widely accepted fact that Amazon has pushed retail prices lower.

The company's offerings are so diverse that it can afford to sell many products at razor-thin margins and make up for it in other, less competitive areas.

In the process, Amazon forces other retailers to lower their prices, putting pressure on their bottom line. In many cases it has forced these competitors to permanently alter their pricing strategies.

But it doesn't end there. A new study from Harvard Business School argues that the so-called Amazon effect has increased both the frequency and magnitude of retail price fluctuations.

The paper, written by an associate professor named Alberto Cavallo and presented at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's annual symposium, looks at how these two measures have changed over the past decade.

Cavallo finds that the Amazon effect has streamlined retail pricing and forced companies to be more adaptable to conditions. As a byproduct, he says, pricing has become more uniform across locations.

So what does this mean for the consumer? It means buckle up, because price changes are coming faster than ever.

That's because they are more exposed to geopolitical forces like higher tariffs, changing oil prices, and rapidly fluctuating foreign-exchange rates. And that exposure stems from the sensitivity and uniformity outlined above, Cavallo argues.

Given what is going on with President Donald Trump's numerous trade disputes, these risks are more pronounced than usual — meaning shoppers could be whipsawed by changing prices. And as long as the potential for trade retaliation remains high, there's a risk those prices will be too high for comfort.

Elsewhere in his paper, Cavallo breaks down how the Amazon effect is affecting the Federal Reserve. After all, consumer price inflation is arguably the most important piece of the central bank's monetary policy — and the rate at which it's planning to hike interest rates.

Cavallo is quick to acknowledge the degree to which increased pricing efficiency has kept inflation low. Because ultimately, the efficacy of rate hikes is somewhat undermined by companies that are able to nimbly adjust prices on the fly.

In the end, it appears that the Amazon effect has complicated matters for the Fed. And for shoppers, conditions could also get tougher if external forces push prices higher.

It's worth noting that while this phenomenon is commonly known as the Amazon effect — which is what Cavallo calls it in his paper — it refers more broadly to the rise of online retail. After all, to suggest that Amazon is solely responsible for this change undersells the influence of other successful companies.

Cavallo sums it all up nicely in his study:

"Retail prices are becoming less 'insulated' from these common nationwide shocks," he said. "Fuel prices, exchange-rate fluctuations, or any other force affecting costs that may enter the pricing algorithms used by these firms are more likely to have a faster and larger impact on retail prices that in the past."