• Internet Retailer reports that a survey of prices on both Amazon and Walmart's web site shows that Amazon is "lower on the most popular products" but Walmart is "beating Amazon on price in its core product categories."
An excerpt from the story:
"Amazon’s prices were 4% lower on average on the most popular products, and it was particularly aggressive in certain categories, including home audio, video games, phones and electronics. Amazon had a strong 3.5% edge in electronics in Boomerang’s newly released Price Perception Index, which compares product prices but gives extra weight to popular products that will particularly affect how consumers view a retailer’s prices.
"Walmart.com undercut Amazon in such categories as automotive, pet, beauty, household essentials and home products. For example, Walmart.com’s Price Perception Index was 3.3% lower than Amazon’s on automotive products and 1.9% lower on home goods."
The story says that "Boomerang’s study also gave an example of how Amazon tests and optimizes its own prices. In the six months leading to last year’s Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), Amazon frequently changed the price of a 32-inch Samsung LED TV, seeking to determine the best price for the holiday season, Boomerang says. However, on related products, such as HDMI cables needed to connect TV sets to set-top boxes, Amazon kept the price steady before the holiday season, then raised the price in November, taking advantage of the opportunity to raise profit margins on a product a consumer is likely to buy when he buys a new TV."
An excerpt from the story:
"Amazon’s prices were 4% lower on average on the most popular products, and it was particularly aggressive in certain categories, including home audio, video games, phones and electronics. Amazon had a strong 3.5% edge in electronics in Boomerang’s newly released Price Perception Index, which compares product prices but gives extra weight to popular products that will particularly affect how consumers view a retailer’s prices.
"Walmart.com undercut Amazon in such categories as automotive, pet, beauty, household essentials and home products. For example, Walmart.com’s Price Perception Index was 3.3% lower than Amazon’s on automotive products and 1.9% lower on home goods."
The story says that "Boomerang’s study also gave an example of how Amazon tests and optimizes its own prices. In the six months leading to last year’s Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), Amazon frequently changed the price of a 32-inch Samsung LED TV, seeking to determine the best price for the holiday season, Boomerang says. However, on related products, such as HDMI cables needed to connect TV sets to set-top boxes, Amazon kept the price steady before the holiday season, then raised the price in November, taking advantage of the opportunity to raise profit margins on a product a consumer is likely to buy when he buys a new TV."
- KC's View:
