Report: Toys ‘R’ Us prices 37% higher than Amazon

Ottawa, Ontario – Toys ‘R’ Us, which carries about 425 of the same video games as Amazon.com, is on average 37% higher priced than Amazon as of Nov 21. The latest Amazon Holiday Pricing Insights report from pricing solutions provider 360pi also found that the toy retailer has been keeping prices high during the last month and even increasing them during the week of Nov. 21, which may point to a deep discount strategy the week of Nov. 28.



Some other findings include:

• Amazon is still more competitive on its own assortment in the nine selected categories, including cameras, video games and power drills, only around 80% of the time, which means that other retailers are steadily more competitive around 20% of the time.

• Sears is showing dramatic pricing shifts across all nine categories, which may point to the retailer's attempts at improving competitive position by trial and error. During week of Nov. 21, they improved overall price competitiveness by 10.1% in the selected categories, then dropped in price competitiveness by 4% on Thursday, Nov. 21. Other retailers have shown a much more stable pricing line heading into next week.

• 360pi data showed that Walmart dramatically dipped prices on coffeemakers on Nov. 6, which was evidence of the retailer's pricing glitch that made prices on products across categories unbelievably low due to error.

• There is a good deal of price volatility in digital cameras across retailers. For example, Amazon & Newegg change pricing on 20% of their digital camera assortment every five days, and on 50% of assortment every two weeks. Also, Amazon, Newegg, Overstock, Best Buy and B&H change prices on 40% or more of their digital camera assortment every two weeks.