Walmart learns price match lesson

Never underestimate the creativity of unscrupulous customers is the key takeaway for all retailers following Walmart’s effort to implement a liberal price match policy this week.



After Walmart said it would match online competitors’ promotional prices this week some enterprising customers got to work figuring out how to game the system. By creating fake Amazon ads some customers were able to purchase $400 PlayStation 4 gaming systems for as little as $90. The ruse might have been perpetuated longer except the scammers couldn’t resist the urge to tout their accomplishments on social media.



As a result, Walmart amended the policy in an effort to eliminate loopholes and excludes ads from third party sellers on marketplaces. That was the weak link in the Walmart policy. It is easy for an individual to set up a third party seller account, offer a product on the Amazon marketplace and create a bogus ad to take to Walmart.



Walmart also restricted the list of online retailers to include Academy.com, Amazon.com, Autozone.com, Babiesrus.com, Basspro.com, Bedbathandbeyond.com, Bestbuy.com, Cabelas.com, Dickssportinggoods.com, Dollargeneral.com, Familydollar.com, Homedepot.com, Jcpenny.com, Kmart.com, Kohls.com, Lowes.com, Michaels.com, Newegg.com, Officedepot.com, Oreillyauto.com, Pepboys.com, Petco.com, Petsmart.com, Sears.com, SportsAuthority.com, Staples.com, Target.com, Tigerdirect.com, Toysrus.com, Walgreens.com and its own Web site Walmart.com