Report: Amazon has best price 80% of the time

Ottawa, Canada – Amazon.com has the best price on products in its assortment about 80% of the time. However, the new “Amazon Holiday Pricing Insights” analysis from pricing technology provider 360pi shows that Amazon does have weak spots, and that retailers can compete with the online giant, especially if they can beat Amazon on other non-price purchase factors.



For example, once Home Depot decided to be price competitive on Oct. 26, they were instantly and dynamically able to beat Amazon prices on power drills. Meanwhile, tablets and televisions are the categories where a majority of retailers are either price competitive or closer to the mark than other categories, such as printers and video games, which show the least amount of price competitiveness.



Top retailers such as Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Sears and Costco are less than 5% more, or better priced, than Amazon in televisions, for example. During the Oct. 16 – Nov. 14 period, Amazon had the lowest-priced tablets 68% of the time, which means retailers are currently beating Amazon with lower tablet prices 32% of the time.



“Given that our holiday reports are based on products drawn from Amazon’s own assortment, you would expect them to be price competitive,” said Alexander Rink, CEO, 360pi. “What is interesting is that when you factor in different retail competitive strategies like carrying a different assortment, leveraging private label, delivering targeted customer promotions, and creating unique customer experiences in addition to price leadership, it certainly appears that retailers are learning how to compete with Amazon.”