When it comes to pricing, Amazon is still king. The e-Commerce giant maintained its price leadership position on the broadest selection of popular items, averaging prices that were 13.4% lower than retailers carrying the same items in Q2 2018, according to a study from Profitero.
Walmart had the most competitive prices compared to Amazon’s, averaging only 2.3% higher overall. The price gap between the two retail giants is closing: Walmart prices averaged 3% higher than Amazon in Q3 2017. Jet.com had prices 4.2% higher than Amazon, while Target averaged 11.8% higher. Additionally, Jet.com has decreased grocery prices 5% since February 2018; now those prices are only 0.6% higher than Amazon’s.
Amazon continues to dominate specialty retailers from a pricing standpoint. On average, Amazon is:
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- 13.3% cheaper on appliances and 15.2% cheaper on electronics versus Best Buy;
- 18.4% cheaper on sporting goods versus Dick’s Sporting Goods;
- 24.9% cheaper on furniture and 39.1% cheaper on home storage compared to Wayfair; and
- 52.0% cheaper on household supplies compared to Staples.
Amazon also had a big lead on Toys ‘R’ Us in the toy vertical prior to its bankruptcy, being 36.4% cheaper on 46 products.
Walmart comes closest to matching Amazon’s prices in the home furniture and baby categories, pricing these products 0.7% and 0.3% cheaper, respectively.
Among the rare instances when Amazon was not offering the lowest prices in the market, Chewy.com was 2.3% cheaper in pet supplies and Jet.com had lower prices than Amazon in beauty (0.4%) and in music and CDs (2.6%).
For this study, Profitero analyzed daily prices collected from April 1 to June 30, 2018 across 16 leading online retailers. Categories analyzed included appliances, baby, beauty, electronics, grocery, home furniture, household supplies, music and CDs, office supplies, pet supplies, sports and outdoors, tool and home improvement, toys and games and video games. The study only compares prices that are collected on the same day, with both retailers in-stock on the items.
