DISCUSSION

Walmart considers online price-match guarantee

November 6, 2014Written by Tom Ryan

Potentially joining Target and Best Buy, Walmart is testing the matching of online prices of competitors such as Amazon.

The test, reported first by The Wall Street Journal, is being conducted in five markets: Atlanta; Charlotte, NC; Dallas; Phoenix; and northwest Arkansas.

The giant discounter currently only matches the print and online versions of the weekly ads of top retailers in each store's area, although store managers have some leeway to match certain online retailers. The test is exploring the margin impact of a national rollout of online price matching.

At the time Best Buy and Target began matching prices of online competitors during the 2012 holiday season, articles arrived relating the challenges physical stores faced matching prices across the internet's dynamic pricing engine. Both shoppers and employees were also likely to be frustrated by policy exclusions, such as bundled or limited-supply offers. Third-party sellers on sites such as Amazon are excluded by Best Buy and Target.

The moves were designed to deal with showrooming, howerver one risk of online price-matching was making price-checking more pervasive.

Walmart's test comes as it pushes to reclaim its position as retail's low price leader. In June, it rolled out Savings Catcher, which asks customers to scan or enter a receipt number using an app. From there, Walmart matches local competitors' print ads on the same item and sends an eGift card for the difference.

Without the labor, rent, maintenance and other costs involved in running physical stores, e-commerce sites are believed to have an advantage in being able offer lower prices. But the Journal pointed to research from Wells Fargo and pricing firm 360pi that showed that Walmart's prices were even with Amazon.com's earlier this year and had dropped nearly 10 percent lower in August.

Discussion Thread0