In Price Fight Between Walmart and Amazon, Bentonville Wins

Arthur Zaczkiewicz

Updated Fri, February 2, 2018 at 5:30 AM UTC

Researchers at financial services and student refinancing firm LendEDU conducted an online price analysis of 50 “commonly bought” products — excluding apparel — sold at walmart.com and the same products at Amazon.com — and the mass merchant retailer beat out the online giant.

The categories included home goods, kitchen and appliances, technology and entertainment, food and beverage and “miscellaneous.”

Authors of the research report said “Amazon was 10.4 percent more expensive to shop at for the products listed” and that the only category where Amazon was cheaper “was for food and beverage products, in which it was cheaper by 20.58 percent.”

LendEDU said the highest price disparity that favored Walmart “was with home goods that, on average, were 33.6 percent cheaper than Amazon.” And the most narrow price difference “was with technology and entertainment products, with Amazon pegged as 4.29 percent more expensive.”

The researchers focused on products that consumers tend to purchase frequently. “Perhaps it may be the nature of these products and their widespread availability at brick-and-mortar stores that Walmart has them available for far less than Amazon,” the researchers said. In the home goods category, a subcategory of more replenishable products such as “hand soap, toothpaste, paper plates and red Solo cups” had the highest “price dispersion at 131.96 percent,” LendEDU said adding that for consumer looking to save money, Walmart was the better choice.

In the kitchen and appliances category, of the 10 products compared, walmart.com was cheaper on nine of the items. For example, a Dyson V6 Cordless Vacuum was $175 at Walmart, which compared to $355 on Amazon.com — a 103 percent difference. In the miscellaneous category, Walmart bested Amazon in six of the 10 items. Amazon was 6.4 percent cheaper on the Victor EZ set mouse traps, 50 per pack at $34.61 versus Walmart’s $36.99.

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In Price Fight Between Walmart and Amazon, Bentonville Wins

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