A recent report by Profitero notes a decrease in various Amazon product prices just in time for the holidays, despite a general global trend toward price increases amid the current supply chain crisis.
“We found online prices are up more than 5% since last year as global supply chain problems and labor shortages continue to affect the costs of goods and services,” Mark Wilkinson, managing director of EMEA & APAC at Profitero, said in a press release.
But contrary to that trend, Amazon's price advantage was shown to be widening in the U.K. in advance of the major holidays as reported by Profitero, a global eCommerce analytics company. In its second annual U.K. Price Wars study, Profitero looked at retailers Amazon, Argos, Asda and Currys and found Amazon's prices were 13 percent less costly than its competitors.
The gap between the conglomerate and its competitors was large in most categories with the exception of fashion and home furniture.
“The 2021 Christmas season could be the most expensive of all time. Shoppers will start looking for deals early in order to spread the overall cost and make sure they don't miss out on key items — otherwise they risk paying over the odds for gifts this year,” Wilkinson said.
The study analyzed 5,000 products across 13 categories including electronics, toys and games, and video games. Beauty, health and personal items were found to have the largest expense gap between the retail giant and its competition at 20%.