Amazon beats Wal-Mart on toy prices as holiday season begins
(Bloomberg) — Amazon.com Inc has cheaper online prices for toys than Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Target Corp and other major chains as parents begin shopping for the holidays, according to a Bloomberg Industries analysis.
In a comparison of 125 randomly selected toys conducted on November 8, Amazon had lower prices than Wal-Mart on 44 percent of the items, while Wal-Mart had the advantage on 13 percent. The remaining had the same price tag. Wal-Mart beat Target Corp, Sears Holdings Corp’s Kmart chain and Toys “R” Us Inc on more than 80 percent of the toys, according to a report led by Poonam Goyal, a Bloomberg Industries analyst.
“Toys are important because they are the top category for the holiday, along with electronics, and are the most competitive,” Goyal said in a telephone interview.
Amazon’s lead came as a surprise because Wal-Mart led in last year’s pricing study for much of the holiday season, Goyal said.
Amazon had the advantage on such items as the limited- edition version of “Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City,” a video game for the PlayStation 3 that it priced at $20.98, compared with $39.96 at Wal-Mart.
Another key is how well stocked retailers will be during the holiday shopping season, Goyal said. The largest toy sellers have better inventory levels than they did a year ago, according to the study.
Amazon, Kmart and Toys “R” Us didn’t have any toys out of stock online, while Wal-Mart was missing three percent and Target didn’t have eight percent. In the same week a year ago, all of these chains had higher levels.
With the exception of Amazon, out-of-stock levels increased last year as the holiday season neared its end. By December 21, Wal- Mart, Target, Kmart and Toys “R” Us were all out of stock on more than 40 percent of items in the study, while Amazon was missing only one percent.
“It appears they’ve learned their lessons from last year,” Goyal said. “If retailers are stocked well, holiday should go well for them.”
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Published Nov 21, 2012 at 8:00 am (Updated Nov 20, 2012 at 6:06 pm)