I've noticed on a few products at Amazon, it will be cheap while one of the supermarkets, say Woolworths, has it on special. Then the next week, when the Woolworths special ends, it will jump back up in price.
Is this a strategy that Amazon are employing, is it something that only certain brands are doing?
This. Their official policy doesn't do any price match however their bots adjust the price automatically daily basis.
Which is not really surprising since Amazon is largely a tech company after all.
TIP: If you place an order for Amazon AU selling product and noticed any price drop within the return window, drop a message to customer support then they will throw the difference in store credit. One can ask for a partial refund as well but they are bit more reluctant.
Definitely. Chips and Coke are always on when the supermarkets are. (Don't buy chips come popped 50% of the time)
Do buy chips, tell customer support if they came popped, enjoy free chips
Did this, got a free box, not worth the hassle, cheezels especially as you don't know they're popped
Yea I got those cheezels too. I think at least half of the bags were popped, but still delicious, and free!
Yes.
I've noticed the same thing. No idea if it's Amazon matching or Coles/Woolies matching Amazon or if it's merely a particular supplier or brand that has the item on sale hence the retailers that use that brand have it on sale.
It's not just Amazon though. You'll often see an item on sale at say Woolies and within the next 2 weeks it'll be on sale in Coles like they're taking turns to run that special.
Most of grocery items I've received from Amazon have been too close to their use-by date and have gone in the bin.
not sure why you got negged - it's a valid point worth raising
Likely they have the same suppliers. Brand X makes too much toilet paper probably on purpose so they can flood the market briefly and hope people try it out and their butts get used to it. Amazon is just tapping into the same suppliers, except Amazon's warehousing system lets them sell it just as cheap, if not a bit cheaper, because they don't sit around for weeks or months gathering dust. They are delivered to peoples doors as soon as they can get them if they can help it. Everything on sale will be something that the suppliers have too much of and is approaching its date or there is just no other way to get rid of it. If people were buying all the inventory at full price anyway, then why would they put it on sale in the first place.
From what I've read,
-Supermarkets don't buy stock, mark it up and then make a profit on the difference. Thats the old way of doing business. Instead, they sell shelf space, with premium spots at eye level costing more than areas with less exposure.
-There is no reason to think that Amazon has things cheaper or better quality. Because they are a new player, at this stage its likely to be the opposite.
-Supermarkets put out a catalogue every week, which means something has to be on sale. So managers will ring up suppliers, and bully them into giving them a good price. If they don't comply, they risk losing their premium shelf spot to another brand.
-Occasionally a brand will run a big discount of there own. This is often in the case when there is a new product coming on to the market. By using drastic discounts, people will stock up, and be less likely to try the new product for a long time. If a new product doesn't do well in the first month, it is more likely to be abandoned. It is an anticompetitive business move, designed to sacrifice short term profit in order to reduce market share loss.
Amazon would have bots that check prices of groceries, electronics, video games etc. online, they will then adjust their prices (in a certain allowable range) to ensure they have fairly competitive pricing.