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Dick's Sporting Goods is the latest retailer to price match Amazon
In what's yet another sign of the shifting retail landscape, Dick's Sporting Goods is now matching prices from Amazon and other competitors online. The new program, aptly named "Best Price Guarantee," is a necessary move by the company to compete with ecommerce giant Amazon and retailers like FinishLine, Footlocker, Target and Walmart. In addition to that, Dick's will also start price-matching sportswear brands, most of which are clients, including Adidas, Nike and Under Armour.
eBay will match prices from Amazon and Walmart on certain items
eBay announced a new Price Match Guarantee today, ensuring many of its items will cost the same or less than those offered by other major retail competitors. It's the company's latest move in the ongoing business battle with giants like Amazon and Walmart.
Walmart's Amazon price-match policy is less open to abuse now
Well, that didn't take long: Earlier this week, the internet caught wind of a few less-than-legitimate sellers listing PlayStation 4s on Amazon at ridiculously low prices -- we're talking $90 or less for a $400 item -- and took advantage of Walmart's new price-matching policy. Now the retail giant has adjusted said policy regarding such. The company says it'll only honor pricing from 30 "major" online retailers including Amazon, Best Buy, Cabela's and Kohl's from here on out. Marketplace vendors, third-party sellers (one of the ways this ordeal started), etailers requiring a membership and auction sites including eBay aren't eligible under the new revision. A Walmart spokesperson tells Wall Street Journal that it was a significant enough amount to change the policy "quickly," but, wouldn't say exactly how much the alleged fraud cost the company.
Best Buy to make online price-matching policy permanent
Best Buy started matching prices of online retailers in time for the holidays last year, and now it's set to make the practice permanent in an effort to cure its showroom syndrome and turn window-shopping visitors into paying customers. Come March 3rd, the policy will go into effect for the outfit's website, typical brick and mortar locations, Best Buy mobile shops and even phone orders. Officially dubbed the Low Price Guarantee, the plan will meet prices for all local competitors and a total of 19 online storefronts, including the likes of Amazon, Apple, Staples, NewEgg and Target. Also, the pricing arrangement has been expanded to additional products, but it still doesn't cover on-contract smartphones and other items. While customers might end up saving some coin with the new deal, they'll see the item return period drop from 30 days to 15. By the looks of it, company founder Richard Schulze might be getting his way with plans to save his struggling creation. [Image credit: Daniel Oines, Flickr]
Target agrees to price match Amazon 'year round,' hopes you'll stop showrooming
The CE pricing war just got really real. Gregg Steinhafel, Target's chairman, president and CEO, just announced a move that'll undoubtedly get the attention of Amazon. And while we're at it, the attention of Walmart, Sears, Best Buy, and practically every other major brick-and-mortar retailer that it competes with. Following Best Buy's move -- which saw the retailer price match Amazon during the holiday 2012 shopping season -- Target is taking it one step further by announcing that it'll match Amazon's prices year round. Naturally, the goal here is to put a stop to "showrooming," a term that describes the act of using B&M stores simply to ogle products before buying them for less online. Details on how it'll all work out, including an official start date, remain under wraps, but we're told that if a customer "buys a qualifying item at Target and then finds an identical item for less in the following week's Target circular or within seven days on either Amazon.com, Walmart.com, BestBuy.com and Toysrus.com, Target will match the price." It's not at all unreasonable to assume that Wally World and the like will end up following suit, but a part of us worries that this may end up having the opposite effect -- if Amazon's pricing begin to float higher in order to meet somewhere in the middle with B&M retailers, consumers will end up with fewer options when it comes to saving.
Apple reportedly price matching iPhone discounts from carriers and other retailers
According to a leaked screengrab hosted up at MacRumors, Apple retail shops now have the authority to price match carrier and rival retail discounts on iPhone. Specifically, the note informs employees that prices from Best Buy, "carriers," Radio Shack and Target can be matched, with $49.01 seeming to be the savings across the board. Curiously, places like Wirefly, Amazon, Negri Electronics and even Walmart aren't mentioned, so we wouldn't recommend trying to work the price down based on ads seen from any of those. The note also mentions the iPhone 4 and 4S exclusively, and we're fairly sure this sort of goodwill won't ever been applied to iPad, Mac hardware or pretty much any other Apple kit. Of course, crazier things have happened. We've reached out to Apple for comment, and will update this article should it choose to reply.
Best Buy boosts return window from 14 days to 30
That adage of "less is more" definitely doesn't apply to retailer return policies, so we have no complaints here. Best Buy is reportedly going to offer a more lenient 30-day window for device returns, up from the company's current 14-day policy. Naturally, this also covers price matches, and applies to all products, including those from Apple, where two weeks is the norm. You'll find the full details over at our sister site TUAW, when you hit up the source link just below.
