Power tool primer

Amazon.com’s reputation as the dominant disruptive force of the power tool category was turbo-charged by a recent report from research firm 360pi.



The “Amazon Holiday Insights” report for power tools shows a few reasons why Amazon is drilling it to the competition. First, there’s price. Based on a sample of more than 750 power tools in-stock on Amazon.com and compared pricing with the e-commerce websites of Home Depot and Lowe’s, Amazon had the lowest-priced products 79% of the time. Home Depot had the lowest available price 48% of the time. (Low-price tossups account for the sum of more than 100%.)



But more than that, Amazon shows relatively strong price dynamism, according to 360pi. That means Amazon is repricing about 6% to 8% of its power tool products on any day of the week — well ahead of Home Depot and Lowe’s.



Amazon has grown more price-dynamic in 2014, compared with the same period last year, while the big boxes are showing less or the same amount of price changes.