Study sheds light on Amazon’s strength

A recently released report, titled “Building Up to Home Improvement Season,” from research firm 360pi shows Amazon.com is -- no surprise -- a tough company to beat on price.

In fact, Amazon was the price leader or co-leader on 96% of the items measured, including fixtures, faucets, outdoor lighting and power tools, from the period May 1 to June 16 (shipping costs omitted).

In second place on the report’s list of price leaders, Home Depot held the lowest or same-as-lowest price about 68% of the time. Depot was followed by eFaucets and Wayfair, which at least tied for lowest price on about 55% of items measured (see chart above).

The study measured online prices, not prices found in brick-and-mortar stores.

In another takeaway from the report, Home Depot was seen as narrowing the gap with Amazon on price. Several of the sampled retailers became more competitive with Amazon during this time period: Wayfair and Home Depot both narrowed the gap in the sample. Home Depot was the most aggressively priced category killer, with an average price of just over 5% above Amazon. The other major category killer, Lowe’s, was pricing the sampled assortment at an average of 11% to  13% higher than Amazon.

Also, the report shined analysis on outdoor lighting. ATG stores and Lowe’s were priced much more competitively than Amazon in this category, likely using it to drive customers into their physical stores, according to 360pi. Several of the retailers lost some of their competitive positioning throughout May. Wayfair, however, narrowed the gap to Amazon from approximately 13% to around 10%.