In news that will likely surprise and please many book buyers this Christmas, it is revealed that Amazon is not the place to head to for bargains on books.
As people start to reconsider their use of Amazon following tax revelations about the company, the revelation could undermine sales further. A new study has shown that other than its top 20 bestsellers list, the online retailer adds an average of 14 percent on to its book prices.
The survey was carried out by worldwide marketing consultants Simon-Kucher and Partners. It looked at seven online book retailers, analysing the prices of the top 100 UK books from October 30th to November 9th.
Talking about the findings, SKP managing partner Mark Billige said:
“Ask someone where to find the lowest price on a book and they’ll tell you to go to Amazon.
“But you would be surprised how often this advice in incorrect.”
It found that for the top 20, Amazon was on average six percent cheaper than other sellers. For books ranked at 21 – 50 though, prices were 13 percent higher. Those ranking at 51 – 100 had 15 percent added.
The other retailers in the study were: Alibris, Blackwell’s, Book Depository, BookFellas, Kennys, WH Smith and the Amazon-owned AbeBooks.
It shows that competitors can realistically go toe to toe with the American firm on price, in any case. Where Amazon excels though is in delivering a purchase conducive user experience, and applying a successful SEO strategy both on and off-page.
With many of Amazon’s customers starting to waver though, online marketers developing clever strategies over coming month could well benefit.
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