You may not know it but holiday spending by American consumers account for as much as half of yearly sales. So every holiday season retailers gear up to fight tooth and nail for your money.
Well its not even Thanksgiving yet and it seems Walmart, the big gun in the holiday shopping war, has opened with a significant salvo. The world’s largest retailer has announced that it will match online prices in the store.
According to Reuters, “Wal-Mart Stores Inc has informed managers of its roughly 5,000 stores across the United States that they can match prices with Amazon.com Inc and other online retailers, the head of the company’s U.S. business said on Thursday”.
So here is the real deal; Wal-Mart will match online prices as long as they have the item in store. There is a good chance they will and an equal chance they won’t. Your neighborhood Wal-Mart has a limited amount of storage space. They don’t compare to online stores like Amazon.com who’s warehouses are probably six times the size of your average Wal-Mart and they have a lot of them.
So the real question becomes; how can long can Walmart wage this price matching war? Let’s not forget we’re talking about the worlds largest retailer. Online retailers like Amazon.com can afford to offer lower prices because they have less overhead. Walmart has to foot the bill for brick-and-mortar stores, pay all those employees and don’t forget advertising.
It should be interesting to see if Wal-Mart fights this war beyond the holidays. My money is that they won’t even try it. Its Christmas and they want that foot traffic in the stores. They know its almost impossible for someone to walk into the store and not buy something. Its called impulse buying. So if you go to Wal-Mart looking for a digital camera you saw online and they don’t have it you’re still likely to leave with a new fake Christmas tree or lights or a something. That’s the real magic behind this deal.
But if you are shopping online and see a great deal on a tablet computer haul ass to Wal-Mart for a price match. You really can’t lose.
Now You Know