The Wall Street Journal reports that Overstock.com has made permanent its pledge to match Amazon.com on book prices.
According to the story, CEO Patrick Byrne says that Overstock has "hired a firm to trawl Amazon’s site once daily to ensure the prices match ... Overstock had offered to beat by 10% Amazon’s prices for a limited time in July. Byrne said that promotion cost it $11,000 daily in revenue from book sales. He estimated that the promotion would have cost Amazon between $500 million and $1 billion in lost revenue annually as it cut prices on its books to keep up ... Sweetening the price matching deal, Overstock will give 15% rebates on book purchases to members of its $20-annual free-shipping loyalty club. The rebates are good for future Overstock purchases, Byrne said."
According to the story, CEO Patrick Byrne says that Overstock has "hired a firm to trawl Amazon’s site once daily to ensure the prices match ... Overstock had offered to beat by 10% Amazon’s prices for a limited time in July. Byrne said that promotion cost it $11,000 daily in revenue from book sales. He estimated that the promotion would have cost Amazon between $500 million and $1 billion in lost revenue annually as it cut prices on its books to keep up ... Sweetening the price matching deal, Overstock will give 15% rebates on book purchases to members of its $20-annual free-shipping loyalty club. The rebates are good for future Overstock purchases, Byrne said."
- KC's View:
- We're going to see a lot more of this, because as Amazon tries to expand, companies are going to try to undermine its fundamental value proposition.
Though I find it interesting that Overstock is trolling Amazon once a day. Because it seems to me that Amazon is trolling its competitors constantly.
