Amazon.com: One Item, Many Prices

How to find the best deal when Amazon shows several offers for one product.

Yardena Arar is a senior editor, for PC World. You can send her e-mail at consumerwatch@pcworld.com.

Yardena Arar, PC World

For a long time, Amazon.com was the Macy's of online shopping--a huge store with almost everything you could want. For everything else, you'd go to a boutique site. Now, though, many of those boutiques have storefronts on Amazon.

You've probably noticed this by now: When shopping for an item, you'll see the names of several merchants that also sell that product, along with price and availability info. And if you search for something, the results will typically include offers from third-party stores.

But are these deals worthwhile? To find out, I checked with Amazon and did a little investigating. My conclusion: Shopping boutique stores through Amazon can have some real benefits, but not in all situations. You should make your decisions on a case-by-case basis after checking out offers--both on Amazon and elsewhere--for whatever you're buying.

Amazon's Take

Amazon officials say partnerships with third-party vendors support the company's customer-centric philosophy.

"It helps ensure customers are able to buy high-demand products as soon as possible," spokesperson Craig Berman says. "iPods are a great example. If we're out, they can get it from a third party."

Third parties also allow Amazon to offer a much wider selection than it could on its own. For example, Amazon sells some gourmet food items, but you can buy Madagascar green peppercorns in brine (which I use in a favorite recipe) only through GourmetFoodStore.com.

Would it be cheaper just to go directly to GourmetFoodStore.com? Not by much. The two sites' prices were identical, though Amazon charged a couple of bucks more for shipping.

I couldn't do comprehensive price checks on millions of Amazon items, but a colleague and I did price about a dozen random products from third-party merchants that sell through Amazon and at their own sites. By and large, we found little difference in the bottom-line price, though you should always check for yourself. You may find a sale or an attractive deal on shipping at the store's site.

If prices are equal, buying at Amazon can make sense: The company protects most purchases made with an Amazon account by its A-to-z Guarantee, which basically promises refunds for all charges (including shipping) if the item doesn't arrive or is "materially different" than described. (Amazon's guarantee does not cover several major partners--Eddie Bauer, eBags, Target, and others--that offer their own guarantees.) I'm certainly more inclined to rely on an Amazon guarantee than one from a small third-party merchant I may never have heard of, and that may not explicitly offer such a guarantee--something to look for when you're shopping on the merchant site.

The Buy Box

In cases where Amazon and partner vendors offer the same item, how do you ensure you get the best price? It's not as easy as Amazon would have you believe.

Berman initially told me that if a third party "can offer the product cheaper than us, then they win the buy box"; that is, that company is chosen by default if you click the 'Add to Shopping Cart' button on the right side of a product page.

The contest for the buy box is based on the bottom-line price, which includes shipping. Because Amazon charges nothing for standard shipping on purchases over $25 (and has to include sales tax only for merchandise its ships to Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, and Washington state), it often gains an edge over the competition.

That edge increases if, like me, you subscribe to Amazon Prime, paying $79 a year to get free two-day shipping for anything you buy from the company. Someday I'm going to figure out if Prime really pays off for me--and you should do the math, too. In some locations standard shipping winds up taking only two days anyway, and with a little planning you can always reach the required $25 minimum to make it free.

But even with the free shipping, I found at least one instance in which Amazon was the default supplier even though its bottom-line price wasn't the lowest.

In March, when I was shopping for a camcorder, a Canon HV10 high-def MiniDV model's price on the product page was $900 from Amazon. But Ace Digital Club was selling it for $830 (including standard shipping). Even more annoyingly, the Amazon product page indicated that the camera "usually ships within 4 to 6 weeks." Ace Digital's estimated ship date, on the other hand, was within a day or two.

When I asked about this apparent contradiction, Berman acknowledged that bottom-line price isn't the only factor determining the buy box winner. Other considerations include "availability, volume, refunds, customer feedback, [and] A-to-z Guarantee claims....This means that there can be times when the seller with the lowest price (product price plus shipping) is not the winner of the buy box. This information is communicated to our merchants and sellers so they can improve on all factors, increasing their chance of winning the buy box."

But customers who rely on the product page may not realize that a lower partner price is available. And they aren't alerted to any problems that are keeping a company from winning the buy box.

Elusive Low Price

Similarly, don't assume that because Amazon shows offers from third-party partners, it has the best prices on the Web. A search of PCWorld.com's own shopping engine, powered by PriceGrabber.com, showed that Dbuys.com was selling the Canon HV10 for $814, also with free shipping (seven to ten business days, no tracking number).

The depth and breadth of product offerings on Amazon.com are unquestionably impressive, and the company's A-to-z Guarantee may ease concerns about shopping with an unfamiliar merchant. But Amazon isn't always going to deliver the best deal, or even make it supereasy for you to find the best deal it is offering. As usual, that's up to you.