WASHINGTON — Amazon is betting you’ll pay more for back-to-school supplies if you can get the goods more quickly and conveniently, while Wal-Mart and Target are enticing customers with lower prices both online and in stores.
That’s according to a new study from Bloomberg Intelligence that analyzed how major retailers are handling the annual back-to-school shopping bonanza — and the difference to consumers between stocking up a virtual cart with glue sticks and notebooks and an actual cart.
Amazon shoppers who have signed up for a Prime membership already benefit from free two-day shipping and they may continue to shop at the online retail giant “for convenience, regardless of higher prices,” Bloomberg analysts concluded.
Including third-party sellers who also sell on the site, Amazon prices were 13 percent higher than Wal-Mart’s and 17 percent higher than Target, the report found. In fact, Amazon’s prices for randomly selected items were actually more expensive this month than in July.
Both Wal-Mart and Target have cut online prices for the back-to-school season, according to the Bloomberg analysis, but Target’s online prices were cheaper, according to the analysis.
“Target had a greater online assortment vs. Wal-Mart and offered lower prices, giving it a competitive edge,” Bloomberg found.
At actual brick-and-mortar stores, Target has also cut prices, according to the report, while Wal-Mart’s have remained about on par with prices from earlier this summer — although still generally cheaper than Target’s.
Bloomberg researchers randomly selected 98 items at Amazon, Target and Wal-Mart and grouped them together in baskets of like items to compare prices.
While online shopping has completely transformed the holiday shopping season in December, it’s unclear how much back-to-school shopping has migrated to the digital realm.
Only 19 percent of those surveyed recently by JLL (formerly Jones Lang LaSalle) said they planned to buy schools supplies online.
