Amazon Vs JB Hi-Fi: How Do The Prices Compare?


Last week, Amazon began quietly listing products on its Australian website. The other day, pricing information also began to appear.

While you can’t actually buy anything yet, the available listings give a pretty good indication of what Amazon will be charging for PC, camera and audio products. So how do the prices compare to JB Hi-Fi? Let’s take a look.

Amazon Australia briefly opened its digital doors this week. This was to allow third-party sellers to test the platform with a small number of customers ahead of the “official” launch.

The blink-and-you-missed-it sales window was too quick for most shoppers – but not Deutsche Bank. The financial service provider took stock of the deals that were briefly on offer and found them extremely wanting.

“For shoppers that did expect to see more of Amazon’s range or pricing today (Thursday), the user experience would undoubtedly have been disappointing,” noted analysts Michael Simotas and Daniel Wan write in a note to clients.

“Based on our observation today local retailers had lower prices than Amazon for the majority of SKUs we looked at.”

Below is Deutsche Bank’s list of ‘soft launch’ prices compared to pricing for the same products from JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman. (Note: We have omitted promotional discounts from JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman to give a fairer indication of how the prices actually compare.)

Amazon JB Hi-Fi Harvey Norman
Logitech Z906 Speakers $504.47 $399 $397
Logitech G613 Wireless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard $153.47 $169 $168
Olympus Tough TG5 Camera $796.13 $599 $598
Epson Workforce WF-2750 Printer $150.22 $128 $178
HP 62XL Ink Cartridge $68.78 $58 $64
Yamaha Sound Bar YSP-2700 $1289 N/A $1496
Logitech R400 presentation remote $94.19 $79 $97
Asus AC5300 Wireless Router $1893.95 N/A $699
HP Top Loader laptop bag $267.95 $29.95 N/A

That’s… not very impressive, is it? In some cases, the prices on Amazon are over 80% more expensive than its brick-and-mortar counterparts. (We’re also mildly surprised to see Harvey Norman beat JB Hi-Fi on price several times, but that’s another story.)

Now, it’s worth noting that the Amazon prices could be placeholders that will be updated before the website launches. As Deutsche Bank notes, entire categories such as televisions, mobile phones and consumables have yet to make an appearance.

With that said, populating the site with fake placeholder prices sure seems like a lot of extra effort for no tangible benefit. In any event, all will be revealed very soon.

[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/11/everything-you-need-to-know-about-amazon-australia/” thumb=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/11/amazeon-410×231.jpg” title=”Amazon Australia Launch: Everything You Need To Know [Updated]” excerpt=”Amazon is less than a day away from launching their online retail service in Australia with a soft launch set for tomorrow afternoon. This means that you will soon be able to buy everything from food to electronics without paying exorbitant international shipping fees. As the launch inches closer, more and more questions are being answered about Amazon’s arrival in the Great Southern Land.

We’ve rounded up everything you need to know.”]

[Via Business Insider]


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