As with pretty much any product on the market today, there are too many makes and models to pick from. Once you do manage to make your mind up, you then have to move on to where to buy it from! Wouldn’t life be easier if the law stated that every product in the world could only be made by one company and in one make/model/shape/size? At Competitor Monitor, we like to make use of our own competitor price monitoring technology to help us make our very own purchasing decisions.
Dixons Retail PLC is the UK’s largest consumer electronics retailer, operating 550 stores as well as a number of brands across Europe. We decided to do some research and compare prices across two of their very own brands to see if there was much of a difference. We chose one which is primarily considered an offline brand, Currys, and one which is solely an online brand, Pixmania.
First off, we took a look at televisions. Right off the bat we found some interesting information, with Currys being priced higher than Pixmania on 93% of the surveyed products*. Surprised? We were. And we’re not talking by just a few quid. Here’s some examples:
We then looked at some white goods and found that Currys was priced higher than Pixmania on 89% of the surveyed products*!
So in total, we found Currys to be priced higher than Pixmania on 92% of the products we compared.
Now we all know the above doesn’t mean a great deal unless we find out the average price differences. Let’s start with Pixmania, on the few products they were priced highest on the average price increase on Currys price was a reasonable 4.5%.
But then we took a look at Currys and found that on the products they were priced highest on, the average price increase was 24%! That is a huge difference, and certainly one that would sway your decision.
One thing we do have to point out is that Currys offer free shipping whereas Pixmania charge (although it is never more than £29.90 per item). However, the items we surveyed were all high value products so the shipping costs would rarely make up the gap in the price difference.
The thing is, if you knew these two brands were part of the same company, would you still take the time to check prices on both of them? Maybe, but a lot of people would probably assume the prices would be the similar across the board and this goes to show how that is far from the case.
Does this mean online shopping is the way forward? Share your thoughts below.
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*97 televisions selected at random
*26 fridge freezers selected at random
*97 televisions selected at random
*26 fridge freezers selected at random
