The online retailer is slashing prices by "as much as 9 percent in recent weeks on goods offered by independent merchants on its site, ratcheting up a price war with other retail giants—and potentially straining its relationship with some sellers," The Journal said in its story today (found behind a pay wall).
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While there’s nothing novel about aggressive sales techniques as the calendar nears Christmas, this strategy appears to be a new one.
The newspaper noted that, typically, Amazon has controlled prices only on merchandise it sells directly to consumers. But the prices it is now lowering are on items sold my far smaller retailers, “third parties,” and Amazon is covering the cost difference itself to ensure”competitive pricing.”
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Online shoppers can spot the cuts by the new “Discount provided by Amazon” tag.
Whatever Amazon does, it gets attention these days. The company late last month announced that it had received 238 proposals from cities, jurisdictions and other partners across North America attempting to land Amazon’s second national headquarters.
The Dayton region submitted its own proposal. Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland and other Ohio communities did the same.
The city of Dayton was part of a regional project proposal led by the Dayton Development Coalition, Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein told this news outlet.
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