Source: Zulilly
Who’s the low-price leader? Zulily is — at least that’s what the flash sales site’s management team seems to believe. That would explain why the online seller announced the launch of a new price comparison tool pitting its prices on like items with Amazon.com and Walmart, as well as a guarantee that it would match the prices of those two competitors should they somehow have a lower price.
Research conducted by Wakefield Research found that 38 percent of American consumers viewed Walmart as having the lowest prices. Twenty-seven percent thought Amazon offered the lowest prices. Zulily, however, claims that its site’s new price comparison feature shows it to have lower prices on identical products 97 percent of the time.
In launching its price comparison feature, Zulily is looking to become part of the shopping research process heading into the holidays. The company points to two Google studies to support its decision: one shows that 59 percent of online shoppers are doing more comparison shopping than in the past, and another that found 90 percent use more than one channel when shopping for gifts.
Zulily, which was acquired by QVC in 2015, claims that Wakefield found that its prices were 24 to 30 percent lower than those offered by Amazon or Walmart on the same items in 16 separate product categories.
“We are confident that we provide shoppers the best deal. Pricing is so easily obfuscated across the web. When you think about saving $5-$10 on an item, and purchasing multiple items, per order, which many of our customers do, that’s meaningful to a household budget at scale,” said Jeff Yurcisin, president of Zulily, in a statement.
Zulily’s price comparison feature will appear on the pages of its website and app displaying products also sold by Amazon and/or Walmart. The flash sales site will have a UPC code matched to identical items sold by the two larger rivals with prices from those sites appearing alongside Zulily’s offer. In cases where Zulily has a higher price, it will match the lower offer from either competitor.