if you have a shop you are going to be more expensive in store but if you do online I think this should reflect in price for certain items. If you sat on your sofa and your after a new vacuum cleaner and you know the exact model you want. If Amazon is say £30 cheaper than Asda's online store it is obvious you will buy it from Amazon and this works out for most things you buy. They are the biggest company in the world and they didn't get there by over pricing things. If the shops think they can't afford to lower online prices to compete I think they can't afford not to as its one of the things that has made internet shopping such a massive business.

 

A lot of the products you buy from Amazon are actually sold by third party shops in the marketplace. Amazon even warehouses and distributes on behalf of third party shops. This enables small local businesses to sell via Amazon without the expense of setting up their own online shop and without the need for warehouse, packing and distribution facilities. Amazon just takes a small cut on each sale! Yeah, you can see Amazon as the bad boy, but if you're a small, unknown independent retailer, it allows you to compete with the big boys which you could never have done on the high street!

 

They do charge you royally for that service though and if you're too successful, they'll stock their own version and undercut you

 

Oh & Amazon is generally more expensive that eBay for the same thing, which is telling. The only good/great thing about Amazon is Prime where chances are you can get what you ordered tomorrow.