But the company tries hard to make you think it does:
“Amazon may not actually be the lowest-priced seller of a particular product in any given season,” the report reads, “but its consistently low prices on the highest-viewed and best-selling items drive a perception among consumers that Amazon has the best prices overall — even better than Walmart.” The study was part of a white paper Boomerang released on Tuesday to bring attention to the idea of price perception in e-commerce.
provides more details:
What the authors find is that Amazon has carefully priced some items low, while leaving others more expensive – in some cases, much more expensive – to bolster its reputation as a place for deals.
For instance, items with high consumer ratings tend to be priced lower than what you’d find at Wal-Mart. … Also, stuff that’s highly visible — products that either customers rave about or Amazon itself promotes — also tend to be cheaper than at other places. But items that you wouldn’t naturally associate with online retail, such as tires for cars, aren’t cheap at all. And accessory items to highly promoted products — think cable connectors for your new flat-screen TV — aren’t always that cheap.
The Dish 