Target: OK, We'll Match Amazon Prices

Will also match prices of Walmart.com, BestBuy.com
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 9, 2013 11:11 AM CST
Target: OK, We'll Match Amazon Prices
In this Tuesday, July 16, 2011 photo, a customer leaves a Target store in Los Angeles.   (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Target is sick and tired of you walking out of its stores without buying anything—because you looked on your smartphone and found Amazon was cheaper. So its CEO today announced a new price-matching policy to combat the practice (known as "showrooming"), MarketWatch reports. Now, customers who buy certain items and then find them offered for a cheaper price online within one week can have the price matched. In addition to Amazon.com, Target will match prices from Walmart.com, BestBuy.com, and ToysRUs.com.

This could be the wave of the future: One expert notes that "price-match guarantees are the only way for big-box retailers to survive the Amazon onslaught," and another suggests that other stores could follow Target's lead: "This might ultimately spur Walmart to match its own online prices," he notes. Best Buy started matching Amazon's prices over the holiday season, but that experiment ends this month. (More Target stories.)

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