The Business Blog at Intuitive.com

Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980 and is widely recognized as an expert on both technical and business issues. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related startup companies, has written twenty business and technical books and holds both an MBA and MS Ed. Dave maintains four weblogs: The Business Blog at Intuitive.com, Ask Dave Taylor, Dave On Film, and Attachment Parenting Blog. Dave is an award-winning speaker, sought after conference and workshop participant and frequent guest on radio and podcast programs.

Should stores match their own Web site prices? How Target failed.

I'm a movie buff. Just about everyone who reads this probably knows that, but if you don't, check out my film blog to see what I mean. Back? Good.

When Zack Snyder's Watchmen came out on July 21st, I was psyched. I have all the gear I need to really enjoy the film in all its 1080p Blu-Ray fidelity and a day or two before even went to a couple of Web sites to compare prices.

I noted that target.com had the best price: $21.49, so that morning I popped into the local Target and was a bit dismayed to find that it was priced on the shelf at $25.99.

I asked the customer service people if they'd match the online price, and they said "no, we can't do that."

"But," I said, "Let me show you: on the Web site it says that the $21.49 is the in store price." I showed her this:

On the site, as you can see, they're promoting that it's available in the store. Click on the ad graphic and you get to the price:

"Ah," the manager explained, "you'd have to pay for shipping if you bought it from the Web site, so it'd end up the same price anyway."

I wasn't impressed. Seems to me that even if they want to price things differently online versus on the shelf, the store should at least have a policy of matching prices with its own Web site. That's a customer-centric perspective, and apparently Target is more focused on preserving the integrity of its business silos.

So I walked out and went over to Best Buy, where, to their credit, the assistant manager pulled up the Target.com site, found that they were indeed offering Watchmen Blu-Ray for $21.49 and matched the price. The price tag on the Best Buy box? $29.99. Their online price for the movie on the bestbuy.com site? $22.99.

Big difference? Target said "no" and didn't match prices with its Web site. Best Buy said "sure" and not only matched its own online price, but came down another $1.50 and matched the Target.com price.

Target, you might need to rethink this policy. Otherwise it seems like you're ripping off your in-store customers without any recourse when one of them is savvy enough to catch on to what's happening.

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