Saint Valentine: Amazon, the most expensive marketplace for perfumes

Huge price differences just a few days before Valentine's Day

Just about a week away from the Valentine's Day, a study conducted by Minderest, the price and stock monitoring people, shows that, right now, perfume prices are most expensive in this e-Commerce giant.

February 5, 2019: With less than a week left to celebrate Valentine's Day, an important date for those couples who want to surprise their better half with a gift, it is also a special day for frenetic shopping! A time, during which, many users find great deals thanks to online comparisons which always make for some interesting offers and discounts.

However, where are the best prices? That’s the $64,000 question for many users, and Minderest, the price and stock monitoring people, have made an interesting study that allows us to know where the best offers are when looking for and buying a typical Valentines gift, perfume, online.

The Minderest study, conducted on February 4th, analysed a sample of 1231 ladies & men’s perfumes, in stock, at Amazon UK and on Google Shopping. We simulated what a consumer would find when looking for an online perfume. The merchants captured in Google Shopping with the most offers were the following: Fragance X , Perfumes Premium, My Trendy Lady, Vesira, Perfumes Club, So Lippy, Perfumes Click, All beauty, Fragance Direct, Carethy, Sizzino, Notino, Beauty The Shop, Perfume Dreams and the Cosmetic Mega Store. Prices from the different Amazon merchants have been ignored, choosing only Amazon as the seller.

The results:

For each of the products we obtained the cheapest price found in any of the above-mentioned companies. Using this cheapest price, we then calculated the percentage difference with respect to each of the online stores in the comparison. The following results were obtained, Fragance X leads the ranking with the cheapest price while Amazon and Cosmetic Mega Store rank as the most expensive:

1. Fragance X 3,97%

2. Perfumes Premium 8,15%

3. My Trendy Lady 9,47%

4. Vesira 13,86%

5. Perfumes Club 15,13%

6. So Lippy 15,78%

7. Perfumes Click 15,94%

8. All beauty 15,95%

9. Fragance Direct 16.07%

10. Carethy 18,32%

11. Sizzino 18,76%

12. Notino 20,55%

13. Beauty The Shop 20,80%

14. Perfume Dreams 22,65%

15. Amazon 37,75%

16. Cosmetic Mega Store 66,66%

Specifically, the maximum savings that someone could make by comparing prices between these online sellers would be 35.60%, which is the average difference between the cheapest and the most expensive price found for each of the products.

After analysing the data, Gary Thomson, UK Country Manager at Minderest, explains, "this study shows that Amazon is not always the cheapest, in fact it shows its low competitiveness in the fragrance sector."

After the comparison analysis, the most noticeable fact has been a price difference of 48.35% for the same item between Amazon, with the most expensive price, and Premium Perfumes, who had the cheapest price. While the latter was priced at £40.28, for Calvin Klein’s ‘Woman’ gift set, this same set at Amazon cost £78.00.

Minderest, experts in price monitoring. Minderest's price and stock monitoring tool has positioned itself internationally as a major reference solution in the sector. The technology company closed 2018 with a growth of over 300% when compared to the previous two years, and with a 'churn rate' (customer cancellation rate) of less than 5%. In 2019 Minderest plans to maintain this growth figure and increase its workforce, which is currently comprised of 40+ people. Minderest operates in more than 25 countries, and among their 300+ clients are 10 of Europe’s 25 largest retailers, along with prestigious brands such as Sony and Shiseido. In both 2014 and 2016 the company was awarded as the best Pricing software solution in the market.

More information at www.minderest.com