A 2-year price study put Walmart and Amazon head-to-head - and the results should terrify Amazon

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A 2-year price study put Walmart and Amazon head-to-head - and the results should terrify Amazon

Walmart

Getty/Joe Raedle

Walmart is closing the price gap with Amazon.

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  • Walmart is closing the price gap with Amazon online.
  • The retailer is just 0.3% more expensive than Amazon online, compared to a 3% premium last year.
  • Walmart is leveraging its physical stores to give shoppers more ways to save.

Amazon is losing its edge in the low-price wars online.

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A new price study spanning 700 days found that Walmart's prices online are now just 0.3% more expensive than Amazon's on average, Reuters reports. That's down from a 3% premium last year.

In some categories, Walmart's prices were significantly lower than Amazon's, the study by Market Track found. Wearables like fitness trackers and smart watches are 6.4% cheaper on Walmart than on Amazon this year.

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Walmart spent more than $1 billion slashing prices last year to better compete with Amazon, which is responsible for nearly half of e-commerce sales in the US.

Walmart, by comparison, generates just 3.6% of all US online sales.

While it closes the price gap with Amazon online, Walmart has also been investing in other ways to help shoppers save money.

The retailer is now offering lower prices in its stores than on its website for many items. In some cases, that means Walmart's in-store prices are also cheaper than Amazon's online.

Walmart is also offering steep discounts for in-store pickup on items sold only online.

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