As debates continue over the FTC’s case against Amazon, experts across the policy spectrum agree on one thing: retail models like Amazon’s deliver real value to consumers. By combining the convenience of online shopping with competitive pricing that rivals brick-and-mortar stores, the growing popularity of omnichanneling strengthens competition and helps lower costs across retail markets.

Dynamic Pricing Practices Keep Competition Strong

Experts highlight that dynamic pricing works to the benefit of consumers. These tools encourage retailers across the industry to offer their best prices and help shoppers find value more quickly.

— According to Norm Singleton of the Market Institute, “offering the lowest prices on the internet is part of Amazon’s business model, going back to the days when Jeff Bezos was selling books via dial up internet.” 

— The Mercatus Center further explains that one of Amazon’s main pricing tools, price parity clauses (PPCs), “benefit consumers directly by guaranteeing that they’re receiving the best possible price for the product in one place, reducing time and resources spent in perusing multiple websites, and allowing for instant, reliable comparisons between products from different competitors.”

— These practices are common in retail, The App Association said, and “competitors employ it too.” This means that “a heavy burden rests on the FTC to show that a low-price guarantee leads to higher prices. There is no reason to believe it has substantive evidence that its claim is true.”

Omnichannel Competition Benefits Consumers

By connecting digital convenience with physical retail access, omnichanneling provides consumers with more flexibility, better delivery options, and a wider range of choices than ever before. Analysts emphasize that Amazon’s role in blending online and offline retail creates competitive pressure across the entire retail landscape, pushing others to improve pricing and service.

— The Progressive Policy Institute highlighted that “the FTC paints an odd picture of high and rising online prices relative to brick-and-mortar prices,” when in fact “the increasing popularity of omnichannel shopping, whereby consumers mix and match online and offline components of their shopping journey, encourages convergence between online and offline prices.”

— Much of the rise of omnichanneling can be attributed to new tech. “Digital tech is facilitating increasing competition in the already highly competitive retail space, as incumbents enter and aggressively compete in the advertising space and foreign retailers increasingly compete in U.S. markets,” CCIA said.

— As we have previously covered, experts at the Brattle Group found that “The increasing popularity of omnichannel shopping, whereby consumers mix and match online and offline components of their shopping journey, also may encourage convergence between online and offline prices.”

From think tanks to consumer advocates, the evidence that Amazon’s omnichannel and pricing approaches expand choice and lower prices is clear. Efforts to dismantle these efficiencies risk hurting the very consumers competition law is meant to protect.