Amazon Pricing Study: The Most Expensive Products, Category Volatility, and Seasonal Price Shifts

As the world’s largest ecommerce company, Amazon often dictates the rules within the industry, whether it’s the site design, delivery terms, or even pricing.

With other e-tailers following its lead, Amazon serves as the golden standard within ecommerce. This means that when it comes to one of the most crucial aspects of any e-business—setting prices to a product—any online retailer should know Amazon’s pricing patterns and strategies inside out.

That’s why we decided to go all data-driven and use Alien Road and its tools for Amazon to explore the general pricing landscape of the marketplace, as well as specific strategies and tactics.

Amazon Pricing Study: Key Highlights

Just as Amazon vendors entice you to buy their products with lower prices, seasonal discounts, and other tricks, we’ll unwrap some of the most interesting findings before you get into the full study:

• As it turns out, some of those impressive discounts we saw during the hottest sales seasons aren’t that real: some vendors artificially spike the original price quoted, just to show a more staggering discount.

• In general (with some exceptions, of course), goods have the biggest discounts during the Black Friday sales have higher-than-average prices during the Christmas sales—and vice versa.

• The biggest sales seasons—Black Friday and Christmas—actually don’t come with significant price drops. It may simply be the classical supply and demand driving the prices up, but that’s contrary to what is usually expected in the season. Supply chain issues we were seeing for the past two years, however, could have exacerbated this.
• While the average price of all the analyzed products did drop during Black Friday (by a low 4% margin), it actually grew by the very same 4% during Christmas.

These are just some of the discoveries, so read on as we’ve kept some of the biggest gems for last.

About the Amazon Pricing Study

With more than 12 million products on Amazon, it’s near to impossible to analyze every single product.

We established the 700 most popular products on Amazon (based on Amazon keyword* search volume numbers from Keyword Wizard for Amazon) and placed them into 10 categories to determine both product- and category-specific pricing patterns.

Each product search returned from 20 to 70 results**, which we analyzed in great detail—all to get a realistic overview of the pricing landscape of each product and category.

*We analyzed Amazon’s search results for the top keywords, but further on, we’ll be using the term “product” to either refer to specific products or product types.

**The search results were collected every hour from November 18, 2021 to January 11, 2022.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Amazon’s Pricing Patterns

Our Amazon pricing study reveals answers to some of the hottest questions about the top pricing strategies in the marketplace—based on the pricing patterns of the most in-demand products and product categories:

• What’s the average product/category price and how does it change over time (if at all)?
• Which products are more volatile in terms of pricing?
• Are there any high- or low-price days on Amazon?
• What’s the price difference between ‘normal’ days and the hottest sales seasons (e.g. Black Friday, pre-Christmas, January sales, etc.)?
• Is there a difference between the original price mentioned and the actual price of a discounted product?
• Are there any specific pricing patterns for the highest-price hours and/or weekdays?
• What are the most popular coupons or deals, and are they category specific?

Curious to see the answers? Read on.

Is It Okay to Sell Higher-Priced Items on Amazon?

Average Prices for the Most Popular Amazon Products

Our study showed that the average product price across all categories is $142.74. But while Amazon is often loved for its lower-priced goods, our list of most popular products also features items that are on the high-price end of the spectrum.

15 Most Expensive Amazon Items (among the most popular products list)

Apart from the Amazon gift card, all the products within the most expensive category are tech-related, with gaming products dominating the list.

As the past year has been marked by growing prices for computer components, the top 15 features three types of graphics cards.

If you want a more nuanced look, here’s a list of the most expensive products on an ASIN (aka product listing) level:

***The table above features pricing for specific products. The average pricing implies that we might have spotted a different price level over various time periods.

Once again, we can see that the most expensive products are all gaming related, with video projectors and gaming chairs topping the list.

Amazon’s Most Expensive Product Categories

While we’ve established that tech/digital products, and gaming especially, make up the most expensive category, what about the rest?

Sports goods are the second most expensive category, followed by Home & Garden.

The real decline in pricing occurs after the fourth priciest category—Entertainment. In fact, tech and digital products typically cost more than the products within the five cheapest categories combined.

Does the Product Price Change All That Often?

We analyzed product prices every single day over three months. This helped us pinpoint some daily pricing change patterns.

With the average product price being at $142.74, we did see some variations throughout the months.

On December 2, 2021, the average price went down to $132.84. On January 2, 2022, it jumped to $157.22.

Although certain days in December did feature somewhat lower prices for the analyzed products, the graph above shows that there was no notable price drop during Black Friday or the winter holiday season (we’ll get to that a bit later).

Does Amazon Have Any Happy Hours / Happy Days?

While the pricing volatility doesn’t look dramatic, day-to-day and hour-to-hour stats can reflect more significant shifts.

A happy hour/day on Amazon would look different to sellers and buyers—the former would need to know when the pricing hits its peak, while the latter would love to find out the “cheapest” options.

We analyzed the pricing for all the products and managed to pinpoint certain days and hours that repeatedly feature the highest and lowest prices—all to understand whether there are any set pricing patterns.

5 pm–2 am Sales Bring in the Most Cash

If you want to sell your product at the highest price, try to encourage post-New Year sales.

Our analysis showed that the most ‘expensive’ days for the majority of products were between January 1 and January 10, with January 4 featuring the highest prices.

And if you manage to drive evening sales—anywhere between 5 pm and 2 am—you’d be in for the biggest win.

Morning Sales Come With Lower Pricing

As we’ve unwrapped the most favorable days for Amazon sellers, we can also reveal the worst.

Days around Black Friday (November 26)—especially a few days before (November 21–23) and a few days after (November 28–29)—came with the lowest prices across the board.

A curious note: our analysis shows that the two days that preceded Black Friday, November 24–25, didn’t make it to the list of the cheapest days.

Time-wise, we spotted that morning sales aren’t the best as the lowest product prices typically occur between 4 am and 12 pm.

If you want something more specific than time ranges, check the graph below.

When we averaged the price over all of the products for each hour of the day, we spotted that the highest price occurs at 6 pm EDT and the lowest at midnight.

The Most ‘Expensive’ Days on Amazon for Various Product Categories

The data above reflects the best shopping and sales time across various Amazon products. Now, are there any patterns specific to each category?

5% of the products saw peaking prices on January 1–2 and January 11, making them the most ‘expensive’ days across the analyzed period.

The ‘cheapest’ days were November 18 (9.4% of the products had the lowest average price), November 30 (5%), and November 29 (4%).

Overall, the majority of categories seem to have the lowest prices around Black Friday. The top prices typically occur after the winter holidays.

Browse through the table below for a more granular view of the most expensive and cheapest days for each category.

The Most & Least Expensive Pricing Days Across Various Amazon Product Categories

“I tend to find that lower-priced products sell better on Tuesdays whereas the high-priced sell better on Friday evenings or Sundays. Evening time—when most people have just got home from work—is a second screening time at home, so we can expect higher demand during these hours as well as a rise in prices.”

Which Amazon Products’ Prices Are More Volatile?

We answered the “when” side of pricing volatility, so now it’s time to address the “what.”

To discover the most price-volatile products on Amazon, we’ve calculated a variation coefficient that reflects the extent of price dispersion around each product’s mean price.

From a quick look at the table below, you can immediately spot that it’s gaming products once again that dominate the list.

The products you see in this table reflect expected supply and demand changes.

At the time, these items were out of stock in stores and that increased demand drove up the prices. As items come back in stock, the prices would drop quickly to match the retail pricing.

The graph below depicts the fluctuation of the pricing of the 10 most price-turbulent products:

Are Holiday/Special Deals Just a Myth, and Does the Price Really Go Down During Hot Sale Seasons?

Now that we understand some typical pricing patterns, it’s time to unveil what happens during the hottest sale seasons.

As customers see prices with strikethroughs and “special deal” labels, it’s intuitive to assume that the largest discounts take place during special occasions.

But does the price really drop all that much during the biggest discount dates? We looked at the pricing shifts during Black Friday and Christmas to find the answer.

Can You Really Strike a Bargain During Black Friday?

Our analysis shows that it doesn’t seem like the price drops a lot for hot sale seasons.

Let’s consider pricing differences for Black Friday. We looked at the prices one week before one of the biggest discount days (19–25 November) and compared them against the prices in the following week (27 November–3 December).

The average product on Black Friday costs $137.46. This is only 4% lower than the average price overall ($142.74).

Also, compared to the week right before Black Friday, the Black Friday prices are only 0.5% lower, and then they seem to drop a little bit more (1.5% for the next 7 days).

Here’s a depiction of the average pricing trend during the entire Black Friday period (19 November–3 December):

As you can see, there is no significant price drop even on the day of the biggest sales, Black Friday itself (November 26).

Products That Saw the Biggest Discounts During Black Friday

Looking at specific products, the following had the largest price drops during the Black Friday period:

As you can see, this set is now filled with fewer tech/digital products, with more everyday items topping the list—walkie-talkies, books, binoculars, bathroom organizers, etc.

Do the Prices Go Back Up Immediately After Black Friday Is Over?

As the graph above indicates, if the product has a significant price drop during Black Friday, it doesn’t go back up right after it.

Products You Shouldn’t Buy on Black Friday

Black Friday’s shopping craze allows some products to capitalize on this by simply increasing the pricing.

We can’t be sure whether vendors think a shopping-busy customer won’t notice the increase, but these products’ prices were actually higher on Black Friday than during the rest of the analyzed period:

If you were waiting for Black Friday sales to buy a PS4 or Amazon Echo, our data says that was a bad idea.

Some products do come with BF-inspired discounts (one week before) but actually increase the price on the day itself:

If you were looking for some of the products in the table above, you should have considered purchasing them one week before Black Friday.

The graph below shows products that saw peaking prices on Black Friday if we compare the pricing one week before and after November 26. This implies that these vendors might have artificially increased the prices just for Black Friday:

All in all, anything gaming typically comes at a higher price around the Black Friday period, so don’t expect a good bargain there.

In the majority of cases, sellers have been taking Black Friday as an opportunity to win new customers, gain visibility, and achieve sales velocity without much focus on earning money.
Some sellers, however, are using strategies that also help to capitalize on sales— they raise the prices of products 30 or 45 days before Black Friday and then apply high discounts. We can see this in the historical price movements of Keepa or CamelCamelCamel, for example.
But at least for the sellers I know and the products I have in pricing tracking, I think that Black Friday is still not seen as a period to bill a lot or make money, but as an opportunity to get more visibility.

Some products saw peaking prices during Black Friday, but lowered the price straight after that:

Do Christmas Sales Come with Better Bargains?

If Black Friday at least came with some price drops—4% to be precise—Christmas sales led to even deeper disappointment from a customer perspective.

To our surprise, our data showed that…the average product price only increased during Christmas—by a whopping 4%—jumping to $148.57.

On Christmas itself, prices were 4.7% higher than during the week before and 2% higher than during the week after.

Here’s an average product pricing trend during the Christmas period (17 December–2 January):

Only the following products came with a more or less notable price drop (comparing 24–26 December prices to the entire analyzed period):

Unlike Black Friday, Christmas sales seem like a good time for anything PlayStation as well as Christmas-related goods (mainly decorations that won’t typically sell at any other time before the next holiday).

For a last-minute bargain, here’s a list of products that saw more significant price drops during Christmas itself compared to the average price from a week before:

Here are the products that came with the lowest price decrease during Christmas if we compare the pricing just a week before and after Christmas:

All in all, unlike Black Friday, Christmas looks like the best time to purchase gaming products.

Products That Saw the Biggest Price Growth During Christmas

Just as with Black Friday, some products’ prices even grew throughout the winter holidays.

Here’s a list of items that saw peaking prices over Christmas compared to the entire analyzed period: ​​

If everyday products saw the largest price drops during Black Friday, over Christmas, they came with higher costs.

For instance, the very same binoculars that were discounted by more than 50% on Black Friday came with a 50% higher price on Christmas. The same with books for 3-year-olds, walkie-talkies, and some other products.

This means that we can see a counter-pattern: products that see the largest discounts on Black Friday typically cost more than usual at Christmas, and vice versa.

Another curious note is that if PlayStation products saw the biggest price drops at Christmas, Nintendo doesn’t follow its competitor’s footsteps. “Switch games” showed the biggest price growth.

What Happens to Prices After Christmas?

We noted that some of the Christmas staples remain affordable throughout the holiday as some prices of typical Christmas products go up straight after the holidays are over.

But there are a few dates when buying Christmas-related goods would be a big no as we spotted two price peaks right before Christmas—December 22 at 3 pm; and December 27 at 4 am.

A More Detailed Take on Black Friday Prices

As Black Friday came with more notable price drops, we decided to take a more nuanced look in terms of product pricing—to pinpoint products that come with the best bargains.

As it turned out, only 1.6% of all the analyzed products feature the lowest prices on November 26 itself.

Apparently, the best things to buy on Black Friday are popsockets and women’s lingerie.

The table below shows product categories with the biggest price drops on November 26:

Are the Discounts Even Real?

As for specific products (aka product listings), customers rely a lot on notions like “best value”—a label that shows how much a product was worth before the lowered price.

Here’s a run through of the most discounted products customers were seeing this Black Friday:

A $3,000 discount for a Samsung TV seems like the biggest bargain. But…our data indicates that you should be wary of such ‘deals’.

In reality, some of the “base values” are not real—the average pricing for some of the products was much lower than the original price indicators during the discount.

Let’s follow up on our Samsung TV example:

The average price of this product on Black Friday was $9,997.99, and the sellers quoted $12,999.99 as the base price before the sale. Our dataset shows that the average price of a Samsung TV over the analyzed period was actually $10,015.53, with $10,997,99 as the highest price (on January 2nd at 8 pm).

In reality, some of the “base values” are not real—the average pricing for some of the products was much lower than the original price indicators during the discount.

Here’s what the actual pricing picture for the seemingly most discounted products on Black Friday looks like:

Pricing on Amazon is primarily affected by supply and demand much more so than seasonality.
Often prices on Amazon can go well above or below MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price). Typically, Amazon will suppress items whose pricing goes significantly beyond what can be found on other large sites, but it will do nothing to stop falling prices. But last year, so much inventory was in short supply that we saw even more prices above MSRP. However, it’s a more common pattern across the most popular and trending items.

[BONUS] For Sellers Only: The Most Popular Deals and Labels on Amazon

Amazon product listings often feature special deal badges or some additional labels.

One product can even have one deal, but several labels.

While most of them can be managed through Seller Central, some can’t unless Amazon itself chooses to award you with a special badge (e.g. Best Seller).

Our analysis showed that the most popular deals are:

The most popular labels are:

It’s not surprising to see that an overwhelming majority of sellers have the Amazon prime label—as it means free and fast shipping, the two things Amazon customers appreciate the most.

The “prime” label becomes even more crucial during the hottest sales seasons as delivery becomes more challenging.

We found out that during Black Friday, the “prime” label was assigned to 79% of all the products. “Black Friday Deal” and “Best Seller” badges were the second and third-most popular labels on November 26.

The Amazon Prime Badge is unquestionably the most beneficial for sellers. Not only because it helps with click-thru and conversion rates, but also because so many Prime members actually filter by Free 2 Day Shipping. Coupons and Discounts can also help with CTR and conversion increase, but we need more data to be analyzed to understand not only the impact on the bottom line but also the long-term impact on ROI.

Amazon Expert, Speaker, Avenue7Media

Amazon Pricing Study: Most Crucial Insights for Both Sellers and Shoppers

We’ve managed to unwrap a lot of different pricing patterns across Amazon, and most of them are of interest to both sellers and buyers.

But we know that this is a lot of information to digest, so to wrap up, we want to mention the key discoveries you should be taking note of—both as a seller and as a shopper.

Key Takeaways for Sellers

If you’re an Amazon seller, or want to just get started with your very first ecommerce gig, knowing about the general pricing patterns on Amazon could be just what you need to succeed.

While we encourage you to take in all the insights we’ve shared in this study, here are the key things to keep in mind:

• Don’t be afraid to sell higher-priced items

While the average product price (among the most in-demand goods) is $142,74, we saw a lot of higher-priced items within the list of the most popular Amazon products.

This is especially true for tech/digital goods that typically come at much higher prices than products in other categories.

• Encourage post-New Year evening sales

Product prices go up after the end of winter holidays and in the evenings (5 pm–2 am), so whenever you’re running promotions or are investing in increasing your sales, consider the best days/times for higher prices.

• Be smart about discounting your pricing during the hottest discount seasons

As it turned out, the prices don’t drop all that much, even during the biggest sales periods. If Black Friday prices fell by 4%, the Christmas period prices grew by the same margin.

While it might not sound too customer-centric, don’t rush into discounting your pricing by large margins because, as our research showed, it’s not what sellers really do during the hottest sales seasons.

When it comes to Black Friday or other similar sale seasons, make sure your price drop is significant. Over the last few years, BFCM has become less and less impactful because buyers know that that’s not when they’re likely to get the best price. Customers are getting savvier and savvier and track prices more than most people realize. If you’re going to drop your price, make sure it’s significant enough to get buyers’ attention but not too much to make your product unprofitable.

Dan Saunders eCommerce Channel Manager at Stanley Black & Decker

From a brand perspective, it’s generally a good time to run a promotion during holidays or other key periods as Amazon shoppers are looking for deals during these busy periods. The rising cost of advertising and increased cost on Amazon make it difficult to offer rock bottom pricing during busy shopping periods. Something else to keep in mind is how relevant the holiday is to the product. Black Friday/Cyber Monday is going to be great for gift-able items. Not as great for general products like Cleaning Supplies, Pet Food, or other consumable/everyday products. The Toy category is another example where you can expect to find better discounts during Prime Day or Q1/2 as sellers may be liquidating unsellable inventory from the holidays.

Key Takeaways for Shoppers

While some of our findings (and advice) might seem cynical and not very customer-friendly, as a shopper, you should also be aware of the top pricing strategies of sellers. This will help you strike a real bargain rather than fall for a myriad of marketing tricks.

Here are the top things you should keep in mind when doing your Amazon shopping:

• Shop in late November–late December between 4 am and 12 pm.

This period features the lowest prices for the majority of products.

• Gaming products’ pricing is very volatile.

If you’re into gaming, you have a higher chance of getting a real bargain, because gaming price changes are more notable than those of other products.

If you’re in for a PlayStation, set your shopping aside for Christmas time—because, during Black Friday, the prices skyrocket.

• Don’t expect to see the lowest-ever prices during Black Friday.

Only 1.6% of the most popular Amazon products have the lowest prices on Black Friday. So unless you’re shopping for popsockets or women’s lingerie, pay closer attention to the pricing throughout different time periods.

Tools like Keepa can help you keep track of the pricing for products and even set up price drop alerts.

• Don’t believe the price strikethroughs.

You may fall for a large discount featured on a given product listing, but it’s best to review the original price labels on similar products to double-check if the seller is exaggerating the price just to entice you to buy the product. Although Amazon has been trying to crack down on such practices, they may still come up.

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