Originally posted by quant2325 Sears simply acts as a reseller and is padding in a profit for doing so
Not exactly. Sears is providing an "online marketplace", similar to Amazon. The sellers pay Sears for access to their shoppers. The sellers set the prices. If the prices are higher on Sears.com, it's because the sellers are passing the marketplace fees on to the customer. I got curious, and did some reading on Sears' marketplace program. There are three levels:
"Advertise on Sears", where the customers click-through to the seller's own site (sellers pay per click-through)
"Sell on Sears", where Sears handles payment but the seller ships the product (sellers pay monthly fee + per-item commission, which is 7% for electronics)
"Fulfilled by Sears", where Sears also handles shipping (sellers pay monthly fee + commission + storage fees)
It looks like most of the Pentax sellers are "Sell on Sears".
Last edited by THoog; 08-19-2015 at 05:17 AM.