Why the same product costs different prices.

1. Wholesale terms and procurement scale

Manufacturer pricing is volume-tiered. A retailer ordering tens of thousands of units per quarter secures a unit cost meaningfully below that available to a smaller buyer. Industry benchmarks for consumer electronics suggest a 10–20 percent wholesale spread between Tier-1 distributors and small specialty retailers for identical inventory. That gap cannot be closed at the shelf without operating at a loss, so it surfaces as a sustained retail price difference.

2. Value-added tax differentials

EU member states apply standard VAT rates ranging from 17 percent (Luxembourg) to 27 percent (Hungary), with Germany at 19 percent, France at 20 percent, the Netherlands at 21 percent, Italy at 22 percent, and Denmark and Sweden at 25 percent. A €100 net price translates to €117 in Luxembourg and €127 in Hungary for the same merchandise. Under EU distance-selling rules, retailers above the €10,000 cross-border threshold apply the destination country’s VAT rate, which produces visible price differences for the same product depending on the buyer’s location. Exchange rate movements compound this for goods sourced outside the eurozone.

3. Inventory age and clearance pressure

Consumer goods depreciate while in stock. Working capital tied up in slow-moving inventory carries a holding cost that retailers account for explicitly. When a product line is superseded by a newer release, the existing units carry both depreciation and warehouse-space opportunity cost — which is why end-of-cycle models often clear at 30–50 percent below launch price. The same unit at a lower-volume retailer may remain at full price because their inventory turnover does not yet require clearance.

4. Marketplace economics

Listings on third-party marketplaces — Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Bol.com, Allegro, and similar — incur referral fees typically in the 10–15 percent range, with category-specific variations and additional payment-processing costs. Sellers price these fees into the marketplace listing. The same seller’s direct website typically lists the same product at a lower price, having avoided the platform commission. Both channels coexist for the same SKU, producing a consistent price dispersion of roughly the marketplace fee.

5. Customer acquisition cost

Retailers vary widely in how they bring buyers to a product page. Channels with high marginal cost — paid search, performance display, affiliate networks, influencer partnerships — can represent 5–15 percent of order value in acquisition spend, which must be absorbed into the listed price for the channel to remain economic. Retailers acquiring customers through organic search, brand recognition, or repeat business carry materially lower acquisition costs and can price below paid-channel competitors at the same margin.

6. Service level and post-purchase economics

Free returns, multilingual customer support, accelerated warranty servicing, and in-stock spare parts are all operational costs that some retailers carry and others do not. EU consumer law sets a baseline (two-year statutory guarantee, 14-day right of withdrawal), but service offerings above that baseline are optional. A retailer offering same-day phone support and pre-paid return labels is funding services others omit. Part of the visible price difference is the cost of that service envelope, not pure margin.

The implication for buyers

For a given product, the rational price is not a single point but a range bounded by the structural factors above. The bottom of the range is typically a high-volume retailer running on thin margins, a clearance line, or a marketplace seller operating direct. The top of the range is typically a specialist retailer offering elevated service. Neither end is correct in isolation; the right purchase depends on which trade-off — price versus service — the buyer values more for that specific transaction.

The role of price comparison

Comparing prices across retailers is the only practical method to locate where a given product sits within its rational range. Marketiq aggregates listings from eBay across six European marketplaces, the Awin retailer network, and AliExpress in a single query, surfacing the price distribution rather than any single retailer’s claim. The objective is not to identify the cheapest result in isolation but to make the full range visible, so a buyer can evaluate whether a given offer represents fair value relative to the market.