pricematch

In a bid to remain competitive against the likes of Amazon, eBay has announced that it will price match thousands of items. This includes some camera gear, too.

Over the holiday season, many of the brick and mortar retailers (Best Buy among them) promised to match online prices in a bid to stop their clientele from trying in store and ordering from the likes of Amazon online -- a process that has been nicknamed "showrooming."

A couple of months later, Target made its online price match policy year-round. And now, according to Bloomberg, your friendly neighborhood Best Buy (assuming they haven't closed down the one in your neighborhood, that is) is following suit, making it an attractive place to purchase basic camera gear.

The war between brick and mortar stores and online retailers ended a long time ago -- online retailers won. "Showrooming" was born and the B&M store became no more than a place to try before you went home to buy online. Worst case scenario you needed something right away that you would then return once your online order arrived. It's not pretty, but that's the reality of it.

This last holiday season, in an attempt to win back some traction in the fight, Best Buy offered to match online pricing on any item. This offered a great "have your cake and eat it too" scenario for consumers; but now the holiday season is over and people are back to shopping online. Well, Target is looking to change that, and not just during the holidays.

Best Buy has been struggling in recent years as consumers have increasingly looked to the Internet for their gadget shopping needs. It's quickly gaining a reputation of being a place where people "try before they go home and buy online" (known as "showrooming") If you've been using the store as your personal camera showroom and are in the market for a new camera, you might want to bring your wallet the next time you visit: Best Buy is planning to extend its price match policies to online retailers this holiday season.