Everyday Low Prices Spurs DVD Empire To Record Sales

The ""Everyday Low Prices"" initiative implemented two weeks ago by DVD Empire (www.dvdempire.com), a leading online retailer of digital video discs (DVD) and DVD-ROM, has pushed unit sales at the two-year old company to a new high. On Wednesday, March 24, DVD Empire unit sales of DVDs soared to 2,218 discs, 31 percent above the previous one-day sales record of 1,697 discs set during the Christmas 1998 buying season.On Monday, March 22, DVD Empire instituted a new pricing policy designed to counter short-term, below-cost price stunts by some DVD retailers, which Jeff Rix, DVD Empire President, characterized as the equivalent of ""credit card teasers rates."" During the 1998 holiday sales seasons, a number of retailers sold individual titles at a steep loss in order to generate publicity in a price war that has been called ""quixotic."" Rix observed, ""Often, the titles sell out in a matter of hours and customers have to wait weeks for their orders to be filled.""With ""Everyday Low Prices"" DVD Empire offers a discount of 30 percent on titles from almost every major movie studio. DVDs such as Starship Troopers, bearing a list price of $29.98, are now sold for $20.95. The 30 percent discount applies to the output of all major studios except Buena Vista, whose titles are priced at 27 percent off.Saying that ""itís time to show the customer respect,"" Rix announced that DVD Empire will sell all titles all the time at the lowest price it can while still providing the same service, including overnight delivery of more than 3,300 titles, the industryís largest inventory (according to the company), from its own warehouse.