If you’ve shopped for Apple products online, then you may have noticed that they’re actually cheaper on Amazon, despite being brand new. So why would Apple allow this?
Well it has to do with the way manufacturers incentivize third party retailers to sell their products.
Companies like Apple have some stores of their own, but they want other retailers like Best Buy, Walmart, and Amazon to sell their products too. That way they can extend their reach to more customers, rather than only those who visit one of Apple’s retail stores.
But in order to motivate third party retailers to sell their products, Apple needs to give them something in return, which typically comes in the form of a wholesale discount. For example, Best Buy or Amazon might purchase 1000 MacBook Airs from Apple for 10 or 15% less than retail price, although we don’t know the exact numbers. This discount allows resellers like Amazon to pass those savings on to the customer, which is why as of January 2026, they can sell the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air for $200 less than Apple’s $999 retail price.
But this means Amazon is hardly making any profit on that MacBook Air. In fact, they could be taking a slight loss. So why would they bother even selling Apple products at all? Well it’s because the real profit is in the accessories. The bags, cases, screen protectors, cables, and adapters that are typically purchased alongside MacBooks often provide huge margins for retailers that make selling Apple products worth their while.
So if customers can buy the same Apple products from Amazon for less, why would anyone buy directly from Apple and pay full price? Well it’s because there are benefits to buying direct. On Amazon, you can’t configure your MacBook Air with more RAM, a faster GPU, or storage higher than 512GB. That can only be done on Apple’s website. And if you want to trade in your old MacBook Air for a discount, Amazon doesn’t offer that either. And this is by design.
Apple wants to offer their products to as many customers as possible, but they also want to motivate shoppers to buy from them directly. That’s why Apple invests so much money into their retail stores. If you walk in and buy something from them, Apple makes more profit than if you go to Best Buy or Walmart. And with exclusive benefits online, Apple tries to attract you to their website rather than Amazon’s, even though you’ll have to pay full price.
Currently, Apple does not match Amazon prices, and this will not change in the near future.
