Boohoo to probe price differences for same clothing

By Jennifer Meierhans BBC News

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54 minutes ago

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image caption BBC journalist Jennifer Meierhans, left, and friend Lucy Burn discovered the problem pricing when they happened to buy the same coat from different stores

Online retailer Boohoo is investigating why the same items of clothing were sold for higher prices across a number of its fashion labels.

The BBC discovered that Dorothy Perkins and Coast, which are both owned by Boohoo, sold exactly the same coat but it cost £34 more at Coast.

There are price disparities across a range of Boohoo brands, which also include Oasis and Warehouse.

Boohoo said the "miscommunication was not intentional".

"All Boohoo group brands work independently, and so this miscommunication was not intentional as teams are not privy to what's being bought and sold across the other group brands," said a spokeswoman for Boohoo.

"Our internal investigation continues and we will be re-pricing all the crossover stock to be aligned."

image caption The only difference in the coats was the branding stitched inside the back

The BBC first discovered the price disparity when reporter Jennifer Meierhans bought a coat from Coast. A friend happened to buy the exact same coat from Dorothy Perkins.

The Dorothy Perkins branding appeared to have been cut from the care label in the coat sold by Coast which was £34 more expensive.

image caption The care label in the coat sold by Coast appears to have had the branding cut off

Boohoo said the coat was first sold by Coast and has now been re-priced at £17 on both brands' websites.

The online retailer operates a number of different brands after buying up businesses when their owners fell into administration.

Boohoo bought Coast's online business in 2019 along with sister brand Karen Millen. While in February, it acquired Dorothy Perkins, together with Wallis and Burton, from failed retail group Arcadia for £25.2m

Boohoo said: "Stock of the item in question was purchased and live on site by Coast prior to The Boohoo Group's acquisition of the Dorothy Perkins brand."

image copyright Oasis

There are a number of instances where the same item of clothing is priced differently across Boohoo's brands.

The long luxe padded coat in the colour mushroom was originally sold for £89 in Oasis and £65 in Dorothy Perkins .

The long luxe padded coat in khaki was in the sale for £30 in Warehouse and £66.75 in Coast until the BBC brought the matter to Boohoo's attention.

They are now both priced at £18.

image copyright Dorothy Perkins

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