The Primini e-commerce Barometer is an initiative of Primini.tn, a Tunisian price comparator.
Tunisie Numérique, as a media partner, exclusively publishes the results of this monthly barometer, faithfully reflecting the online browsing trends of Tunisian internet users.
The collected data constitute independent content processed by Primini, with no financial compensation tied to the brands cited. These data do not constitute shopping advice or commercial recommendations.
In September, the smartphone category concentrates the most clicks to merchants on Primini, ahead of laptops.
And for the most viewed models, the price displayed for a given reference varies from one store to another much more than for the rest of the range.
Among the 14 comparable models among the top 20 in the ranking, at the data capture on September 17, the Primini Barometer records a median gap of 130 DT (average distance between prices and the average price) between merchants for the most viewed smartphones of the month, versus 80 DT across the entire 904 referenced models.
The high end, and iPhones in particular, require a different reading: two price levels coexist for the same reference, without the price data explaining the reason.
This edition does not measure inflation: it observes what the same phone costs, on the same day, depending on the store displaying it.
Key takeaways:
- 130 DT median gap between merchants on the most viewed smartphone models on Primini, with a median percentage gap of 20.8%, on the September 17 data capture.
- 80 DT median gap on the entire set of 904 smartphone references compared, with a median of 13.4% as a proportion of the price.
- Nearly one in two iPhones shows two distinct price levels, in a median ratio of 1.7:1; these references are described separately and are not counted in the gaps.
The most viewed models on Primini are those whose store prices differ:
The twenty most viewed smartphones on Primini in September were identified by cross-referencing three independent sources of ad traffic: redirects to merchants from direct and organic visits, clicks from Google search, and pages viewed from that same search.
The three rankings agree.
Fourteen of these five models lend themselves to a comparison between merchants, meaning they are offered by at least five shops in the same configuration and at a single price level.
For these 14, the median gap reaches 130 DT, with a median percentage gap of 20.8%.
By comparison, across all 904 smartphone references compared yields 80 DT, with a median of 13.4% in proportion of the price.
The Galaxy A07, the second most-viewed model of the month: 21 shops offer it in the same version, from 349 to 469 dinars. The gap of 120 dinars represents 34% of the lowest price.
Across the entire range, 80 dinars median gap
The figure represents the interquartile gap observed across 904 products. It also means that for 1 out of 4 products, the price difference exceeds 24%.
Dispersion varies by brand.
For references with a single price level, the median gap is 15.4% for Samsung and 14.6% for Xiaomi, compared to 9.1% for Infinix and Honor and 6.7% for Vivo.
This ranking does not indicate the expense of a brand: it measures how closely stores agree, or not, on the price of the same model.
By price bracket, the gap in dinars grows with the price, but its proportion remains between 11 and 15% below 4,000 dinars. Above 4,000 dinars, the median gap reaches 1,100 DT, with a median of 23% of the price, on a limited set of 41 references.
iPhone: two price levels for the same reference :
Apple smartphones require a distinct reading. Of 91 iPhone references offered by at least five merchants, 48 show two clearly separated price groups. For these 48 references, the median of the low-price group is around 3,200 dinars and the median of the high-price group around 5,700 dinars, in a median ratio of 1.7. The phenomenon also exists for Samsung, on 31 references.
The barometer does not compare these two levels against each other and does not interpret it: a gap of this magnitude for an identical reference points to selling conditions that price data do not measure. The labels of offers do not allow explaining these two levels: of the 1,185 offers linked to these 91 references, 13 mention the SIM card type and none mention warranty or origin of the product.
These references are therefore excluded from the gap calculation and described here for what they are: a two-level market, observable, whose cause is not established by this edition.
On the 43 iPhone references with a single price level, the median gap between merchants is 1,000 dinars, with a median of 24.2% of the price, for a median price of 5,549 dinars.
The iPhone 18 arrived in pre-order at two shops on September 16.
Over the period, the median price of the iPhone 17 Pro Max 256 GB, offered by 27 merchants, remained stable: it stood at 7,699 dinars on September 17, the same level as a month earlier.
Clicks to merchants for iPhones, however, rose by 24% in the launch week compared with the previous week.
Prices stable over the period :
Across 977 smartphone references tracked from July 18 to September 17 in a comparable setup across the two periods, 80 % show a median price stable from one period to the next, within 1% or less. 12% rose and 8% fell.
The median variation is zero.
The largest declines for references tracked by at least five merchants in each period include the Oppo Reno 8T 8/256 GB (−22.4%), the Huawei Nova 11i 8/128 GB (−20%), the iPhone 14 Pro 256 GB black (−17.7%), the Samsung Galaxy A14 4/64 GB (−16.2%), and the Realme C33 and C51 4/128 GB (−12.5% and −12%). The sharpest increases affect the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE 8/256 GB (+22.3%), the Itel P55 8/128 GB (+15.8%), the Tecno Spark 30C 6/128 GB (+12.5%), the Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro Plus 8/256 GB (+12.1%), and the Honor X5B Plus 4/128 GB (+11.1%).
Clicks to merchants rise on smartphones, but not as fast as on the entire Primini :
Clicks to merchants on smartphones rose by 29% between the period from July 18 to August 17 and August 18 to September 17. With Primini as a whole rising by 39% in the same comparison, the relative share of smartphones in merchant clicks drops by about 7%.
Laptops, smartwatches and earbuds, by contrast, grew faster than the site as a whole during the observed period.
Among smartphones, Samsung accounts for 28.6% of merchant clicks for the month, Xiaomi 19.4%, Infinix 15.3%, Honor 9.4% and Apple 8.4%. The Google query bringing the most visitors to a Primini product page, all categories combined, remains “iphone 17 pro max price tunisia.”
As a reminder, laptops, the subject of the August edition, show on September 17 a median gap of 250 dinars, with a median of 10.2% of the price, across 594 references compared, in the same order of magnitude as a month earlier.
What the barometer could not measure :
The Galaxy S24 Ultra 12/256 GB, the third most viewed model, is offered by only four merchants at a price corroborated on September 17: it is not included in the comparison. Price bands above 2,000 dinars rest on fewer than 50 references each and do not lead to any conclusion.
Finally, among the 12,390 offers tied to the 1,022 candidate references, 724 offers (5.8%) were excluded because they carried a variant other than that of the listing, memory or storage different, and 18 references thus fell below the five-merchant threshold: the gap is measured only between offers of the same configuration.
What the price gap does not measure
The gap between the lowest and the highest price of a reference is a displayed price gap. It does not take into account delivery fees, delays, warranty, after-sales service, or payment facilities.
It does not automatically translate into an achievable saving for the buyer, and it says nothing about the quality of service of the cheapest shop.
Five checks before paying
- Verify the exact configuration. RAM and storage change the price; a listing at 6/128 GB is not the same as 8/256 GB, and the label “12 GB (6+6)” means 6 GB of physical memory.
- Check the conditions when a price is very much lower than others. Product origin, warranty, SIM type and selling conditions may differ.
- Compare on the same day. Prices move little, but they do move; the comparison is valid for the date of the capture.
- Add shipping. Shipping fees can erode the advantage of a lower displayed price.
- Look beyond the price. Warranty, delivery time and return conditions should also be checked before purchase.
Methodological note
This exclusive barometer relies on data collected by Primini.tn from July 18 to September 17, 2026.
More than 250 Tunisian e-shops are monitored daily, representing a catalog of 150,000 products.
The displayed prices are averages calculated in Tunisian dinars, VAT included, excluding ephemeral promotions and delivery charges.
These data reflect market trends at a given moment and do not constitute commercial buying advice.
The prices presented are a snapshot as of the capture dates and evolve continuously. No conclusions should be drawn about the commercial policy of the stores mentioned.
Before any purchase, check the price of the day directly on Primini.tn.
