Retailers face increasing challenges related to pricing including high consumer price sensitivity, aggressive competitive pricing, and the need to maintain brand image. Many retailers still believe they can win on price alone, though top performers focus more on brand protection. Gathering competitive price data remains a challenge, with over half of respondents still relying on manual processes. Emerging technologies that provide automated competitive price intelligence are helping address this challenge and better enable retailers to implement effective pricing strategies across all sales channels in today's omni-channel environment.
4. #360pricing
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5. #360pricing
Panelists
Nikki Baird
Managing Partner
RSR Research
Debbie Hauss
Editor-in-Chief
Retail TouchPoints
MODERATOR
Jenn Markey
VP, Marketing
360pi
6. Tough Love: An In Depth Look
at Retailers’ Pricing
Practices: Benchmark 2013
NIKKI BAIRD
MANAGING PARTNER
MAY 2013
7. What Is RSR?
• Market Intelligence, focused on retail
• Context: the business challenges & opportunities that drive
technology investments
• Pragmatic insights
• Powered by extensive retail experience
• Fueled by a deep bed of research data
• We help retailers keep their IT strategies aligned with corporate
objectives
• We help solution providers align their products and messages
with retailers’ needs
7
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices
8. Our BOOT Methodology
8
They sell more “stuff” but… they also think and
act differently than their competitors.
Retail Winners: Year-over-year comparable store
sales outperform inflation.
Business
Challenges
Opportunities
Organizational
Inhibitors
Technology
Enablers
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices
9. Respondent Profiles (Pricing 2013)
Responses received from 134 respondents, January-April 2013
• Revenue
• 37% Tier 4 (Less than $50m/year)
• 19% Tier 3 ($51m - $249m/year)
• 11% Tier 2 ($250m-$999m/year
• 15% Lower Tier 1 ($1b - $5b/year)
• 18% Upper Tier 1 (More than $5b/year)
• Performance
• 20% Below average
• 45% Average
• 35% Above average
• HQ
• 66% North America
• 16% Europe
• 2% UK
• 9% Asia Pacific
• 2% Latin America
• 5% Middle East/Africa
9
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices
10. Respondent Profiles (cont.)
• Retail Presence
• 94% North America
• 26% Europe
• 15% UK
• 20% Asia Pacific
• 15% Latin America
• 22% Middle East/Africa
• Products Sold
• 31% Fashion, Short Lifecycle or Seasonal
• 27% Durable Goods or Consumer Electronics
• 27% Basics or Replenishment Goods
• 15% Perishables
10
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices
11. The Top 5 Things RSR
Learned About
Price Intelligence
1. Price sensitivity of consumers continues to drive retailers’
priorities when it comes to pricing practices
2. Competitive response is still fierce
3. A large number of retailers continue to believe they can win on
price alone
4. Retailers are starting to figure out showrooming – the best
response? To “be competitive”
5. Lack of clean data is inhibiting retailers’ pricing capabilities
Bonus Learning:
As pricing matures, retailers intend to more deeply integrate all
kinds of data elements into price decisions
11
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices
12. Price Sensitivity &
Aggressiveness
18%
9%
27%
22%
47%
42%
51%
67%
13%
21%
25%
25%
33%
34%
40%
41%
57%
Respond to segment blurring (competition coming
from unexpected places)
Need to provide more localized pricing
Need to provide consistency in price across
channels
Increased promotional intensity of competitors
Increased price transparency – the impact of
comparative price shopping
Need to protect our brand’s price image
Need to get better return on our inventory
investment through pricing
Increased pricing aggressiveness from competitors
Increased price sensitivity of consumers
TopThree (3) Strategic Pricing Business Challenges
2013 2012
N/A
12
Source: RSR Research, April 2013Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices
13. Winners Seek Brand Protection
Laggards Look Over their
Shoulders
13
28%
39%
56%
11%
17%
13%
39%
45%
29%
29%
6%
22%
25%
28%
47%
Respond to segment blurring (competition
coming from unexpected places)
Increased price transparency – the impact of
comparative price shopping
Increased pricing aggressiveness from
competitors
Need to provide consistency in price across
channels
Need to protect our brand’s price image
Business Challenges - Differing by Performance
Retail Winners Average Performers Laggards
Source: RSR Research, April 2013Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices
14. Competitive Vulnerability Tops
the Chart in all Categories
14
64%
44%
67%
53%
24%
56%
38%
40%
48%
24%
29%
40%
Fashion/Seasonal Basics/Replenishment Durable Goods & Consumer
Electronics
Perishable goods
TopThree (3) Difference by Sub-vertical
Increased price sensitivity of consumers Increased pricing aggressiveness from competitors
Need to protect our brand’s price image
Source: RSR Research, April 2013
When asked about their position on commoditization and margin erosion, 55% report
“We have to operate within an extremely price competitive environment” – far more
than any other issue – including the impact of price transparency.
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices
15. Laggards Hope to Lead with Price
15
65%
36%
28%
59%
56%
66%
Laggards Average Winners
Top-3 Pricing Opportunities:
The Winner's Perspective
Improve top-line sales Improve margins
Source: RSR Research, April 2013Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices
16. Figuring Out Showrooming
As more and more retailers encounter
showrooming, their confidence in
what to do about it seems to increase.
Biggest differences:
• Laggards drive the "Ignore it" category:
18% vs. 9% of Winners. Laggards are
also more likely to price match - 24% vs.
16% of Winners.
• Average performers are most likely to be
competitive - 42% vs. 38% of Winners
and 29% of laggards.
• Winners are most likely to say they
haven't seen any showrooming yet - 34%
vs. 18% of average performers and 29%
of laggards.
• Average performers appear to be getting
squeezed - they aren’t necessarily
positioning themselves against laggards
as low price competitors, but they don't
necessarily have the service or message
elements that help them justify not price
matching.
16
9%
11%
43%
26%
7%
12%
39% 39%
14%
17%
27%
38%
Ignore it Price match We haven't seen it
yet
Be "competitive"
Mobile Price Comparison
Policies
2011 2012 2013
Source: RSR Research, April 2013Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices
17. What’s Getting in the Way?
17
29%
31%
31%
34%
34%
40%
42%
42%
The possibility of negative customer reaction to
changes in our pricing strategy
Resistance to change from Merchandising
We can’t execute at the level of granularity that
pricing solutions provide
Lack of coordination with Marketing
Channel organizational structure makes it difficult to
coordinate pricing strategies across channels
Lack of the right skill sets
Resistance to change from Stores or other channels
Lack of clean price, competitor and purchase data
TopThree (3) Organizational Barriers Impacting Ability to
Implement More Effective Pricing Practices
Source: RSR Research, April 2013
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices
18. Pricing is No Longer An Island
18
15%
21%
26%
33%
23%
28%
41%
44%
33%
14%
19%
24%
28%
32%
35%
42%
44%
51%
Best practices for managing channel conflict of
prices
Line of business leaders to help change our
business processes
Pilot programs in specific stores or regions
Better communication and education of resistant
parties or organizations
Better training to improve pricing skill sets
Tailor a technology solution to my business
process and needs
Business process analysis for pricing process
improvement
Build up progressively more sophisticated pricing
capabilities over time
Improved integration technology tools
TopThree (3) Ways to OvercomeThese Barriers
2013 2012
Source: RSR Research, April 2013Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices
22. <#>
Pricing Enters the C-Suite"
Tough Love: An In Depth Look at Retail Pricing Practices"
19#
Double dip recession
Amazon
Technology
disruption
Omni-Channel#
23. <#>
Price needs to reflect brand"
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices"
Everyday
Low
Prices
Premium
Pricing
Price
+
Customer
Experience
=
Brand
Brand
consistency
=
Omni-‐Channel
20#
24. <#>
Consumer Electronics – Hit Hardest by Showrooming"
Source: Placed - Aisle to Amazon Study
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices"
21#
25. <#>
Consumer Electronics: Price Sensitivity & Volatility"
Product:
Samsung
UN55EH6000
55-‐Inch
LED
HDTV
Timeline:
Q4,
2012
(Oct
1-‐Dec
31)
Compe=tors:
• Best
Buy
Canada
• Best
Buy
US
• Future
Shop
• Amazon
US
• Amazon
US
Marketplace
• Sears
Canada
• Sears
US
• Frys
Electronics
22#
BlackFriday
Full Competitive Pricing#
ReportAvailable at:#
www.360pi.com#
26. <#>
Dealing with Price Sensitivity & Volatility"
Tough Love: An In Depth Look at Retail Pricing Practices"
Need
accurate
real
]me
view
into
compe]tors’
pricing
23#
27. <#>
Easier said than done"
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices"
24#
28. <#>
Manual efforts prone to error & delay"
58%
52%
54%
36%
13%
0%
4%
7%
Fashion/Seasonal
Basics/Replenishment
Durable Goods & Consumer Electronics
Perishable goods
Gathering Competitive Price Intelligence Data
Not currently using it It's a manual process
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices"
Good
candidates
for
360pi’s
Automated
Price
Intelligence
25#
29. <#>
How do we get it?"
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices"
26#
30. 360pi Retailer Advantage"
Product
Price
Purchase
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices
360comparables
360price
360mobile
27#
31. <#>
Multi-Faceted View of Price"
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices"
28#
32. <#>
Don’t get left behind"
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices
29#
33. <#>
Next Steps"
Best practices and thought leadership content to help
you on your price intelligence journey.
360pi.com/resources/discovery-center "
Modern Retail Pricing is our blog and covers new trends
and insights into retail pricing. Subscribe today!
blog.360pi.com"
See our product in-action and discover what it can do for
your business. Request a free demo!
360pi.com/free-demo"
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices"
30#
34. <#>
Contact Me"
Jenn
Markey
VP,
Marke]ng
360pi
j.markey@360pi.com
1.855.360.0075
(toll-‐free)
@360_pi
Tough Love: An In Depth View at Retail Pricing Practices"
31#