Pricing

Price wars are nothing new. Typically an airline will launch a price war on Tuesday, and that's usually followed by competitors matching or beating a market-specific airfare within hours. Big-box electronic stores do the same tactic with a competitor down the street, which usually then meets or beats the competitor's price. The price war has now extended deep into the internet. It's known as dynamic pricing. Retailers are hiring companies to change the price of products at a moment's notice depending upon market conditions and competitors’ sales prices.

A STELLAService evaluation of customer service performance over the busy stretch of Black Friday through Cyber Monday reveals some insights into how retailers prioritize their customer service efforts. For example, J.C. Penney ranked near the bottom of the pack last year in phone and email support. With a new chief executive in place this year, however, the company clearly placed an emphasis on improving phone support during the holidays, besting the rest of the field in time to reach a customer service agent (average time of 22 seconds).

Ideally, Casey St. Clair would be spending Thanksgiving relaxing and eating dinner with her boyfriend and his family. Instead, the part-time Target employee and substitute teacher will work next Thursday night during the early kickoff of the big-box retailer's Black Friday sale. Stores will open at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving this year, reflecting a wider shift in the retail industry toward getting a head start on the biggest shopping day of the year. As it stands now, Toys"R"Us, Wal-Mart, Sears and Kmart will be the first large retail chains to open their doors for bargain hunters at 8 p.m. 

Some eBay sellers who received an invitation to a private promotion this week were frustrated in their attempts to take advantage of the sale, and an eBay spokesperson confirmed there was a glitch. eBay invited a select group of registered users to list up to 5,000 fixed-price listings and pay no listing fees. The eBay sale kicked off on Thursday, Nov. 8, but some users who received the invitation said eBay was charging them to list.

We're nearly a year into Ron Johnson's tenure as CEO of J.C. Penney, and the results aren't encouraging. The retailer's share price has fallen more than 10 percent under the former Apple and Target executive, and now, a new report from BIGinsight suggests that female shoppers are fleeing the retailer in droves.

In the latest effort to beat Amazon.com at its game, Target says that for the first time it will match prices that consumers find on identical products at select online competitors this holiday season. Target's CEO Gregg Steinhafel told about 80 reporters at a company media conference Tuesday that the retailers include Amazon, Walmart.com, Bestbuy.com, Toysrus.com and babiesrus.com. Target's bold price match program will run from Nov. 1 through Dec. 16.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Best Buy is planning to match prices on many items offered by Amazon.com and other online retailers during the holiday shopping season. The move appears to be part of a larger effort from Best Buy to crack down on the number of consumers who scope out products in brick-and-mortar stores and then buy them more cheaply online, a trend known as showrooming. In addition to the expanded price match policy, Best Buy is also said to be introducing free home delivery for products that aren't in stock in stores.

Michaels Stores, the arts and crafts retailer, launched an online holiday planning tool this past July designed to take the stress out of holiday gift-giving for users as well as reward them and get them more engaged with the brand. The loyalty campaign, dubbed "Make Your Joy," was designed and executed using a multichannel promotion and loyalty platform from ePrize and will last through the holiday season.

Low prices: That's what's going to get registers ringing this holiday season at Kohl's, which is clawing its way out of a business slump. So said Kevin Mansell, CEO of the 1,134-unit department store chain, at Goldman Sachs' retail conference on Thursday. His comments come a day after the CFO of competitor Target delivered the opposite message at the investor conference, vowing not to partake in the price wars during the Christmas shopping season.

In the first half of fiscal 2012, J.C. Penney's sales dropped 21.3 percent, or $1.7 billion. At an investor conference today, the company's chief financial officer indicated that the rest of the year will be consistent with that of the first half, or another 20 percent. This is in harmony with my forecast published here on Aug. 1. At this pace, the drop will total over $3 billion for the full year. While earnings will also be lower, the company reiterated its view that cash will build to $1 billion at year-end.