Pricing

Don't like the price you're seeing on a coffee maker or a toothbrush? Try waiting five minutes. That lesson is starting to dawn on consumers as retailers embrace technologies that allow them to make rapid-fire price changes on a hourly or even minute-by-minute basis. Consumers are accustomed to rapid price fluctuations in the online world, used by sophisticated e-commerce retailers like Amazon.com, but brick-and-mortar retailers are embracing technologies that crawl the web for product prices and make adjustments on the fly both online and in stores for things like consumer electronics, power tools and even consumer packaged goods.

Every argument has two sides, right? Well, the latest twist to the retail industry's price-matching saga is no different, and camps are forming up on both sides of the pro and con divide. The latest chapter in the saga is Target and its recent announcement that its price-matching policy would move from a holiday season bonus to a year-long price-match extravaganza. Some say it's the start of a retail revolution; others call it a mistake that will do little to make even a ripple in the retail waters.

Fake prices are coming back at J.C. Penney, and this time they'll be more fake than ever. In a fresh bid to highlight Penney's prices as low, CEO Ron Johnson is pushing some manufacturers to concoct phony suggested retail markups for their clothing, sources told The Post. The plan, insiders say, includes erecting signs and fixtures that will display the sometimes made-up retail prices, while tagging the clothes and accessories themselves with Penney's own lower prices.

We reported last week that lululemon's CEO Christine Day said "You'll either offer promotions or not, and we're in the ‘not’ category." But lululemon is in the Yogabowl Warehouse Sale at Nassau Coliseum, an epic shopping event exclusive to those within range of Long Island from Feb. 1 to Feb. 3. Obviously this sale is different than your regular sales rack. There will be tailgating. There will be snacks. It's in a coliseum. The intent isn't to get bodies in the store, like promotions and sales attempt to do, so technically the company is getting rid of its surplus items without diluting the "no sale" branding.

Sure, go ahead and regift that present your friend bought for you at Wal-Mart, but whatever you do, don't return it. The world's largest retailer is apparently slacking off on giving full refunds to customers with gift receipts, at least according to a recent report by CBS Boston. When a producer from the network attempted to return a TV originally purchased for $248 using a gift receipt, she was only able to get back $228 — the unit's new on-sale price. 

Sometimes it pays to procrastinate. Millions of us still need to buy holiday gifts, and retailers want that business. So they've lowered prices to attract last-minute shoppers. "Retailers are definitely slashing prices," said Chris Garlotta, co-founder of ZingSale.com, a site that monitors prices for more than 10,000 products sold by hundreds of merchants on Amazon.com. "We found aggressive discounts that are often significantly better than Black Friday deals."

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.