Pricing

Being from California, I've always loved to drive. Whether in the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains or along the stunning California coastline. I've always appreciated having the steering wheel in my hands, and the wind blowing in my now departed hair. (Cue Telly Savalas, “Who loves ya, baby?”). Despite being an “excellent driver” (if I say…

The once-familiar cadences of retail prices and promotions — quarterly or even annual rhythms, with perhaps just minor variations on prior years’ assumptions — are a distant memory today. The retail landscape has become almost unrecognizable as shoppers flock to online channels, demanding 24/7 complete price transparency, along with a wider array of competitors. Retailers…

Two major retailers have raised the cost of a popular at-home COVID-19 test after an agreement with the White House to keep them at a fixed price lapsed, multiple news outlets reported Wednesday. Kroger and Walmart had sold the BinaxNOW test kit, manufactured by the company Abbott, at $14, per the agreement with President Joe…

The Dollar Tree announced Tuesday that it will raise prices from $1 to $1.25 on the majority of its products by the first quarter of 2022. The change is a sign of the pressures low-cost retailers face holding down prices during a period of rising inflation. Dollar Tree said in a quarterly earnings release Tuesday that…

The biggest shopping months for retail are upon us. Many retailers think way ahead of time, many months in advance. It’s a good practice. But what if you re-evaluate your pricing strategy now, is it too late? The short answer is no. It’s not too late; there's still time. In fact, it’s likely most retailers…

The past two years have brought with them many retail changes. One glance at an empty store shelf reveals how inventory and supply chain hiccups have become an ongoing issue since the start of the pandemic. Retailers all over the U.S. now manage shopper expectations with phrases such as “Now’s the time to be thinking…

What a difference a year makes. At this time last year, consumers were hesitant to spend on much besides essentials and products that would make their life at home more comfortable. They were fearful about going into stores, many of which were temporarily closed due to the pandemic anyway, worried about how COVID-19 would affect…

After the whiplash of store closures, supply chain havoc, and demand see-saws of the pandemic era, retailers are relieved to see that consumers are enthusiastic about back-to-school shopping in 2021. In fact, a recent Mastercard SpendingPulse study found that U.S. retail sales during the back-to-school shopping period in 2021 are expected to be up 5.5…

The concept of promotions dates back a few centuries where businesses of all kinds printed messages on various items in order to generate consumer awareness for their goods, products or services. Consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands popularized the concept in the 1950s with the help of the earliest ad agencies on Madison Avenue in New…

In this episode of Retail Right Now, Total Retail's Melissa Campanelli and Kristina Stidham discuss an article recently published by Total Retail, “A Pricing Reboot: How Optimization Science Can Recharge Your Omnichannel Pricing,” authored by Geoff Pofahl, Ph.D., head of science at DemandTec. Pofahl writes that many of the shoppers who flocked to online channels…