Pricing

Let’s face it, the world of retail promotions is often a shoot-first, aim-later environment, where merchants either just repeat last year’s promotions or randomly toss out desperate offers driven by trade fund incentives or competitors’ current offers. However, in an unprecedented retail environment where shopper behaviors and preferences bear no resemblance to those of past…

Over the past decade, e-commerce has seen tremendous growth, and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated it further. The retail landscape has changed drastically, and retailers have had to find creative ways to compete with giants like Amazon.com. As we kick off the new year, it's top of mind for retailers to come up with strategies…

The future of selling requires retailers and brands to anticipate customer and channel demand shifts. The problem is companies admit they're not quite ready. According to a recent Forrester study of footwear and apparel brands and retailers, fewer than one-third of brands believe they're fully prepared to act on demand shifts in their market, and…

COVID-19 has hit every industry hard. But if something is certain, it’s that the world as we know it is different. As many as 25,000 stores may close this year as businesses continue to feel the impacts of the coronavirus, according to a new report from Coresight Research. In order to stay relevant and adapt,…

Consumers are massively changing their shopping patterns and preferences. According to McKinsey, 40 percent of U.S. buyers said they had switched to other brands or retailers for the past few months. The first two reasons they provided were lower prices and a better price/value ratio. A logical and the easiest step to take here would…

Retailers considering implementing a full lifecycle price, promotion and markdown optimization system typically are familiar with the business benefits it delivers — enhanced shopper engagement, better alignment with price image and category strategy goals, and improved margins. However, retailers are often unsure how to make an informed decision about whether to build or buy a…

Bed Bath & Beyond (BB&B) is known for its frequent coupons, sent in the mail and via email to lure customers into stores by promising 15 percent or 20 percent discounts off bedding and other home accessories. However, in a bid to boost profits and be more competitive on pricing with its competitors, the company is…

There’s no question that the upcoming holiday shopping season, and Black Friday in particular, promises to be the strongest on record. With major retailers such as Walmart planning to remain closed on Thanksgiving — the modern start of the holiday shopping season — both brick-and-mortar and online retailers alike are gearing up to maximize their…

As the holidays quickly approach, many early-bird consumers have already begun rounding up items on their holiday lists, eager to beat the holiday rush. But as any retailer knows, there will inevitably be plenty of shoppers who need a little — or perhaps a lot — of help making that final dash to get their holiday shopping wrapped…

Several major retailers have signaled that they're using Amazon Prime Day 2020, which runs today and tomorrow, as the starting point to begin their holiday sales — even though they're not mentioning Amazon.com directly. On Monday, for example, J.C. Penney launched an event that runs through Wednesday that allows "shoppers to get a jump start on…