The Profitero Blog

Retail Intelligence: Dynamic pricing coming to a high street near you

Written by Profitero | Oct 22, 2013 1:00:00 AM

Kingfisher CEO Ian Cheshire has predicted that the retail industry will soon be using dynamic pricing based on demand and time of day, in the same way as airlines and hotels.  

According to the boss of Kingfisher, dynamic pricing is set to revolutionise the retail industry, with electronic shelf pricing already enabling the retailer to change prices across its Castorama business in France.

Electronic price tags allow retailers to display up-to-the-minute and accurate prices, saving store staff valuable time in manually pricing goods. Prices are controlled by each store, allowing Castorama to install local pricing.

The Kingfisher boss and Chairman of the British Retail Consortium revealed he is looking at introducing variable pricing based on the model used by airlines into B&Q stores. This means products could have different prices at different times of the week depending on demand, with the retailer testing a system whereby prices of some products would be cheaper earlier in the day and during the week to encourage store visits.

Tailoring your pricing strategy in this way is key to increase competitiveness. The ability to react in real-time presents significant opportunities for retailers who can monitor and respond to online competitors’ prices as they happen. Price intelligence allows you to:

  • Adjust your prices to meet or even beat the competition: in today’s ultra competitive marketplace, your prices need to be attractive to the increasingly price-sensitive shopper
  • Change your prices dependent on time of day: Kingfisher are trialling variable pricing to encourage shoppers into stores during non-peak hours; by contrast, you can also optimise your prices when shoppers are most willing to purchase

By analysing and responding to competitor pricing, retailers can optimise sales and increase profit margins. Profitero provides this critical intelligence, giving you visibility into the prices, product assortment and stock availability of your online competitors.

To find out more about how Profitero helps more than 40 global retailers make smarter and more profitable pricing decisions, contact sales@profitero.com today.

Profitero.com: Web based competitor price monitoring for retailers and brands

About Profitero

Profitero is the leading global provider of online competitor pricing data. We provide both bricks & mortar and online retailers with their competitors’ prices, promotions and full product assortment information. Profitero’s accurate and timely competitor intelligence enables our customers to make better informed and more profitable pricing decisions, helping them to increase sales as well as margins.

More than 40 global retailers, including Staples, Sam’s Club, Tesco, Waitrose and Ocado, rely on Profitero Price Intelligence to:

  • Benchmark competitor prices
  • Manage their prices and promotions
  • Attract price sensitive shoppers
  • Negotiate better with suppliers.

Our pricing data can be seamlessly integrated into price optimization solutions such as Blue Yonder, Revionics and IBM DemandTec, to deliver more accurate and effective price optimization. Profitero is also the preferred supplier of online competitor pricing data to Nielsen’s retail customers across more than 100 countries.

To discover how Profitero can help make your pricing smarter, contact us at sales@profitero.com or visit www.profitero.com.