Find your sweet spot

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    8 Reasons Your Products May Reflect the WRONG Prices in Stores

    Jun 7, 2022 8:02:00 PM | Plum Mobile Research, Retail Audit, Price Check

    It may be small, but it’s extremely powerful.

    It’s the humble price tag.

    With one passing glance, a price tag can make a sale…or lose a customer.

    An unappealing price stunts your brand's growth in two ways: not only will you lose an immediate sale, but, if the shopper makes a final determination about your products based on the wrong price, you may also say goodbye to them...forever.

    Given the power of price, brands work hard to ensure their prices hit the sweet spot with shoppers. 

    But here’s a scary question: how do you know shoppers are seeing the right prices in stores?

    Retail partners might, after all, misprice your products, leaving you and others wondering why sales are so disappointing. 

     

    Are My Products Wrongly Priced? 8 Questions You SHOULD Be Asking

    Most pricing errors stem from the same root causes. To identify where your execution is falling short, here are eight questions to ask about pricing.

    1. Is human error to blame?

    This is perhaps the most obvious reason: your products may simply be mispriced due to human error. For example: 

    • Price tags could be misprinted
    • Employees can miss SKUs when adjusting prices
    • Employees might accidentally overlook information about pricing changes

    Of course, high turnover, insufficient training, or other managerial issues could be contributing. Some stores have more staff (or better-trained staff) than others.

     

    2. Are stores intentionally changing prices?

     

    Your products may be mispriced due to pressures and realities at the store level. Local store managers, faced with unique challenges and opportunities, may deviate from MSRPs and corporate pricing plans in unexpected ways. For instance, they may be eager to unload high inventory, and discount prices on your goods in the process.

     

    3. Is the timing right?

    Timing is everything in the pricing game, particularly in non-EDLP (everyday low price) contexts.

    A “correct” price too early or too late may actually be an incorrect price.

    Consider, for instance, how the early or late application of holiday discounts could impact your brand's sales.

     

    4. Are stores getting accurate pricing information?

    Garbage in, garbage out. 

    The old saying certainly applies to pricing management. Store employees sometimes report inaccurate information - such as pricing changes that never occurred.

    Issues like this lead to misalignment between the data reported by the retailer’s information systems and the reality on the store floor. And too often, reconciliation doesn’t occur until long after valuable sales have been lost.

     

    Walmart supplier? Get accurate price data with Plum’s suite of Walmart-specific products.

     

    5. Are my point-of-purchase materials missing?

    Sometimes expensive POP materials—including those displaying prices—don’t make it to the final retail destination.

    Whether it’s a delivery error or a store-level oversight, they’re just not there.

    While this isn’t a clear-cut case of mispricing, it is a situation where shoppers may be less enticed to purchase your products because they lack compelling pricing information.

     

    Plum Mispricing - Price Check

     

    6. Are my prices competitive?

    It’s not always your retail partners making the pricing mistakes. 

    Competitive pricing is crucial: If you’re over- or under-pricing your products (relative to your competitors or the larger category), then you’ll certainly miss out on sales. 

    When there’s a pricing misalignment, you miss the mark with cost-sensitive, purchase-ready shoppers.

    This danger is especially real for new products. They need to work especially hard to drive trial and overcome existing shopping and consumption routines.

    The price must be on the money if your brand is to stack up favorably against rivals.

     

    7. Are my prices right online?

    We know that prices can be wrong in-store, but you might be surprised to find incorrect prices on ecommerce sites and apps.

    Our ebook, The Brand's Essential Guide to Ecommerce Success on Walmart.com, reports the results of a SKU pricing analysis that reveals drastic pricing variation.

    Is your price the right price across the board -- in-store and online? 

     

    8. Do I have good visibility to my prices?

    The good news is: The problems above can be confronted and overcome with greater visibility in-store and online.

    It really boils down to vigilance—knowing the prices on your in-store products (and your rivals') at any given time. After all, you can’t fix what you can’t see.

    Plum’s suite of audit solutions put fast, accurate visibility at your fingertips. With the price check tool, specifically, brands can see prices exactly as shoppers see them.

     

    Retail Solutions for Any Pricing Challenge

    No matter the pricing challenge, the Plum Marketplace has a solution.

    Price Checks by Field Agent, available in Plum, offer instant price-tag visibility -- wherever your products are sold. And other solutions on Plum give you hands in-store (and eyes online) to fix pricing mistakes and prevent lost sales.

    Explore the Plum Marketplace today.

     

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    Mobile Research, Retail Audit, Price Check

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