Optimise Pricing and Promotion Strategies Through Advanced Analytics

Written by Stratinis | 13-Nov-2014 16:07:00

ComputerWorldUK know understanding buyer behaviour and maintaining competitive advantage can be a vigorous task. In today’s increasingly digital world, consumers have mobile, on-line, and social channels at their fingertips, in addition to in-store channels, to research product offers and compare competitor deals before making a purchasing decision. With the pressure omni-channel consumers are putting on companies to provide the most relevant and compelling deals 24/7, how can companies transform to deliver on this consumer need and maintain a competitive advantage? The answer is two-fold: adopt a customer-centric pricing model and use advanced analytics technologies to understand buyer behaviour and develop relevant pricing and promotional offers.

Restructuring the existing pricing strategy could impact many aspects of an enterprise, from marketing to inventory management, and increase complexity throughout the business. When adopting a new pricing and promotions strategy, companies should explore the following factors to help lower the risk and better manage the transformation journey:

Data management
A technology foundation comprised of a big data infrastructure and an advanced analytics platform can help execute specific pricing and promotions strategies.
Advanced analytical methods
A quantitative and qualitative analysis of customers is crucial for companies to understand the effectiveness of a particular pricing model. A comparative analysis across all channels can also provide companies with insight into how they are faring against their competitors.
Technology
Look to implement new strategies across multiple systems, including legacy, with advanced optimization software.
Strategic insight
Attract, develop and retain people with advanced analytics skills to analyse and convert data into crisp and actionable insight, and motivate decision makers to make insight-driven decisions.
Continuous test and learn
As customers move from one channel to another, companies can test new prices, measure customer responses in real-time and optimise their pricing and promotions accordingly.

When pricing insights are incorporated into daily business processes, strategic decisions can be made with greater confidence. To gain the most value from analytical insight, it is recommended that businesses develop robust governance and execution plans. Taking an analytics-driven approach to pricing and promotions can offer a variety of advantages. For example, a leading European food retailer adopted multi-channel pricing with a key lines strategy for online and offline products. Using an analytics-based pricing strategy, the retailer was able to increase the frequency of price updates in real-time and gain a better understanding of the competition. The impact was an increase in sales and profit, and improved price perception among customers.With today’s omni-channel consumer constantly seeking the best deal, an analytics approach to developing a pricing and promotions strategy can no longer be looked at as an option. As such, pricing analytics is quickly becoming an essential business driver due to the insights and competitive advantage it can offer.

Learn how Stratinis can endeavour to optimize and manage your prices through our pricing software

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