Download Retail Pricing - Stephanie Larkin

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Retail Pricing
CHAPTER 14
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Retailing Management 8e
Copyright © 2012 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
© The McGraw-Hill Companies, All rights reserved.
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Why is Pricing Important?
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• Pricing decision is important because customers have
alternatives to choose from and are better informed
• Customers are in a position to seek good value
Value = perceived benefits
price
• So, retailers can increase value and stimulate sales by
increasing benefits or reducing price.
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Pricing Strategies:
High/Low Pricing
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• Discount the initial prices through frequent sales
promotions
• Advantages
• Increases profits through price discrimination
• Sales create excitement
• Sells merchandise
• Disadvantages
• Train people to buy on deal and wait
• Have an adverse effect on profits
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Pricing Strategies:
Everyday Low Pricing
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• Emphasizes the continuity of retail prices at a level somewhere
between the regular none-sale price and the deep-discount
sale price of high/low retailers
• Doesn’t mean lowest price
• Retailers have adopted a low price guarantee policy to
reinforce their EDLP strategy
• Advantages:
• Assures customers of low prices
• Reduces advertising and operating expenses
• Reduces stockouts and improves inventory management
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Pricing Strategies
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EDLP
• Assures customers
low prices
• Reduces advertising
and operating
expenses
• Better supply chain
management
Hi-Lo
•Higher profits through price
discrimination
•More excitement
•Build short-term sales and
generates traffic
• Fewer stockouts
• Higher inventory turns
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Considerations in Setting Retail
Prices
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Customer Price Sensitivity and Cost
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Relationship between Price Sensitivity and Demand
When
price
increases
sales
can decrease
as fewer customers feel the product is a good value
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Price sensitivity of customers
(demand curve)
Quantity Sold at Different Prices
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If customers are very price sensitive,
Sales decrease significantly
with price increase
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Profit at Different Prices
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Price Elasticity
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A commonly used measure of price sensitivity
Elasticity = percent change in quantity sold
percent change in price
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How Can Retailers Reduce Price
Competition?
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• Develop lines of private label merchandise
• Negotiate with national brands manufacturers for
exclusive distribution rights
• Have vendors make unique products for the retailer
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Setting Retail Prices
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How Do Retailers Set Retail Prices?
Theoretically, retailers maximize their profits by setting prices
based on the price sensitivity of customers and the cost of
merchandise and considering the prices being charged by
competitors.
In reality, Retailers need to set price for over 50,000 SKUs
many times during year
• Set prices based on pre-determined markup and
merchandise cost
• Make adjustments to markup price based on customer price
sensitivity and competition
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Retail Price and Markup (MU)
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Margin
$50
Markup as a Percent
of Retail Price
40% = $50/$125
Retail Price
$125
Cost of
Merchandise
$75
Retail Price = cost + markup
MU% = retail price – cost
retail price
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Markups
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• Initial markup – retail
selling price initially
set for the
merchandise minus
the cost of the
merchandise.
• Maintained markup
– the actual sales
realized for the
merchandise minus
its costs
Rob Melnychuk/Getty Images
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Initial and Maintained Markup
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Reductions
$.10
Maintained
Markup $.30
Maintained Markup as a
Percent of Actual Sales
33% = $.30/$.90
Initial Retail
Price $1.00
Cost of
Merchandise
$.60
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Reductions
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• Markdowns (Sales)
• Discounts to
employees
• Inventory shrinkage
due to shoplifting and
employee theft
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Breakeven Analysis
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Understanding the Implication of Fixed and Variable Cost
Contribution/Unit
Breakeven
point
Fixed Costs
Unit Sales
Break-even
quantity
=
Fixed cost
Actual unit sales price - Unit variable cost
The quantity at which total revenue equals total cost, and then profit
Occurs for additional sales
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Reasons for Taking Markdowns
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• Clearance Markdowns
to get rid of slowmoving, obsolete
merchandise
• Promotional Markdowns
• To increase sales and
promote merchandise
• To Increase traffic flow and
sale of complementary
products generate
excitement through a sale
• To generate cash to buy
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Liquidating Markdown Merchandise
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PhotoLink/Getty Images
• Sell the merchandise to another retailer
• Consolidate the unsold merchandise
• Place merchandise on Internet auction site
• Donate merchandise to charity
• Carry the merchandise over to the next season
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Variable Pricing
and Price Discrimination
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• Clearance Markdowns for Fashion Merchandise
• Coupons
• Price Bundling
• McDonald’s Value Meal
• Multiple-Unit Pricing or Quantity Discount
• Variable Pricing by Market Segments (Third Degree of Price
Discrimination) – Charge different groups different prices
• Seniors Discounts
• Kids Menu
• Zone Pricing (Third Degree of Price Discrimination) –
Charge different prices in different stores, markets, regions
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Solution to Problems in
Implementing Price Discrimination
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• Set prices based on customer characteristics
related to willingness to pay
• Fashion sensitive customers will pay more
so charge higher prices when fashion first
introduced – reduce price later in season
• Price sensitive customers will expend effort
to get lower prices – coupons
• Elderly customers eat earlier and
are more price sensitive so offer
early bird specials
C. Borland/PhotoLink/Getty Images
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Pricing Techniques for Increasing
Sales
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• Leader Pricing
• Price Lining
• Odd Pricing
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Leader Pricing
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• Certain items are priced lower than normal to increase
customers traffic flow and/or boost sales of complementary
products
• Best items: purchased frequently, primarily by pricesensitive shoppers
• Examples: bread, eggs, milk, disposable diapers
• Might attract cherry pickers
Dennis Gray/Cole Group/Getty Images
Allan Rosenberg/Cole Group/Getty Images
Ryan McVay/Getty Images
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Price Lining
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• A limited number of predetermined price points.
• Ex: $59.99 (good), $89.99 (better), and 129.99
(best)
• Benefits:
• Eliminates confusion of many prices
• Merchandising task is simplified
• Gives buyers flexibility
• Can get customers to “trade up”
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Odd Pricing
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• A price that ends in an odd number (.9)
• $2.99
• Assumption:
• Consumers perceive as $2 without noticing the digits
• 9 endings signal low prices
• Retailers believe the practice increases sales, but
probably doesn’t
• Does delineate:
• Type of store (downscale store might use it.)
• Sale
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Internet and Price Competition
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(c) image100/PunchStock
• The Internet offers unlimited shopping experience
• Seeking lowest price? Use shopping bots or search engines
• These programs search for and provide lists of sites selling
what interests the consumer
• Retailers using the electronic channel can reduce customer
emphasis on price by providing services and better
information.
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Legal and Ethical Pricing Issues
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• price discrimination An illegal practice in which a vendor sells the
same product to two or more customers at different prices.
• predatory pricing A method for establishing merchandise prices for the
purpose of driving competition from the marketplace.
• resale price maintenance laws Laws enacted in the early 1900s to
curb vertical price fixing. These laws were designed to help protect small
retailers by prohibiting retailers from selling below manufacturer’s
suggested retail price. Also called fair trade laws. In 1975, these laws
were repealed by the Consumer Goods Pricing Act.
• horizontal price fixing An agreement between retailers in direct
competition with each other to charge the same prices.
• bait and switch An unlawful deceptive practice that lures customers into
a store by advertising a product at lower than usual prices (the bait), then
inducing the customers to switch to a higher-price model (the switch).
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