Most Retailers Value Competitive Price Intelligence: Study

Competitive price intelligence is viewed as very valuable by six of 10 retailers surveyed for a new pricing benchmark report.

The Retail Systems Research’s (RSR) study, based on an online survey of 123 retail respondents, was co-sponsored by 360pi, a provider of price and product intelligence for retailers and brands. It highlights the top strategic pricing business challenges for retailers, the pricing strategies of retail winners and laggards, and key opportunities for retailers to navigate through the future of pricing successfully.  

While 59 percent of respondents reported competitive price intelligence as very valuable, the report also shows that competitive price intelligence was cited as the top intent for change at 34 percent of “retail winners” and 50 percent of “retail laggards.”

Additional takeaways from the report include:

• Retailers now feel almost as much pressure from competitors as they do from consumers. The top three strategic pricing business challenges are increases in price sensitivity of consumers, pricing aggressiveness from competitors, and price transparency.
• Most retailers still rely on a combination of manual and in-house competitive price intelligence tools. This reality could help explain the relatively low 34 percent satisfaction rate with existing solutions despite retailers’ perceived value in competitive price intelligence.
• There is increased retailer concern regarding customer perceptions of their pricing and changes in pricing strategy. Half of the respondents (51 percent) say they increasingly fear consumers’ negative reactions to their pricing strategies, up 14 percent from 2014.

“The insights from RSR’s pricing benchmark report are very interesting, giving us a closer look at how this particular cross-section of retailers is responding to increased online penetration and dynamic pricing,” said Jenn Markey, VP of marketing, 360pi. “Not surprising, the study reveals that these retailers are largely divided in their opinions on how to best navigate today’s retail reality. However, the clear majority are aligned in their belief in the compelling value of competitive price intelligence, along with the need to invest in a best-in-class solution.”