Close Menu
  • For Buyers
    • Retail News
    • Products & Suppliers
    • Ecommerce
    • Marketing & Management
    • Trade Show News
  • For Suppliers
    • Supplier News
    • Marketing & Management
    • Importing
    • Manufacturers
    • Warehousing
    • Finance
    • Show Exhibiting
  • Wholesale 101
  • Trade Show Calendar
  • Wholesale Products
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Saturday, May 31
  • Subscribe
  • Submit Content
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
  • Advertise
    • Display Advertising
    • Email Marketing Campaigns
    • Newsletter Advertising
    • Sponsored Content
    • Lead Generation Services
  • Top Product Sources
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
WholesaleCentral.com Blog
  • For Buyers
    • Retail News
    • Products & Suppliers
    • Ecommerce
    • Marketing & Management
    • Trade Show News
  • For Suppliers
    • Supplier News
    • Marketing & Management
    • Importing
    • Manufacturers
    • Warehousing
    • Finance
    • Show Exhibiting
  • Wholesale 101
  • Trade Show Calendar
  • Wholesale Products
WholesaleCentral.com Blog
Home»For Buyers»Retail News»AI’s Role in Helping Retailers with Holiday Pricing & Promotion Strategies
Retail News

AI’s Role in Helping Retailers with Holiday Pricing & Promotion Strategies

PublisherBy PublisherSeptember 10, 2019Updated:January 20, 20234 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Email
Share
Facebook Twitter Email

percentage symbolby Jeff Smith

In an increasingly competitive landscape, independent retailers face unique challenges.  Where once their competition consisted almost solely of nearby physical stores in the same retail sector, today they face an unprecedented and fast-changing array of competitors, from online giants to specialty stores and global discounters.

But there is good news as well. Sophisticated AI-based price and promotion optimization solutions that were once cost-prohibitive and expensive to implement, limiting their adoption to major national retailers, are now available with affordable, speedy cloud-based delivery that makes them feasible for both independent and regional retailers.  These solutions leverage AI to ingest and analyze large and diverse data about shoppers, competitors and market conditions.

How AI Can Help

Indie retailers tend to have unique relationships with their shoppers, and by using data science-based software for pricing and promotions, including during the all-important holiday season, retailers can craft pricing that gives shoppers the prices and promotions they want most on the items they care most about – all while recovering margins elsewhere to ensure the long-term health of the business.

This gives independent retailers an opportunity to deepen their engagement with shoppers and enhance their sense of loyalty.  In fact, a Revionics-commissioned Forrester Consulting study of shoppers worldwide during the most recent holiday season found that 44% of shoppers who planned to holiday shop in December said discounts and promotions that aligned to their expectations would make them return to that retailer in the future.

The Price Matters

With today’s shoppers being busier than ever, and with increasingly ubiquitous convenience options like same-day delivery or buy-online-pickup-in-store, it’s easy to overlook the fact that the shopper’s journey often begins long before they actually make the purchase – and price is critically important at each phase of the journey.

The same study found that shoppers are highly inclined to research prices in advance, with 69% of shoppers doing advanced price research online for special purchases they planned to make, whether they ultimately bought in-store or online. And at least half of the holiday shoppers planned to and actually did use their mobile phones for shopping to compare prices, though only 10% actually made their purchases with a mobile phone.

Like today’s price optimization solutions, AI-based promotion optimization takes into account factors too complex for spreadsheet-driven approaches to account for.  Retailers can do sophisticated what-if scenario planning to know what impact a price change or promotional offer will do for any given item’s lift, margin, revenue and unit projections. Halo and cannibalization models project where promoting an item may drive additional demand for other items, or where in fact it may merely cannibalize sales of other more profitable items and completely fail to deliver the desired overall business impact.

Broaden The Sales Channel

On a broader scale, the models factor in holiday effects based on analytics of historical data so that they can accurately suggest and predict impacts of prices and promotions with full seasonality taken into account. At a granular level, they can tell retailers not only which promotional offers to make on which type of item, but also in which vehicles (flyers, in-store promotions, online, etc.).  And there’s a heavy price to pay for getting it wrong: the study found that 32-37% of holiday shoppers say that when they received an offer in their non-preferred channel, they found a different retailer to honor a similar promotion in the channel of their choice.

With shoppers holding unprecedented power with complete price transparency across all competitors, indie retailers must be bold and innovative to keep their existing customers and attract new shoppers.  The power of AI-based pricing and promotions enables them to do just that, and this holiday season is the perfect time for retailers to leverage these capabilities.

Jeff SmithJeff Smith is the Founder and EVP of Corporate Strategy & Development at Revionics.

analytics management retail sales
Share. Facebook Twitter Email
Previous ArticleThe POS Ecosystem That’s Modernizing the World of Independent Retailers
Next Article Expanding Its Reach: CBD Infused Beverages on the Rise

Related Posts

Online Marketing Calendar for 2025: Don’t Miss These Critical Dates

December 17, 2024

5 Essential Tax Season Preparation Tips

January 24, 2024

7 Tips for Wholesale Inventory Management

January 23, 2024
Sign Up for Buyer Updates
WholesaleCentral.com

Join the Buyer's Network

Get news & updates only for retailers.

how-to
Wholesale 101 for Buyers

Amazon Return Pallets For Sale: How to Profit

11 Mins ReadUpdated:August 9, 2024

A big trend among some online sellers is buying Amazon return pallets and overstock and…

Retail News

5 Essential Tax Season Preparation Tips

10 Mins ReadUpdated:August 8, 2024

Are you ready for tax season? April 18 is approaching quickly, and many day-to-day decisions…

Ecommerce

7 Steps to Create Successful Shipping for Your Business

6 Mins ReadUpdated:August 8, 2024

by Sidney Karanja Today’s business environment is more globalized and complex than ever before. In…

Product News

Overstock Liquidations

6 Mins ReadUpdated:August 9, 2024

Overstock inventory refers to the excess goods or merchandise that a retailer has on hand…

Latest Posts

Crafting a Marketing Strategy for Electronics Retailers

January 21, 2025

Effective Digital Marketing Strategies for Health & Wellness Brands

January 21, 2025

Mastering Beauty Ads: 10 Strategies for Engaging Your Audience | Blog.Wholesalecentrl.com 

January 21, 2025

Jewelry Marketing Strategies: How to Attract Customers and Boost Sales in a Competitive Market

December 31, 2024

How to Open a Gift Shop: A Step-By-Step Guide

December 23, 2024

Online Marketing Calendar for 2025: Don’t Miss These Critical Dates

December 17, 2024
  • About Us
  • Subscribe
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Find Wholesale Sources
WholesaleCentral.com

Join the Buyer's Network

Get news & updates only for retailers.

Follow Us:

Copyright © 2025. Sumner Communications, Inc..

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.