How IT solutions help organize dynamic pricing in the store

Here is a bad news for you: Russian retail is strung up and your store cannot survive without dynamic pricing. Put yourself in the place of buyers: rarely one of them remains committed to a particular network. Everyone is looking for a profitable offer. You can not provide it - leaving the competitive race. Therefore, we can not do without dynamic pricing. But to introduce it, you need to solve the problem of replacing price tags in the store. We tell how this helps IT solutions.

Why dynamic pricing is so important

Against the background of declining Russian incomes and a growing number of retailers, it is more necessary than ever to adjust the prices of goods depending on, for example:
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- prices for the same products from competitors;
- demand for goods among buyers;
- seasonality;
- the launch of a new product on the market;
- sale of existing balances.

Simply put, the price of goods must be dynamic, not static. You saw that the exact same robe with mother of pearl buttons from a direct competitor costs 700 rubles, and you have 715? So it's time to change your conditions and prepare a profitable offer for the client. Suppose you reduce the price or launch a promotion, the terms of which promise the buyer when buying a robe a hair tie as a gift.

Conventionally, there are four key parameters of dynamic pricing:

1. You analyze the market, the activity of competitors, and on the basis of these data you develop your own sales strategy.
2. Include in your strategy certain pricing models and tactics.
3. Set prices for goods.
4. Analyze sales and optimize pricing models depending on their results.

You can always play with the price, offering customers the most attractive options. However, dynamic pricing entails mechanical complexity: you can not change the price of the goods and not change its price tag. This leads not only to spending on consumables, but also to regularly occurring misunderstandings due to the human factor. The employee did not change the price tag, the buyer saw the wrong price. Such situations are fraught with negative, loss of loyalty to the store and additional costs. After all, the law always takes the side of the buyer: the store must sell him the goods at the price indicated on the price tag.

Here is a classic discussion of the situation by disgruntled customers, to whom stores tried to sell goods at the wrong price:



We know two ways that will help remove all the mechanical obstacles to dynamic pricing of your store:

- mobile printing (ready-made solution based on data collection terminal);
- deployment of electronic price tags (EC).

Mobile Print Solution

The ready-made solution based on mobile printing, in the case of the Pilot, includes the OmniLink software package, the PointMobile PM260 data collection terminal and, optionally, the TSC Alpha 3RB secure mobile printer that works via Bluetooth. This bundle of hardware and software helps:

- check the price tags;
- label goods;
- to conduct an inventory (including fixed assets);
- accept and ship goods.

Having checked the price tags on the product shelves using the data collection terminal and OmniLink, the operator can immediately find out if one of them does not correspond to the real price. And then replace it by printing a new one on a mobile printer.



Advantages of solutions based on mobile printing:

• in the store, you can quickly check the price tags, replace the wrong ones, print the missing ones;
• the solution is available even for small shops - in Pilot it costs from 34 thousand rubles;
• in addition to checking price tags, you can generally automate product accounting in the store and in the warehouse.

Disadvantages of the solution:

• you will not be able to get away from paper price tags, so you will have to continue to buy consumables, and your staff will continue to spend time on their placement;
• you will still be limited in the number of stocks in the store - yet it is burdensome to change paper price tags too often.

Electronic Price Tagging System

If you want to completely withdraw from the process of replacing paper price tags in the store, we recommend deploying the electronic price tags system in it. Why this solution is really effective:

• you can quickly manage the price of the goods: it is enough to synchronize the data between the price tags and the cash desk, and then the price of the goods will change simultaneously on the shelf and at the cash desk;
• with electronic price tags you are not limited in the number of shares held: the prices of goods can be changed at least every five minutes;
• You can change prices in one specific store or at once across the entire network;
• you save both on the remuneration of employees and the cost of consumables;
• You can use electronic price tags as a marketing tool - to share with the buyer additional information about the product, to make personalized offers to it, which will be displayed on the screen of his smartphone. Also, EC can attract attention to the product due to the backlight, the color of the text or its regular broadcast;
• EC is synchronized not only with the cash register, but also with trade scales. Their joint work proceeds in two ways. First, store employees can weigh a certain product and upload data on its weight and price to electronic price tags. Then this information will be displayed on the EC display and become available to customers. Secondly, with the help of weights you can pre-pack the goods: for example, decompose tea into 100 gram sachets. And in the electronic price tags to send data exactly how much such a package weighs and at what price its purchase will cost.

Disadvantages of the electronic price tag system:

• The cost of deploying technology is high. It includes the price of the devices themselves, their mounts, telecommunications equipment, TSD, design and implementation, training of personnel to work with EC;
• To deploy an electronic price tag system in a store, you need the help of an experienced integrator. Only in this way can we be sure that this complex technology has been correctly implemented and will work correctly;
• The electronic price tag system is not relevant for every retailer: the technology is unlikely to take root in small stores, “all at one price” format stores, retail outlets selling very small goods (magazines, designer jewelry), boutiques with a small number of goods, in markets where virtually impossible to meet the technological requirements for the deployment of the system.

Thinking which one of the two paths to choose should take into account a number of subtleties:

- how often are you going to change prices in the store;
- how many commodity items in its range;
- you have one store or a whole network;
- is the store infrastructure ready for global change?

Our company's experience shows that most often grocery supermarkets and hypermarkets, as well as appliance stores, stop at a system of electronic price tags. And shops of children's goods, household goods and clothing prefer solutions based on mobile printing. But whatever technology the retailer chooses, it is important to implement it correctly, so that the solution works correctly and at its maximum.