Sales events remain a highlight of the retail calendar. But the context in which they take place has changed dramatically.
Consumers now compare prices in real time, review historical pricing data, and browse e-commerce sites, marketplaces, and brick-and-mortar stores before making a purchase decision. At the same time, new price transparency requirements are forcing retailers to be more rigorous in developing and justifying their pricing decisions.
This development goes far beyond the scope of regulatory compliance. It is transforming the governance of pricing. Pricing decisions must now be consistent, traceable, and justifiable across the entire organization.
The real change is not that prices have become transparent. It is that the decisions that determine them must now be transparent as well.
Based on our discussions with retailers, three mistakes come up repeatedly. These do not reflect a lack of expertise in pricing, but rather a lack of maturity in managing pricing decisions.
Mistake #1 – Setting prices without clear governance
The requirement to display the lowest price charged during the 30 days prior to a price reduction is often seen as a new regulatory constraint.
In reality, it highlights a much more strategic issue: Is the company able to demonstrate that every pricing decision is based on reliable and traceable data?
For a few hundred SKUs, tracking can still be done manually. But when a retailer manages tens of thousands of products spread across different stores, sales channels, or countries, this approach quickly reaches its limits.
Prices change daily. Promotions come one after another. Marketing schedules are getting faster and faster.
In this context, accurately identifying the correct reference price, ensuring that a promotion complies with regulations, and being able to verify its origin have become critical governance issues.
The real challenge, therefore, is not merely to comply with regulations. It lies in having a single, reliable view of pricing data that can ensure the traceability of decisions, automate checks before promotions go live, and safeguard sales campaigns.
In other words, price ceases to be merely a commercial variable and becomes a strategic factor for the company.
For many retailers, this means relying on a pricing platform capable of centralizing price history, automating checks before each promotion, and ensuring the traceability of decisions.
Mistake #2 – Managing Each Channel Independently
Consumer behavior has changed dramatically. In France, 75% of consumers shop online at least once a month, and most people compare prices on several websites or apps before making a purchase. The shopping journey is now omnichannel by nature.
Before making a purchase, consumers naturally compare prices among:
- – the brand’s e-commerce site;
- – marketplaces;
- – Drive;
- – brick-and-mortar stores;
- – mobile apps;
- – Google Shopping and price comparison sites.
The fee is no longer charged on a per-channel basis.
It is perceived as a whole.
This constant transparency continues to prompt many retailers to adjust their prices in immediate response to their competitors’ moves.
When prices drop on a marketplace or at a competitor’s, it’s very tempting to quickly match those prices in order to remain competitive.
This approach may seem reassuring. In reality, it often leads to a race to the bottom in which each player reacts to the decisions of others, without a genuine strategy of its own.
However, a competitor does not share the same margin targets, the same costs, the same supply constraints, or the same perception of value among consumers.
The real challenge, then, is not to be the cheapest every time, but to offer the most appropriate price—one that is consistent with the company’s positioning, its price image, and its customers’ expectations.
A price difference between two channels can be perfectly legitimate. It may reflect different logistics costs, business objectives, or product assortment strategies. However, it must be transparent, consistent, and justifiable.
This is precisely why the most forward-thinking retailers no longer manage their prices on a channel-by-channel basis. They rely on a consolidated view of prices, competition, and the performance of their product assortments to make consistent decisions, rather than reacting hastily to market fluctuations.
In an omnichannel environment, pricing can no longer be a series of reactions to observed prices. It must be guided by a comprehensive strategy that balances competitiveness, profitability, and the brand promise across all channels.
Mistake #3 – Running promotions without measuring their actual impact
During sales events, success is still too often measured in terms of revenue generated or units sold.
These indicators remain essential, but they tell only part of the story.
A promotion can boost sales while significantly eroding margins, cannibalize purchases that would have been made at the regular price, or even permanently damage the perception of value for a product category.
So the real question isn’t: “How many did we sell?”
It’s more like:
– What profit margin did this transaction actually generate?
– What percentage of sales is truly incremental?
– What impact will this promotion have on the brand’s price image?
– Could the same results have been achieved with a different promotional strategy?
Every promotional campaign should be viewed as an investment decision, the effects of which must be anticipated before its launch and measured after its execution. Simulation tools now make it possible to test different scenarios before deployment, anticipate their impact on margins, and identify which promotions truly create value.
Managing promotions is no longer just about setting a discount rate. It involves balancing growth, profitability, competitiveness, and perceived value.
From Operational Pricing to Strategic Pricing
Sales remain a powerful driver of sales growth. But in a market where every price is visible, compared, and analyzed, their success no longer depends solely on the size of the discounts offered.
The new transparency requirements do not create new challenges; rather, they reveal the limitations of practices that are no longer suited to the complexity of today’s business environment. Scattered pricing data, decisions made in silos, promotions that are difficult to justify, and trade-offs made under time pressure all hinder an effective pricing strategy.
Today, the most forward-thinking retailers are shifting their approach. They no longer set their prices based solely on business rules or market reactions. Instead, they rely on data, simulation, and artificial intelligence to anticipate the impacts of their decisions, balance competitiveness and profitability, and ensure a consistent pricing strategy across all channels.
Retailers are gradually shifting from a price-setting approach to an approach based on Pricing Decision Intelligence, where every pricing decision is simulated, explained, managed, and evaluated before it is implemented. In a market where prices have become transparent, it is no longer prices that set retailers apart, but the quality of the decisions that determine them.
Pricing thus ceases to be an operational function and becomes a true governance lever.
In an environment where every pricing decision can be compared, explained, or challenged, competitive advantage will no longer lie solely in the ability to offer the right price. It will belong to retailers capable of managing their pricing decisions with consistency, transparency, and precision.
