A recent research report has revealed that UK retailers are wasting almost two million hours every working week due to ineffective competitor price-checking processes.
The findings were revealed by pricing and automation specialist Omnia Retail, which questioned 150 UK retail businesses about their pricing strategies. Results show that companies are spending an average of ten hours per week manually checking and benchmarking their competitor’s prices, which adds up to almost 246,000 lost working days across the sector.
More than half of retailers stated that they dedicate at least 1-10 hours each week to monitor market pricing, with 24% admitting that they commit 11-25 hours to the process on a weekly basis.
Additionally, one in ten brands surveyed said that they spend 26-50 hours per week on the service – the equivalent of one full-time salary – whereas 1% dedicate more than 50 hours.
In spite of this, 13% of retailers feel they don’t spend enough time price-checking competitors.
Sander Roose, CEO of Omnia Retail, commented “The growth of e-retail has been a game-changer for retailer’s pricing strategies. Consumers can check how much their competitors are charging for the same products with a few clicks, so real-time benchmarking is key if brands are to keep pace with other industry players.
“However, these figures show that companies are committing a lot of time to competitor price-checking – an average of 10 hours per week – but doing so with little strategy or direction. Just half of retailers said they actually use competitor benchmarking information to change their prices and 83% don’t believe that the practice has been beneficial to the business.
“Intelligent software can combat this, automating the price-checking process and requiring almost no time or resource to manage. It also frees up time for teams to focus on creativity and improving their business in other ways – something that will be of increasing importance in the fight to maintain margins and deliver excellent customer experiences.”
For more information visit www.omniaretail.com.
