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The Future of Omni-Channel Pricing Is Here

May 1st, 2019 (Updated 06/20/2023) | 4 min. read

By Duncan Hendy

Key Takeaways:

  • When selling across multiple channels, it is necessary to deliver your customers a consistent and fair experience that meets them on their terms and via their channel of choice.
  • As pricing professionals, you need to make sure that you not only have access to all of your data, but that you can make sense of it and leverage it.
  • Integrating different channels into an optimized omni-channel pricing strategy gives you the ability to move with speed, agility and deliver more perceived value to your customers.

Love it or hate it, omni-channel e-commerce is something you are going to have to accept. And when you sell across multiple channels, it is necessary to deliver your customers a consistent and fair experience that meets them on their terms and via their channel of choice. But how can you ensure that your pricing strategy remains consistent and customer-focused when the channels you are delivering e-commerce through are increasing? When Gabriel Smith, VP for Product Strategy at Pricefx, and Chris Herbert, President of Silicon Valley Pricing, discussed the future of the pricing industry in our recent webinar, this was precisely one of the topics they hit upon.

Let’s get to the bottom of this.

Omni-Channel Strategy

Chris and Gabe explained that the success of a multiple channel approach is undermined by not understanding each path that customers take to make a purchase. Of course, there is no one unified approach, it differs consumer to consumer and between the items they are buying. It can take the form of buying in your online store, via forums and review sites or buying in-store. It really depends on the industry you’re in. If you’re selling directly to customers, you make more money, and if they’re prone to pay you more than distributors –that’s straightforward.

Thus, understanding and mapping those journeys for your buyer personas are key stepping stones in developing an effective omni-channel strategy that covers all the touchpoints. It’s crucial to position your offer against your competitors to maximize the perceived value every step of the way.

Crunching Data and Staying Consistent

As there is a flood of data coming from various channels, it is essential for pricing professionals to make sure that they can access it, make sense of it and leverage it in an actionable way.

Considering all stakeholders is vital, but may cause conflicts between them. You can’t sell to your biggest customer for a higher price than they see when they go online; you must stay consistent. Placing profit over value is a surefire path to disaster. Losing customer trust is something almost impossible to regain – we are perceived and judged by our actions.

Innovation Is Nothing to Be Scared of

As Gabe optimistically put it:

“Don’t be scared to innovate because of channel conflicts. The basic principle in today’s commerce could be summed up as ‘add value or perish.’ If the channel is not bringing profit, don’t be afraid to leave it.”

Too many companies are afraid to try new roads to markets because they fear upsetting their established distributors or channels. It makes sense but if you don’t do it, somebody else will.

Align process, people and systems. If someone has an omni-channel strategy, and has aligned teams and processes, they must also have it synchronized from the system (SW) point of view.

If done correctly, this synchronization allows organizations to move with speed and agility, and deliver more perceived value to their customers making purchasing decisions.

Want to watch the complete conversation and learn how you could possibly use dynamic pricing and price optimization? Learn more about price optimization and dynamic pricing here.

Duncan Hendy

Pricefx

Duncan Hendy is a content marketing expert with over 20 years of experience in B2B and B2C marketing, from Interactive TV to SaaS solutions. When not working, Duncan composes classical music and is also the author of several books. He is a huge fan of craft beer and anything spicy.

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