C&S Wholesale Grocers supports over 7,500 independent retailers across the U.S. Engage3 and C&S have been partnered since 2016 to provide localized competitive visibility to power the strategic pricing solutions that the grocery supplier provides to its customers.
Engage3 had the pleasure of running a workshop with independent retailers about COVID & Post COVID Retail Pricing Strategies at C&S Wholesale Grocers’ 2022 Annual West Region Retail Services Expo last week. Matt Shadish, M.S. (Director, Data Science) and Edris Bemanian (CEO) presented on market trends and the values and opportunities with implementing price optimization solutions.
With the average price consumers are paying rising 1.59 pts in March alone—one of the fastest increases on record—and promotion support declining over 10% in March vs. 2021, it’s critical for retailers to implement solutions that will give them visibility into how the market is responding to these historic changes. The market trends section included tracking Out of Stocks in FMCG and Non-FMCG items between 2019-2022 and how some retailers are combatting these challenges via marketplace partnerships and to protect their share of wallet—as well as the pitfalls of these tactics.
In the Pricing Operating System section, the group discussed best practices regarding: (1) how to redefine your competitive intelligence program for the greatest visibility through analytics and the incorporation of 3rd party data such as NielsenIQ POS data with your competitive data; (2) how to measure and track your Price Image on an on-going basis; (3) the importance of identifying competitive strategies and defining your pricing principles; (4) how to continually optimize prices to maximize Price Image, drive trips, and increase your profits.
Additional workshop topics included covering the difference in one’s weighted Price Index vs. their Price Image, how to balance short-term financial goals and longer-term consumer perception, and how to avoid the historic challenges that retailers run into when implementing pricing systems (automation pitfalls, managing data quality issues, and the criticality of product linking ). C&S’s corporate team works closely with Engage3 to provide comprehensive market visibility through omni-channel data collection across its independent retailers who in turn leverage this data to navigate this increasingly complex pricing environment.
Do not hesitate to reach out to either C&S Wholesale Grocers or Engage3 to learn more about their strategic pricing programs and offerings.
