Carol Spieckerman

Target Looks to Battle Pricing Apps

January 24, 2012

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Target Corp. is exploring pricing changes to counter the practice of "showrooming," or using mobile pricing apps to check out and scan the price of products in stores only to purchase them at a less expensive price online. Do you think Target's purported tactics to offset the "showrooming" trend will be effective?      [more...]

Target's fundamental assumption, that vendors control retail pricing (or promotions), makes this stop gap tactic flawed from the get-go. Pushing responsibility down to vendors may feel like a solution but the realities are too complex and, without clear standards, enforcement will be arbitrary and confrontational.

Why not go the way of Walmart's price match guarantee and let the still-small percentage of showroomers manage the exceptions that matter to them? Attempting to adjust an entire pricing model based on this growing-but-still-negligible dynamic makes no sense.

Last time I looked, Target was the one, not just encouraging, but pushing, like-for-like comparisons between its private brands such as Up & Up and national brands on the shelf -- right down to adding specific "compare to" language on its packaging just in case the value didn't register through proximity.

Why the lurch from bold to meek?