PROS Insight: How to Avoid Living or Dying by Peak: Personalisation and Price Optimisation
Valerie Howard,
Valerie Howard, Director, Solution Strategy, PROS, advises on how to avoid reliance on the retail peak months.
The peak buying period (October-December) is an important time of the year for all retailers. Traditionally, it’s a time of heightened sales around the holidays that has consumers flocking to their devices or the storefront. But some retailers are more reliant on peak than others.
For these retailers, the majority of their revenue is made during the peak period. Which means their business lives or dies by their success during those months. The challenge is that many businesses have gotten into the habit of trying to draw attention to themselves through deep discounts. This makes the climb from red to black (i.e. to profitability) even more challenging, drives buyers to expect these deep discounts, and continues the endless cycle of increasing competitive price pressure. These behaviours are not sensible, and many familiar case studies showcase that they are not sustainable either.