Beijing time, November 26, the United States, The Wall Street Journal (blog, Micro-bo) online version of the article today, with the advent of Thanksgiving, the United States, the year's most discounted shopping season with the curtain. However, with the popularization of electronic commerce and the rise of data analysis technology, the price war in the e-commerce market has intensified. While it is hard to get tangible profits from it, major retailers are still forced to take the initiative in order to attract the long-term loyalty of their customers.
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Price war intensifies
"Black Friday" the day, the traditional retail shop is still crowded door, queues crowded, it seems to be no different from previous years. However, a battle without gun smoke quietly on the internet, is expected to continue the existing promotional pattern in the Internet.
The struggle between electronic commerce and traditional retailers continues. But in the new environment, physical retailers are starting to fight back, using their own websites and rivals to compete for discounts, unprecedented strength.
When Target announced that it would sell the $400 Dyson ball vacuum for $269, the same vacuum cleaner also dropped 80 dollars to $300. But Best Buy also suffered the same price sniper, when the company announced that it would sell a 1000-dollar price of the original 1500 of the Nikon camera, Amazon also early Thanksgiving morning, the price of the same products to 997 U.S. dollars.
The rapid price adjustment during the most competitive period of the year highlights the major changes in the retail sector. The rise of E-commerce, coupled with the explosive growth of data and the continuous progress of analytical techniques, allows retailers to better analyze competitors ' pricing strategies and respond within seconds. Sometimes, decision-making power is even entirely controlled by computer algorithms.
Major chain retailers have been competing for prices, but the new technology has allowed them to compete more precisely, comprehensively and quickly. For consumers, this means that they can still get the best discounts without having to queue up long lines in cold night. But for retailers, as price pressures increase, a discount day like "Black Friday" could erode their profits.
To compete online, retailers must also work to make the transition as far as possible to provide exclusive products that competitors cannot provide. In addition, they are also starting to move more physical store discounts online.
Stephen Bebis, the electronics retailer Brookstone CEO Stephen Baibis, said the company currently produces or offers a number of exclusive products, accounting for about 75% of its total product. This year, the chain company also sold most of the physical stores through the shop.
Promote flexible pricing
However, the popularity of E-commerce has led most retailers to adopt a more flexible pricing strategy.
Wal-Mart's Sam's Club, which started discounting at 10 o'clock on the evening of Wednesday, gave the company ample time to adjust prices. "We think our price is competitive," said Todd Harbaugh, executive vice president of the company, Tode Har Baof. But if the price advantage of a product is not obvious, we will adjust. ”
Amazon has also said it has been constantly adjusting its pricing, the so-called "dynamic pricing", to help it compete or overtake rivals in price, and even force rivals to cut prices. Amy von Walter, a Amy Walter spokeswoman, said the company would normally monitor competitors ' prices and aggressively adjust pricing to stay competitive.
Wal-Mart's E-commerce team in Silicon Valley has developed a complex set of tools to help it adjust pricing all day to stay competitive.
As the Christmas shopping season is likely to be less than usual this year, the risk will increase. Retail sales of Bain & Co, a consultancy, are expected to grow by 3.5% in the Christmas shopping season, slowing down over the past two years. Consumers are confident, but remain cautious.
Increased profit pressure
"Black Friday" is no help for profits because of the increasing discounts. But when more than 20% of the sales shift to the market, the major chain retailers are not to snub. Shawn Score, the newly appointed US retail director at Best Buy, says all discounts are Shawn Scow to win customers ' long-term loyalty.
"Some of them don't make money at all. "he said.
Amazon launched a rather radical move last year, which started selling discounts early on, and encouraged consumers to use the company's price check in rival stores to compare prices.
Amazon has been offering one-off discounts and delivery offers this year, and has extended the "black Friday" offer back three days. Amazon has also launched a time-limited discount service called Lightning deals for some of its products, for example, which recently reduced the price of a pair of Ralph Lauren's men's casual shoes by 40%.
Data analysis company Dynamite Data specializes in real-time monitoring of the pricing of internet retailers, and then sells it to companies such as Samsung and Western data. Diana Schulz, analyst at the company, Diana Schulze that some of the deals are actually catching up with Wal-Mart and other big retailers ' physical-store deals.
Mike Fridgen, chief executive of the retail price monitoring website decide.com, says Amazon adjusts prices more frequently than any retailer. Over the past few days, the E-commerce giant has made significant pricing adjustments to offer similar discounts to physical retailers.
This situation will lead to "Black Friday" the retailer's profit pressure to increase further. Women's retailer Nicole Miller withdrew from the price war more than 10 years ago. Bud Konheim, CEO of the company, said: "The discount is getting higher, but the Bade Kangheim is getting lower." ”
The mall is still thriving.
Of course, "Black Friday" the most lively place in the day to count shopping malls.
In the Friday, residents of Chicago's magnificent Boulevard and Michigan Street came to the nearby Lake Michigan, where thousands of people flocked to the 8-storey labeled Tower Place Mall.
"I am the commander of the whole family. Henry Grim Henry Grimme said. Beside him was a cooler and a lot of shopping bags sitting in a brown leather chair reading. The 10-Year-old software engineer has been camped out for 8 hours, while his wife and daughter are looking around for discounted items and sending their "loot" back to him.
"They like that. "It's a family event," he said. ”