Once upon a time, factoring retail pricing was as easy as choosing a fixed margin, adding it to your cost of production and printing out the price tag. “Cost plus” pricing is still a popular strategy for many retailers and manufacturers, but the dawn of e-commerce has once again complicated things. Your customer now has all the tools at their disposal to price compare within seconds. There are even apps that let consumers check to see if they’re getting the best price. So what are manufacturers to do? How do you price effectively and keep your brand and bottom line in tact? One strategy is to use value-based pricing. This model factors price based on the value you offer the customer, not necessarily a fixed profit margin. The trick to value-based pricing, is calculating that value. For most brands, you’ll need to do extensive market research and demographic studies to learn about your customers and what holds value to them. Ironbridge Software has found that one of the best ways to keep tabs on your customers and their values is to leverage your own data and cross reference demographic data. You can purchase demographic data from providers like Nielson and use it to gain insights on your customers. Your own data can reveal what is selling and how often. Use this information along with insights on your customers (such as age, income, location and much more) and you’re well on your way to drilling down on that value question. Ironbridge’s suite of programs can help you integrate all of these findings and even display them in dashboards that make sense to your team. One brand that is pricing based on value is the clothier Everlane. Everlane provides pricing right on their website. They actually give customers a chart for select items that details production cost, labor, etc., and a calculated “true cost.” They call this “radical transparency” and then compare their prices to traditional retailers. So customers see that they’re paying as much as a 50% markup, but they also see what a traditional retailer may charge (i.e. much more). For Everlane customers, the transparency and ethical element of the brand holds enough value to pay the markup. So what happens when you sell on a third-party site such as Amazon or Walmart? This is when your data and that of your competition is imperative. You need to monitor your sales in real-time to catch the moment a product starts to slip. If a competitor drops their price, they may see a surge of Amazon traffic or even be chosen as “Amazon’s Choice.” This could really hurt your sales, so having that information available immediately is key. Ironbridge’s NetBench will help you see these trends so your team can adjust prices to compete within a specific site’s search results. Furthermore, Ironbridge’s software tools can search customer reviews on third-party sites. Ever notice how customer reviews talk about price? A customer might say “this is really great quality for the low price.” Or, in contrast, a customer might comment “this felt cheaper than I’d expected and wasn’t worth the price.” Gathering this customer feedback is imperative to your brand’s strength and can also help inform price adjustments. Ironbridge’s software suite can analyze this type of review data and deliver valuable insights for your team. Pricing is a tricky business, but it doesn’t have to be daunting. Using your own customer data and a value-based approach, you can successfully compete in today’s high-speed online market. Are you ready to take your pricing strategy to the next level? Contact Ironbridge today to learn more about our suite of products. Written by Kim Kelly Consulting

You can’t survive in today’s business climate without social media marketing. While the cost to entry (i.e. setting up an account) is low, the upkeep of a social media strategy takes significant resources. In relation to the seven P’s of marketing (read our take on that here), social media marketing is definitely a part of promotion. [yt_video id=tVegAjipGng] But how do you know if you’re achieving results? This brings up the question of performance. Like all facets of your marketing strategy, social media requires tracking specific metrics--such as customer conversions on your website--and tying them back to business goals. Most social media platforms allow companies some insight into their reach. Facebook gives company pages a fairly detailed dashboard with data and attributes on your “fans.” You can always track your number of followers, as well as comments, retweets, mentions and the like. But no social media platform can tie into your various data sources. You need a partner to help make sense of all the disparate data sources. In an article published by the social media management program Hootsuite, the authors list 19 metrics you can use to measure your social media strategy. Some are easy to calculate (such as post reach and audience growth), but others require competitors’ data. Social share of voice (SSoV) for instance, is the share of your brand’s mentions versus those of competitors. If you’re lucky enough to only have a few competitors, you may be able to track this on your own. More likely, you have a lot of competitors to keep track of and it is nearly impossible to track all the mentions without an automated system. Luckily, plenty of companies aggregate and sell this data. But what then? You need one place to collect disparate data sources from your own products and that of competitors. That place is Ironbridge’s Netbench. Now you can truly see your SSoV and so much more. “A lot of manufacturers know they should be leveraging their e-marketing data, but they don’t know where to begin,” says Mike Dickenson, CEO of Ironbridge Software. “We bridge those gaps for our clients,” he adds. One of the challenges of working with big data is, of course, that it’s big. All of our digital activity generates data and it can be overwhelming to put so much information to use. That’s why Netbench takes the metrics you care about and make the data work for you. With real-time capabilities, you can access your dashboard as often as you need to and make data-driven decisions. What do these decisions look like? Let’s say your company is using several social media platforms to market a product. Your team can track which social media posts are tied to increased sales. Netbench can let you know that your Instagram video of a product application performs really well; and you can direct your team to produce more of that type of content. Sure, Instagram will show how many views you received, but only a product like NetBench can track actual sales that correlate to that content. Is your social media strategy tied directly to revenue goals? If not, it’s time to get serious about this tool. Contact Ironbridge today to learn more about our suite of products. Written by Kim Kelly Consulting

The beginning of a new year is about reform, rejuvenation and, sometimes, reduction. We’re not talking about reducing waistlines, but rather store closings. Last year saw another record number of store closings. Sears Holding Company filed for bankruptcy and retailers such as Lowe’s, Macy’s and Victoria’s Secret all closed locations. Retail continues to fall on hard times. Whether traditional retailers are competing with Amazon and e-commerce in general or the rise of online direct-to-consumer companies, they’re struggling. But private equity continues to plague the retail landscape. One example of this formula for destruction is the closing of Shopko stores in 2018. Shopko is a rural retailer based in Wisconsin. In addition to its online presence, Shopko has 363 stores in 24 states, located in the Central, Western and Pacific Northwest regions of the U.S. Its regional influence makes it an interesting case, especially considering its niche customer base. Shopko is owned by the private equity firm Sun Capital and its story is all too similar to the demise of beloved toy retailer Toys ‘R’ Us. The company is drowning in debt and has done everything from selling pharmacy customer lists to competitors like Hyvee and Kroger to taking new loans in an effort to recover. Closing 39 stores in 2018 was also a large part of this effort. In an article for RetailDive, analyst Nick Egelanian said that e-commerce had little to do with the store closings, adding “Being on a short leash by [Sun Capital], there is little investment in stores. They are a wreck.” Much like Toys ‘R’ Us, Shopko was unable to keep stores updated and relevant due to the cost of servicing so much debt. Today’s retail landscape is so cutthroat that consumers expect a slick in-store experience and all the ease of Amazon on a retailer’s website. When retailers, like Shopko, take on too much debt and can no longer invest in their stores, it’s a recipe for disaster. Brand consultant Brian Kelly told RetailDive that Shopko is just “another retailer broken by debt and a PE firm, caught in the death spiral of blindly trying to goose sales and [ending] up flogging the brand.” What makes Shopko interesting is not only that it’s a regional retailer, but also rural. One of Shopko’s largest competitors is Tractor Supply, which scored a customer loyalty score higher than even Amazon this past year (the retailer was only beat out by Costco’s net promoter score). Culture and brand loyalty are key and possibly even more important than ever before. E-commerce has made the locations of physical stores less relevant than they were 20 years ago. This means that retailers have to invest in their stores and keep customers coming back for a brand experience. Shopko hasn’t shuttered completely, but we’ve seen this formula before. Let’s not dwell on the store closings of last year, but rather learn from them this year. To read more about Toys ‘R’ Us, click here. To catch up on what IBSW has to say on e-commerce, click here. If you’re looking to invest in your business this year and finally understand your customer insights, let Ironbridge help you make sense of all that data.Click here to request a demo. UPDATE: In March 2019, Shopko announced it is going out of business. The retailer was unable to find a buyer for the business, but is still exploring options for its optical centers. According to Chain Store Age, Shopko's Chapter 11 filing described "excess debt and ongoing competitive pressures, and reported assets of less than $1 billion and liabilities between $1 billion and $10 billion." The retailer had been operating 360 stores when they filed for bankruptcy in January of this year. All stores are now expected to shutter. Written by Kim Kelly Consulting **This story is still developing**