Successful Promotion Optimization: Retailers Learn From Experience

One would think price optimization solutions would be universally loved by all retailers. After all, the results are hard to ignore: price optimization adoption has been credited with some of the most impressive business case results of any retail software soution. Accolades have been given by retail executives and Wall Street analysts alike, while virtually no retailers report negative impacts.

However, despite demonstrated concrete and specific business value, these solutions have still met considerable resistance within individual retail enterprises. This resistance is generally driven less by technological constraints than by cultural issues: specifically price optimization is one of a handful of technologies that strike at the heart of the "art of merchandising." Moving from art to "black box" science always makes seasoned merchandisers distinctly nervous. However, business results have clearly trumped organizational resistance: price optimization has very nearly crossed the chasm of technology adoption, becoming a "must have" in every retailer's merchandising tool kit.