When wholesalers operate both their own stores and offer retail services to Independents, optimizing pricing across these models presents a unique opportunity — and a unique challenge.
Here’s how to drive pricing success across both segments:
Company-Owned Stores: A Strong Foundation for Pricing Success
Owned stores offer the ideal conditions for launching and scaling pricing strategies:
- Centralized decision-making: Pricing is rarely overridden and typically has strong executive sponsorship.
- High-quality data: TLOG, item, and location data is centralized and consistent across the store network.
- Faster time to value: These conditions enable measurable ROI in as little as six months, with typical gross margin gains of 2–5% fully covering project costs within 12–18 months.
Success with owned stores also creates a powerful proof point to share with internal stakeholders and the Retail Services team when expanding to Independents.
Delivering Pricing Services to Independents: What to Consider
Rolling out pricing solutions to Independents requires a tailored approach — one that balances capabilities with available data and change-readiness.
Core Benefits for Independents:
✓ Simplified, automated pricing workflows
Manage pricing rules by category, identify rule conflicts, and resolve them through robust reporting tools. Maintain line, brand, and size relationships automatically — even as cost and comp prices change.
✓ Automated price maintenance
Remove the manual lift from price maintenance. Rules and updates reapply automatically when market conditions shift.
✓ Price optimization through Consumer Demand Science
Adjust pricing to meet strategic goals — such as maximizing volume while maintaining margin — all within defined rule constraints.
Data: The Gateway to Independent Pricing Success
Access to TLOG data is a crucial factor.
Without TLOG:
Forecasting and optimization aren’t possible. Rules-based pricing can still provide limited value, but adoption may be slower due to cost/benefit uncertainty — especially for smaller operators.
With TLOG:
Independents can take advantage of a tiered pricing services model, including:
Rules-based pricing and automated price updates
Annual category and item role identification
Competitive strategy modeling using category roles
Full-price optimization cycles (every 6–12 months, per category or store-wide)
Execution Matters
Delivering optimized prices to the shelf is essential. Missed execution or excessive local overrides will reduce the value of any pricing initiative.
Path to Implementation: How to get there
The Retail Services group often acts as the pricing resource for subscribed Independents, handling analytics and delivering price sets on a regular cadence. However, other models are possible:
- A DemandTec-managed pricing team
- A certified partner acting in place of internal resources
The ideal implementation path is determined collaboratively during the discovery phase. Whether you’re scaling success from your owned stores or just beginning to offer pricing services to Independents, DemandTec is here to help you unlock value at every step.
