What Walmart’s price adjustments imply for the enterprise

When Walmart announced plans to provision 2,300 of its stores with digital shelf labels by 2026, the news was initially met with concern. That’s presumably to be expected after fast-food giant Wendy’s caused an uproar after saying it would begin to experiment with dynamic pricing earlier this year. While Walmart denied its digital price tags would be used for dynamic pricing, consumers are often wary of such actions due to negative implications associated with surge pricing.’

But the reality is that Walmart’s initiative is setting a new standard in the industry when it comes to embracing pricing technology. As market conditions, inventory levels and inflation remain in flux, the ability to update prices and get them to the customer in real-time and without manual effort is crucial to maintaining a competitive edge, customer satisfaction, and ultimately, nurturing a more responsive pricing environment. We call this managing the comprehensive pricing lifecycle.

The significance of this transformation extends far beyond Walmart’s own operations, however. Enterprise companies need to take note because proficiently managing the complete pricing lifecycle offers a strategic advantage not only for coping with economic challenges but also enhancing operational efficiency and increasing the customer experience.

Enhanced operational productivity
While Walmart emphasizes increased productivity in its transition to digital price tags, an unintended benefit is that stores will also be able to seamlessly react to rapid market changes. No longer will store employees need to spend time traversing the aisles and altering prices by hand. Prices can now be altered in mere seconds with a few clicks, and employees can spend time on more meaningful duties such as inventory management and assisting customers. Additionally, the lag time from setting a price to having it in front of customers is significantly reduced.

When thinking about this concept from an enterprise perspective, it’s simple to see similarities to Walmart’s requirements. Adjusting prices with speed and precision is critical for maintaining business performance among market volatility and inflation. However, many organizations manage and deliver pricing with burdensome, error-prone spreadsheets, which is an antiquated approach that can hamstring a pricing team attempting to update prices or an executive team deploying new pricing strategies. As a consequence, companies are not able to use pricing as a strategic lever for profitability and are not able to adequately respond to today’s business challenges.

Fortunately, purpose-built pricing solutions are readily available and demonstrated to help companies seamlessly manage pricing and respond to market changes. By outsourcing intensive, manual pricing processes, enterprise companies can free up pricing teams to consider their deeper pricing strategy and the actions needed to maximize revenue and profit.

Improved customer experience
Because digital price tags eliminate the time-consuming task of manually establishing and delivering pricing to customers, the overall customer experience will unquestionably improve. Real-time pricing changes will allow for speedier discounts and markdowns, and employees will have more time to fulfill online orders and ensure shelves are adequately supplied. More competitive and pertinent pricing coupled with additional in-store support should help drive sales and customer loyalty.

Similarly, pricing technology can help enterprise organizations better the personalization and consistency of the consumer experience — specifically in digital sales channels. On an e-commerce site, consumers expect a seamless and personalized self-service experience. But if that experience is tarnished by prices that are inaccurate or not aligned to the market, customers will move elsewhere. To attain business objectives, you need to make the most of every interaction with customers.

Enterprises must manage their complete pricing lifecycle
Walmart’s pricing evolution reflects a broader trend in the retail industry and beyond. The need for agility in today’s competitive environment, where market conditions and consumer demands can alter swiftly, is essential.

Enterprises must embrace this same mindset and ensure efficient administration of their entire pricing lifecycle to remain competitive, streamline operations, and enhance overall customer satisfaction. As a result, companies can not only navigate challenges more effectively but also position themselves as leaders in their respective markets.