The study, conducted by Omnia Retail and published as a white paper, questioned 150 DIY retailers within the UK on the efficiency of their pricing strategies. The report shows that companies are spending 10 hours per week manually checking and comparing their pricing against that of their competitor’s, which equates to around 1.97 million hours lost across the sector every year. 

55% of retailers said that they dedicate a minimum of 1-10 hours per week to monitoring market pricing, with 24% of retailers saying they commit 11-25 hours to the practice on a weekly basis. One in 10 of the companies surveyed stated that they actually spend around 26-50 hours per working week on the practice; the equivalent of one full-time salary. Despite this, 13% of them believe that they don’t spend enough time price-checking competitors. What some might find alarming is the fact that 17% of retailers felt that the practice has helped them achieve their goals. 

Sander Roose, CEO of Omnia Retail, commented: “The growth of e-retail has been a game-changer for retailer’s pricing strategies. Consumers can check how much their competitors are charging for the same products with a few clicks, so real-time benchmarking is key if brands are to keep pace with other industry players.

“However, these figures show that companies are committing a lot of time to competitor price-checking – an average of 10 hours per week – but doing so with little strategy or direction. Just half of retailers said they actually use competitor benchmarking information to change their prices and 83% don’t believe that the practice has been beneficial to the business.

“Intelligent software can combat this, automating the price-checking process and requiring almost no time or resource to manage. It also frees up time for teams to focus on creativity and improving their business in other ways – something that will be of increasing importance in the fight to maintain margins and deliver excellent customer experiences.”