“The Pricing Journey” interview with Sophie Bernard
The vision of pricing, a strategic issue for retailers, e-commerce sites, brands, as seen by Sophie Bernard :
Sophie has worked for two of the world’s largest retailers, Amazon and Carrefour. She has managed pricing teams in different sectors throughout her career, so we wanted to know her opinion on the evolution of a pricing strategy that evolves in the markets, and in particular the transition to dynamic pricing.
“Pricing is an ever evolving discipline,” she says. Industries such as retail are becoming more mature on this subject and understand the impact of a good pricing strategy. But according to her, it is crucial for companies to understand that pricing and in particular the pricing dynamic “is a great tool to support your company’s growth and steer your P&L”.
Being well aware of this, a company that starts to push its pricing towards dynamic pricing, must be ready. It is important to define your business goals and then choose the right partner that will fit your needs. But it’s not just about that. Dynamic pricing also requires solid data, focus and patience during the testing phase.
To finish this interview, we discussed with Sophie the mistakes often made in pricing. The most common mistake she has noticed during her career is that prices are often set based on rules such as keeping to the budget declared at the beginning of the year. She reminds us that “Price management is about the right price at the right time to gain customer trust intime” and that it is essential to “Define clearly your objectives”.
Thanks again to Sophie for exchanging with us and for bringing us her insightful vision of Pricing that we share at Pricing Hub.