Anyone who claims otherwise is wrong. Sometimes theories that merchandise can be sold in store at prices significantly higher than the average prices offered online are spread by the industry or retailers with a romantic mindset. After all, customers who buy in store are offered better service and are therefore willing to pay significantly more. Forget this nonsense right now and don’t let anyone persuade you otherwise. You can rest assured that a customer who realises you have taken him for a ride will not remain one of your customers in future.

UNREALISTIC RRP’S ARE UNFAIR FOR CUSTOMERS AND RETAILERS

Every schoolchild can find out the current market price online in a matter of seconds. It is even easier with price comparison websites or smartphone apps, used directly in store. Comparing prices is an understandable and not at all impertinent need on the part of the customer. After all, when we ourselves are customers we don’t want to be taken for a ride and would like to compare prices. It’s not a matter of treating the retailer unfairly, quite the opposite in fact. You want the retailer to treat you fairly. It is the manufacturers who are not being fair to the retailers when they issue unrealistic recommended retail prices and do not make any serious efforts to ensure that these are complied with. I would like to tell you a story about what happened to me just recently:

I didn’t like to draw the sales assistant’s attention to the price difference, however. Instead, I put the product back and changed channel that very day, ordering it online.

RETAILERS DON’T KNOW THE BEST PRICE AVAILABLE ONLINE

What exactly went wrong here? I am pretty sure that, in his capacity as a retailer cooperating with Intersport, the retailer could easily have offered me the price quoted for the item everywhere online and still have made a decent profit. Unfortunately, he didn’t know what the fair retail price was for me as a customer. The manufacturer recommended him the wrong price - not good practice by Polar!

I am quite sure that the manufacturer Polar does not take its own recommended retail prices seriously! Most retailers do not have the option, however - like Amazon for example - of monitoring prices offered online for all items and adjusting prices on a daily basis. When the manufacturer recommends a retail price which is 30% more expensive than the retail price currently offered for this product online, they are not living up to their responsibility and are acting unfairly vis-à-vis retailers. Most retailers are not equipped with such effective systems for spying on the prices offered by the competition as Amazon.

MANUFACTURERS’ RRP’S MUST BE REALISTIC

That is why I call on manufacturers to issue realistic recommended retail prices, monitor them at all times and adjust them as and when necessary. The retailer can only call up a fair price if the Intersport retailer can rely on the prices recommended by the manufacturer. 

In the case of the Polar H7 heart sensor, sales have been forced to go online and specialist retailers have learnt that Polar heart sensors no longer sell as well as they used to. In future, they will probably be more careful when placing orders and that is certainly not what Polar wants!

StoreShip researches retail prices for nearly 200,000 items from the mobile phone branch and beyond every day, adjusting prices accordingly in the brodos.net system and the brodos.net Kiosk.

Manufacturers who would like information from us concerning how the prices for their own products look on a day to day basis are welcome to send me an email. ;-) dominik.brokelmann@brodos.de

On this note, I hope for us all that manufacturers start recommending realistic retail prices!

Yours, Dominik Brokelmann