What is it?
The Weekend Pricing Strategy is where retailers use special/reduced weekend pricing in order to attract customers to their site during times where volume would traditionally be low i.e. at the weekends.
What are we trying to achieve?
We will be looking for opportunities to entice customers onto the site with reduced pricing, or special offers, hoping to impress with offerings, and cementing the site as a viable option moving forward. The intended outcomes are twofold:
- Bolster profitability at traditionally slow times (the weekend).
- Encourage repeat business by capturing a new sub section of road users who would
frequent the site OUTSIDE of their usual routine. I.e Road users who come in on the
weekend, like your offerings, and decide to fill up there on their commute to work –
therefore not only optimising the slow periods, but also bolstering traditionally strong
periods.
How do we Implement?
A retailer must first decide what the ‘carrot’ is for the customer. Is it special pricing on Unleaded? Is it a combo offer of ‘buy gas, get a free pizza’? Essentially, what do you think would get passing road users into your site? That’s your carrot, and it is important the road users can SEE what the deal is, either via your pole sign price for gas, or suitable placement advertising for in store items.
Once you have established what the carrot is, we would monitor performance in the PERFORMANCE REPORTING section of the Edge app, across the chosen time period / weekend to establish what the market’s appetite for that offer was.
FOR EXAMPLE, if we used reduced pricing on gas as the carrot, did our VOLUME INCREASE? If so, we know that the market reacts favourably to price reduction.
SHORT TERM benefits include additional volume, and in store profitability as a result of increased volume and footfall at slow times.
LONGER TERM, we begin to see an UPTICK in volume during the weekday, as your new customers now familiar with your site, have more chance of frequenting your site as a result.
This strategy is popular as it incorporates both short and long term gains for the business, the key is establishing what resonates with your customers and local market as an “enticing deal.”
How long does it take?
The Weekend Pricing strategy is one you can implement quickly and effectively, but its true value comes from generating sustainable, long term growth by expanding your potential market size over the course of weeks and months. It is comparably low effort, and easy to track thanks to the Edge app.
