Canadian Retailer - Store 2015 - 20

KPMG ROUNDTABLE

LARRY ROSEN ON CLUSTERING
Our stores are in all of the A+
malls across the country. Those
centres are becoming big clusters of better-end retail. We've
discovered that we love clusters.
Side by side with our competitors, all we have to do is have a
nicer store, better inventory, and
better service levels. If we can
deliver against those, we will win
the race every time.

Caption TBD

BALDWIN: During the recession, companies competed for
market share and volume, which meant frequent price promotions and markdowns for some. While many markets have
since recovered from the recession, corporations still find
themselves stuck in a cycle of recession-driven promotions.
While this survival tactic is at times necessary to compete,
pricing strategies have evolved into something far more complex and sophisticated. What strategies is your company
using to maximize your return on investment while staying
ahead of what some call the retail promotional madness?
BEBIS: We sell highly visible items. Grey Goose vodka is Grey

Goose vodka no matter where you go. So, in order to compete
beyond pricing, we focus on exclusive products and private
labels. We have a private label team that does all of the sourcing
and building of our products. For example, the number one Pinot Grigio in Alberta is called Fioretti. It's ours and we built it
from scratch. It's only available in our stores. It drives loyalty
and drives traffic back to our stores. One of the top selling beers
we carry is River Valley. It's our own brand that we built with
one of our partners. This is one way we're adding value with our
customers and engendering their loyalty beyond price.

20 |

CANADIAN RETAILER | STORE 2015

PRUD'HOMME: This is difficult to
achieve-to position yourself where
you want to be with respect to
pricing and the competition while
remaining profitable. There's a lot
of transparency in the marketplace
as customers have access to data
through the Internet and can compare prices anytime, anywhere. To
stay ahead of this, we analyze a lot
of competitive data and understand
the importance of price in our overall value proposition. Every retailer
must price goods appropriately to
remain viable, but must also realize
that the customer has an expectation around price and we need to
deliver on it.
ROSEN: One thing I learned early on in the business, and which remains true today, is that if you
make price an issue, it'll be an issue. Our clients
engage with us in a more experiential way. Our
strategy involves our products being priced
competitively with the market. We want to compete on other factors, primarily on exceptional
service and experience.
DINAN: At Town Shoes we strive for fair market-

place pricing every day. We want our customer's
experience with us to be less about price and
more about experience and service. And we want
to focus on our assortment and the latest products. We've never wanted to play with our customers' trust. So, when we think about pricing
and pricing tools, we're more interested in markdown optimization tools so that we can clear out
seasonal products more profitably and more effectively rather than trying to get an extra $5 on
product that's currently in the marketplace.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Store 2015