case study

KVIs, Real-Time Competitive
Data for the Win

The Client

Leading Privately-Held Regional Grocery Retailer in the United States

The Situation

Believing in the value of hard work and the importance of taking care of people, this leading regional retailer prioritizes low prices with the best value to ensure a superior customer experience. They operate in some of the most highly competitive locations in the U.S. and compete head to head with the largest national retailers.

Walmart introduced an aggressive KVI pricing change on their eggs to establish a position in the market. To ensure customer loyalty and stay true to their goals, this retail partner chose to counter with a strategy that lowered their prices on eggs even though it meant they were selling the items at a loss.

Market Conditions

Milk and Eggs are critical KVIs for retailers to get right on pricing. Retailers compete on these items fiercely – to the point of being willing to lose millions of dollars on the items in order to be the lowest price in the market.

Key Challenge

This retailer was quite advanced at collecting online data. Additionally, they would send store managers into nearby competitive stores to monitor activity when necessary. However, they could not get all of the data they wanted or as frequently as they needed to enable their competitive strategy. The lack of data was causing them to keep prices too low for too long after Walmart moved prices. This was causing large, unnecessary losses. With the right data, this retailer could be more responsive and adjust prices more rapidly ensuring they wouldn’t forgo pricing opportunities.

Solution

Leveraging Datasembly’s daily KVI data for milk and eggs from the specific locations in the regions they competed, this retailer was now able to more quickly react to Walmart’s pricing adjustments. Tracking these price changes more frequently and rapidly adjusting to the changes in market, this retailer was able to fully activate their strategy and drive new revenue by keeping a tight tolerance on pricing adjustments.

AHA! Insight

Without the full scope of the KVI changes at the local level, it was hard for this retailer to truly understand the full opportunity associated with their strategy. However, the data export quickly illuminated that even the smallest changes could add up! Based on the tens of millions of cartons of eggs sold through the year, the small moves of 5-10 cents per carton at the 100 most competitive locations resulted in millions of dollars on an annual basis.

Datasembly app image showcasing retail data collection