On August 1, shoppers can expect to see another new pricing strategy at J.C. Penney, according to an article from Bloomberg Businessweek.
The article states that JCP is reportedly “switching to a two-tiered pricing system and promoting price matching for the first time as chief executive officer Ron Johnson alters a strategy that flopped with customers and caused sales to plunge.”
At the beginning of 2012, Johnson had announced that JCP was introducing a three-tiered pricing system that included regular prices, month long sales and shorter period promotions. The “Fair and Square” strategy apparently tanked when the company announced its overall sales for the first quarter dropped 20.1% compared to the same period last year.
“A change in the pricing policy was absolutely necessary,” Bernie Sosnick, an analyst with Gilford Securities, told Bloomberg Businessweek.
This new and improved pricing strategy, according to the article, will keep JCP’s everyday low prices and clearance sales but it “will match similar local competitors’ current advertised prices on identical items if customers show the ad at checkout.” Many items are excluded from the new strategy, including Sephora “retailer’s salon, optical, portrait or custom decorating departments,” the article stated.
Sosnick told Bloomberg Businessweek that although the month long sales offered by JCP didn’t appear to be working “clearance is a word they understand.”
Erin Lynch is an associate editor for Multichannel Merchant. You can connect with her on Twitter (LynchMCM) and LinkedIn or call her at 203-358-3755.