Playing the price-match game

When a competing bike shop ran a special sale last month, Bryan Redemske, manager of the Trek Bicycle Shop at 72nd and Jones Streets, issued a quick reminder via social media that his company always matches competitors' prices.

Various Omaha bike shops have aggressively priced their merchandise this summer as foot traffic slowed, Redemske said, so it's more common for customers to expect one store to match the lowest price they've seen at another place.

“It's not something we do grudgingly, so it's never really a problem,” he said.

Consumers are opening the purse strings a little more willingly after the recession, but they appear to be more selective and cost-conscious. It has become more common for shoppers to survey prices at several places and expect retailers to match the best price.

The benefit to consumers is obvious, but experts say price-matching can make sense from a business perspective as well, in helping to build customer loyalty.

National companies such as Walmart and Best Buy have aggressive price-matching policies, but even smaller, independently owned retailers are in some cases matching competitors' prices.

And with new smart phone apps such as RedLaser, which scans a bar code in one store and provides comparative numbers from other nearby retailers, pricing information is at a customer's fingertips.

Doug Fleener of Dynamic Experiences Group, a Boston-area retail consulting company, said today's consumers are willing to work to find good deals.

“A price guarantee or match can come in handy in getting the sale. ... If (customers) do find it cheaper, you keep the sale,” Fleener said.

Price-matching makes good business sense, he said. It's about keeping a customer who doesn't want to leave if he or she doesn't have to.

“This customer wants to continue to do business with you,” Fleener said. By bringing in a competitor's ad, the customer is telling the retailer, “I could go somewhere else, but I want to give you my business.”

Some retailers that offer price-matching get annoyed when a customer attempts to use it, Fleener said. It should be done willingly, he said.

Granted, price-matching might mean losing, say, 10 percent of a sale, Fleener said. “But it keeps the customer.”

Matching Internet prices can be challenging, since Internet stores frequently have lower overhead, Fleener said.

“I have a lot of clients who get heartburn trying to price-match them,” he said.

Brick-and-mortar retailers might include in their price quotes shipping costs of a competing Internet business, and also offer “extra values,” such as free tune-ups for a year, he said.

Ruth Comer, a spokeswoman for Hy-Vee supermarkets, said individual stores set price-matching policies.

“They look at the trends in their market, what their competitors are doing and what they think they need to do to be competitive,” she said.

In the Omaha area, Hy-Vee supermarkets might match certain deals, but there's no blanket policy, she said.

“If a store determines this is something they need to offer, they have the ability to do that,” Comer said.

For supermarkets, price-matching probably is more a tool to get additional business from existing customers, she said. They might prefer one store over another for a particular reason, perhaps for its bakery or deli, but also want the deals available at competitors' sales.

Omaha's No Frills locations offer price-matching for just that reason, said Bill Loneman, vice president of marketing.

“Everybody runs weekly ads, ourselves included,” Loneman said. “And if we can keep people from having to make a special stop at one of our competitors, we are more than happy to do that.”

Although No Frills doesn't track price-matching usage or statistics, store managers report that the number of customers requesting it has increased significantly over the last 12 months, Loneman said.

“The assumption is that it's the economy, and people are working harder to stretch their dollars,” he said.

Fleener said staying competitive is more important than ever for retailers, and price-matching can help.

“It's a real easy way to sell something,” he said.

Told of Redemske's response to his competitor's sale, Fleener said it was a shrewd move.

“He leveraged the publicity of the other bike retailer — how smart is that?” Fleener asked. “The retailers who get it, whether they're grocery stores or specialty stores, they understand the lifetime value of the customer.”

A retailer that considers the value of a customer over 10 years realizes that surrendering 10 percent on one sale is a smart investment, Fleener said.

As for Redemske's offer, Fleener said: “Maybe it motivated (his customers) to upgrade their bikes now rather than wait to next year.”

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