Price approval is one of the significant elements of the daily retail routine. Managers have to discuss and agree on prices before introducing, changing or tailoring them to the current market situation. It means numerous phone calls, back-and-forth emails, and even piles of papers for pricing specialists.
In most companies, pricing management is a strong hierarchical process where pricing decisions can't be implemented without passing them for approval through subsidiary levels to the top management. Pricing specialists are therefore limited in actions and can't apply pricing recommendations while they are relevant.
Traditional pricing approval holds a range of small gaps and other obstacles at all levels because of its hierarchical structure. People involved in pricing may miss an email, lose a paper, forget to confirm or inform other stakeholders about their decisions to keep the process moving along. These seemingly minor troubles can lead to significant risks and losses for the company unless enhancing the price approval process for retailers and encouraging autonomy with pricing decisions.
What is wrong with the conservative price approval process?
Fast and valid pricing decisions are essential for the ever-changing market and particularly dynamic pricing, which helps retailers adjust their prices under various circumstances. Dynamic pricing requires instant responses to the current market situation and effective price adjustments to demands. For this reason retailers can’t wait a minute. The more time it takes to set prices, the more profits are lost.
When passing all levels of the company hierarchy to approve prices, even the best pricing decisions become irrelevant to the market situation. Moreover, with every new day of waiting for the confirmation of recommended prices, the data applied for this price optimization and adjustment becomes outdated. Without a prompt and proactive response, retailers can undergo considerable reputational risks and market share loss.
In this regard, traditional price approval process is challenge that make managers face numerous roadblocks:
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Vast bureaucracy. Too many managers are involved in the process and their decision plays a crucial role in pricing
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Slow implementation of pricing policy. The key pricing specialists lack the authority to directly impact prices and, therefore, the company's bottom line
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Lack of accuracy. Setting prices relevant to the outdated market situation costs retailers lost customers and missed opportunities
Specialists obtain wide span of price control and management
To help retailers maintain their businesses consistent, communicative, and compliant in terms of price approval, Competera introduces enhanced functionality. This process becomes more democratic and less subordinate.
Equal accountability is the basis of improved price approval.With this transition to close-within- department cooperation, a pricing expert doesn't have to wait for a senior manager to approve prices.
One might think that pricing specialists are isolated, but it's not so. The price approval Competera Pricing Platform provides doesn't exclude other team members' awareness and understanding of decisions made. The process is built on the principles of the notification mode.
A specialist who sends prices for approval should not wait until other team members approve them. Once prices are sent for review, other managers can look through recommendations and suggest changes based on their professional expertise.
New prices can be set before the whole team approves them. In fact, a manager is fully competent to establish prices and doesn't have to wait for each team member to confirm new changes, which also prevents the delay in the process.
Here’s how it works in practice.
For instance, an analyst calculates new prices with price optimization software so as not to miss demand response. Perhaps in the process, the minimum yield rule gets inadvertently broken, and the cost of the goods changes. The analyst calculates new prices in the system.
To stay on the same page with other team members, the analyst can send his prices for review to the right specialist. It allows for comparing profitability and correcting some prices with increased costs.
Once the information about prices is checked, the analyst gets a notification via email or in-built system chat. So pricing managers can immediately make changes based on recent price recommendations and directly apply them.
Seamless pricing with Approval Functionality
Approval functionality is a revolutionary approach that makes pricing more manageable and effective, mainly thanks to improved user experience.
Users can join optimization groups and see all information about members and statuses on their screens. 
The system allows a specialist to select one or a few users to send them prices for review with an option to get a notification about the successful review. 
Pricing specialists can manage reviews to make changes of users lists, discard reviewing processes, or manage email notifications.
Once review is ready, users can apply new prices. It’s possible even if a manager needs one reply. 
A specially designed chat environment allows users to stay tuned with recent changes, other members’ assignments, and statuses. It’s additional space, except for email, where users can instantly receive messages and communicate with other experts.
Final Note
Pricing can be fast and effective for everyone involved in the process. With the new approval functionality, Competera strives to help retailers boost their performance and reach their goals without missing a detail. That means the business can stay on top of the wave and be ready to react to the pricing challenges.
