The January price list
Your largest importer emails its new list: a spreadsheet of several hundred wines with new costs from the first of February. Some are up a little, a few a lot, some are unchanged, and a handful are discontinued. Their codes do not match yours, and their wine names are spelled slightly differently from your EPOS.
Someone prints the list and starts working through it with a highlighter, comparing each line with the EPOS, working out a new price, and then updating the till, the website and the trade price sheet one after another. It is still going on in March. Meanwhile, some wines are being sold at old prices on new costs.
Why price changes take so long
The arithmetic is easy. What is hard is matching the supplier's lines to your products, deciding what to do about each change, and then making the same change in three or four separate places. Each step is manual, so the whole job is only as quick as the slowest system.
- Supplier codes and names do not match your product records.
- The effect on margin is not visible until each line is worked out.
- Retail, trade and club prices each live in a different system.
- Effective dates are ignored because updates happen whenever someone gets to them.
- Discontinued lines are not flagged, so you keep listing wines you cannot reorder.
What a slow price update costs
Every week of selling at old prices on new costs is margin lost. Retail and trade prices that change at different times confuse customers and accounts. Staff time goes on a job nobody enjoys. And discontinued wines left online lead to orders you cannot fulfil.
The price update tool we build
- The supplier's list, in whatever spreadsheet or PDF format it comes, is read and each line matched to your products by code where possible and by name and vintage otherwise. Uncertain matches are shown for a person to confirm, and the match is remembered for next time.
- For each wine, the screen shows the old cost, new cost, current selling prices and the margin at those prices.
- Your pricing rules propose new retail, trade and club prices, including rounding to price points you like, such as ending in 99 or 50.
- You review the list, accept, change or hold any line, and see the overall effect.
- Discontinued and new lines are listed separately so you can delist or add them.
- Approved prices go to your EPOS, web shop and trade pricing through their APIs on the effective date you set, all at once.
| Line in the supplier list | What the tool shows | Your choice |
|---|---|---|
| Small cost rise | Margin now, proposed new price | Accept, change or hold |
| Large cost rise | Highlighted with margin effect | Reprice, or review the listing |
| No change | Nothing to do | None |
| Discontinued | Stock remaining, where it is listed | Delist when sold, or reorder elsewhere |
| New wine | Not yet in your products | Add as a new listing |
Your prices are your decision. The tool shows the numbers and does the typing.
A price list done before it takes effect
The new list arrives in January. By the end of the week the matching is done, the buyer has reviewed the proposals, and the new prices are scheduled for the first of February. On that morning the till, the website and every trade account list change together. Wines being discontinued are flagged as final stock. Nobody is still working through a highlighted printout in March.
Because matches are remembered, the next price list from the same importer is quicker still.
Is this your price list week?
- Supplier price changes take weeks to work through.
- Prices are updated separately in the EPOS, website and trade lists.
- You have sold wines at old prices after costs rose.
- Supplier codes do not match your own product codes.
- Discontinued wines stay listed online.