The Art Of Pricing & The Variables That Has Made It Impossible In The Current Market

in blurtafrica •  4 years ago 

Pricing for me is the art of negotiating between a buyer and a seller in which a favourable price is met and obtainable for the two parties. With the advent of malls, plazas an online markets, segementation setting in, pricing became more steadier and usual and pricing became something that you could could only find in local markets.

Nowadays in Nigeria most big ventures have segemented their market to not necessarily the rich but the "ready and willing". Ehen a buyer is ready it means money wise he is ready to meet the selling price of a product which has of course been from the onset by a buyer and also having a price tag that is displayed.


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Pricing was an art I learnt from buying second-handed clothes, petty businessing and goods she services whose price can be set and also variables that are determinant by the end retailer and of course the manufacturer. Garri and mobile phones are two different commodities.

Garri is a food and consummable and the price sometimes is determinant on fuel prices, transportation, cost of planting and so many other variable but even if there's a set selling price of maybe 20,000₦ for one bag a seller might chose to sell for 19,500₦ due to the bargaining power of a buyer it might also be determinant on if the buyer is buying in bulk.

This way, a seller will attain a sort of economics of scales because he's selling lesser per unit nevertheless selling in a larger quantity he will of course earn less per unit but earn more in a larger scale.


However when you look at mobile phone, its an entirely different case; the fact that its shipped a steady price has been set for it but then price will still vary from the different outlets that chose to retail the mobile phone.

Now these retailers have set their own different price to of course make profit but then different outlet will set prices based on their customer base and the willingness of their customer to pay for a product which they have set the price. One thing with retailers is that we have retailers who chose to buy in higher quantity and sell per unit.

These people study the types of customers they have before setting prices because once their price is set they're never changing it and there is nothing like negotiation. This is because they already have a customer base that will buy that product at that price and that is why they would not compromise that price.


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The popular belief is that rich people don't care about the price of a product especially if the product is within their purchasing power then the asking price of a seller is not their concern; this is relatively true. Market segementation is the reason why a bottle of malted drink is sold ₦300 on the mainland and sold ₦1200 on the island.

This is actually the same product but then different locale. It is viewed that people on the island are richer, life there is more expensive and business owners are exploiting these prospect to make massive gains. Why not? Money is fleeting, the product itself is what is value.

The value is not on the money this is because the currency itself is weak and hence the exploitation in price by retailers and the advent of segementation.


In other words, goods that are produced in Nigeria are more prone to the art of pricing than goods that are imported, nevertheless having a ready-made customer base is another reason why pricing don't happen especially for some bigger firms, people who are more into petty goods and products allows for pricing.

Nevertheless pricing for me not only saves a consumer from incessant spending it makes for a healthy market. In Nigeria, ridiculous price actions often affect the economy. The ostentatious bargaining power of the rich makes it difficult to buy a product the price of its actual value and since there is no check or regulation on price action, people will continue to spend more to buy less.

When the price of a commodity goes up it become difficult to come down even when the variables that made production become cheaper. This is as a result or greed, product owners hate bargaining and this is why they treat the market more like an auction.

Originally posted on my blog here

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