TOKYO -- Electronics retailer Nojima is introducing dynamic pricing at its 182 stores across Japan, tracking real-time shifts in the market and at rival stores to offer customers more competitive rates.
Nojima began installing remote-controlled digital price tags at its stores in 2017. Every item on its shelves, excluding iTunes cards and other prepaid cards, will have these tags by the end of the fall -- a first for a big retailer in Japan.
Dynamic pricing is already widespread in the hotel industry. While electronics retailers do adjust prices based on sales trends and rival pricing, reprinting and reattaching physical tags is very labor-intensive. Digital tags allow companies to change prices on different items remotely in one go -- which Nojima hopes will also free up staffers for better customer service.
The retailer is eventually looking to offer different prices by regions or stores, and to create a quick price-setting mechanism to compete with online as well as bricks-and-mortar rivals.
Tokyo-based Bic Camera also introduced digital price tags at a new location that opened in February, and aims to put the tags in all of its stores by the end of fiscal 2020. Other retailers like drugstores and supermarkets are also experimenting with the idea.