The DataWeave Blog

Category: Brands

India’s Black Friday 2025 Decoded: Discount Analysis and Brand Performance Across Major E-commerce Platforms
Black Friday has evolved from a purely Western retail phenomenon into a global shopping event. India is no exception. While the country celebrates its own mega sale events like the Great Indian Festival and Big Billion Days, Black Friday has carved out its own space in the Indian retail calendar. E-commerce in India is expected to reach $325 billion by 2030, with festive shopping seasons driving significant portions of that growth.

So how did Indian retailers and brands navigate Black Friday 2025? At DataWeave, we analyzed pricing trends across four major categories: Consumer Electronics, Home & Furniture, Health & Beauty, and Apparel. Our AI-powered retail intelligence platform tracked nearly 128,000 SKUs across leading platforms including Amazon India, Flipkart, Myntra, and others, revealing how the Indian market approached discounting and brand visibility during this high-stakes shopping period.

Our Methodology

DataWeave monitored average discount percentages across major Indian e-commerce platforms during two distinct periods:
- Pre-Black Friday: Up to November 23, 2025 – capturing early promotional activity and baseline pricing
- Black Friday Week: November 24 – December 1,2025 – spanning Thanksgiving week through Black Friday (November 28) and Cyber Monday (December 1)
We analyzed top-ranked products across subcategories on major retail sites, alongside Share of Search data, a metric that measures brand visibility by tracking which brand names appear in the top 20 search results for high-intent keywords.

Here’s a quick look at the overall discounts this Black Friday in India:

Consumer Electronics

Consumer electronics remain a cornerstone of Black Friday shopping in India, with smartphones and laptops driving significant online sales. Our analysis of 20,439 SKUs reveals distinctive discount patterns across subcategories.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

The category averaged 23.2% pre-Black Friday discounts with an additional 0.5% during Black Friday Week. Drones and TVs led pre-sale discounting at 47.1% and 45.2% respectively, suggesting retailers wanted to clear high-ticket inventory ahead of the main event. Tablets (25.2%) also saw aggressive pre-sale pricing. During Black Friday Week, Earbuds saw the most substantial additional discounts at 1.1%, while categories like Laptops and Smartphones, already heavily discounted, had minimal incremental price cuts at 0.2%.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

The most notable is Cofendy, electronics accessories and speaker brand, that saw the share of search rise from 1.4% pre Black Friday to 8.2% during the event. Realme followed with a solid 2.3% gain, reinforcing its position as a rising smartphone brand. Smart gadget brand Hammer also saw visibility increase by 1.4% at par with OnePlus, Fastrack, HP and Asus.

Samsung saw the highest brand visibility with share of search at 9.6% pre-event and 9.5% during Black Friday week, despite seeing a small drop in visibility. Audio brand Boat saw a visibility drop by 0.8%, while Xiaomi saw the share of search drop by 0.1%. This shift suggests that Indian consumers were drawn to newer brands and compelling deals across computing and mobile devices during the sale period.

Health & Beauty

The Indian beauty and personal care market is experiencing rapid growth, expected to reach $30 billion by 2027. Black Friday has become an important sales window for beauty brands and retailers. Our analysis of 19,854 SKUs reveals distinct patterns.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

The category averaged 17% pre-Black Friday discounts with an additional 0.4% during Black Friday Week. Beard Care led early discounting at 21.3%, reflecting strong pre-sale positioning in men’s grooming. Conditioner (17.2%), Makeup (16.9%), and Moisturizer (16.9%) also saw solid baseline promotions. During Black Friday Week, Makeup and Sunscreen saw the highest additional discounts at 0.5% each, while Electric Toothbrush and Toothpaste maintained modest incremental discounts at 0.2%.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

Affordable and emerging beauty brands dominated during Black Friday in India. Kellsie (beauty tools brand) surged from 1.6% to 6.5%. Classic mass-market brands like Pond’s (+3.4%) and Parachute Advanced (+2.8%) also performed strongly, alongside men’s grooming favorite Beardo (+1.6%). Other popular brands like Maybelline, Tresemme, Vaseline, all saw share of search and visibility increase during Black Friday.

Skincare brand Minimalist made a notable entry, jumping from 0% to 2.0% visibility. The flip side? Premium international brand L’Oréal Paris dropped from 8.3% to 6.5%, losing visibility during Black Friday.

Apparel

Our analysis of 57,537 SKUs reveals interesting discount dynamics.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

The category averaged 14.3% pre-Black Friday discounts with an additional 0.1% during Black Friday Week. Men’s Swimwear and Men’s Athleisure led pre-sale promotions at 22.2% and 18.5% respectively, while Women’s Swimwear and Women’s Shoes also saw strong pre event discounts at 19.3% and 17.6%.

Black Friday Week saw minimal incremental discounting across all subcategories, with most adding just 0.1-0.3%. The relatively subdued incremental discounting indicates that early birds captured the best deals, or that margins were already stretched from pre-sale promotions.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

Pepe Jeans dominated visibility, surging from 7.4% to 24.6%, a staggering gain that represents the largest visibility increase across all categories. Jockey also performed strongly with a 6% gain, solidifying its position in innerwear.

On the flip side, athletic and footwear stalwarts faced headwinds: Speedo dropped 1.4% and Bata fell 1.1%. This data suggests that during Black Friday 2025 in India, denim and lifestyle fashion brands invested heavily in promotional visibility, capturing massive mindshare at the expense of traditional athletic and footwear brands.

For brands and retailers navigating India’s increasingly competitive e-commerce landscape, the 2025 Black Friday data reveals a critical insight: pre-sale positioning matters more than Black Friday Week discounting. Early promotional investment and visibility campaigns delivered far greater returns than late-stage price drops, fundamentally reshaping how brands should approach this shopping event.

Want to understand how DataWeave’s retail intelligence platform can help your business make data-driven decisions during peak sales events? Contact us to learn more about competitive insights, price intelligence, assortment analytics, content analytics, and digital shelf analytics.

Check out our analysis on Black Friday 2025 Pricing and Discount trends in the USA, Canada, UK, and Germany. Follow our blog for more insights on retail pricing trends, brand visibility analysis, and data-driven commerce intelligence.
December 19, 2025
Black Friday Canada 2025: Comprehensive Pricing Analysis Reveals Strategic Discount Patterns Across Consumer Electronics and Home Categories
Black Friday 2025 marked another significant shopping event for Canadian consumers, with retailers deploying sophisticated pricing strategies to capture holiday spending. Online and in-store spending on Black Friday reached an estimated $865 million in Canada, which marked a 6% increase compared to last year.

At DataWeave, we analyzed Black Friday 2025 pricing dynamics across two major categories in the Canadian market: Consumer Electronics and Home & Furniture. Our AI-powered pricing intelligence platform tracked approximately 16,000 SKUs across leading Canadian retailers like Target, Walmart, Wayfair, Home Depot, Amazon, Best Buy, Loblaws, Metro and more, uncovering distinct patterns in how brands and retailers structured their promotional calendars this year.

Our Methodology

DataWeave monitored pricing and discount trends across Canadian retailers during two key timeframes:
- Pre-Black Friday Period: Up to November 23, 2025 – establishing baseline promotional activity and early holiday deals
- Black Friday Week: November 24 – December 1, 2025 – spanning Thanksgiving through Black Friday (November 28) and Cyber Monday (December 1)
Our dataset included top-performing products across multiple subcategories on major Canadian retail platforms. We also tracked Share of Search metrics, measuring brand prominence by analyzing which brand names appeared in the top 20 search results for high-value keywords during each period.

Black Friday 2025 Canada: Overview

Here’s how average discounts compared between the Pre-Black Friday period and Black Friday Week:

Key Finding: Canadian retailers front-loaded their promotional strategy significantly, with Pre-Black Friday discounts averaging 16.3% across categories. The additional lift during Black Friday Week was modest at 1.4%.

Consumer Electronics

Consumer electronics consistently drives Black Friday traffic, and Canadian retailers delivered compelling early-season value. Our analysis of 11,772 SKUs reveals nuanced subcategory performance.

Subcategory Discount Breakdown

Consumer Electronics averaged 13.6% discounts in the Pre-Black Friday period, with Black Friday Week adding 1.7%. Audio & Video dominated early promotional activity at 23.8%, signalling retailers’ intent to clear inventory ahead of the main event. Wearables followed at 16.9%, likely timed to capture gift-buying momentum.

During Black Friday Week, Audio & Video maintained leadership with an additional 2.5% discount, the highest incremental lift in the category. Meanwhile, Computers and Gaming, already positioned at modest pre-sale discounts of 6.2% and 6.4%, saw minimal additional movement, suggesting constrained inventory or deliberate pricing discipline in these segments.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

Our Share of Search data reveals which brands gained or lost prominence during Black Friday Week:

Audio brands dominated visibility gains during Black Friday Week. Beats by Dr. Dre nearly tripled its Share of Search from 3.1% to 9.2%, showing the strongest gains. Visibility for Dutchman climbed 3.6%. Motorola and Samsung also captured increased search prominence with gains of 2.5% and 2.2% respectively.

Conversely, some established tech brands experienced visibility declines. Gaming brand Viprtech by 2.9%. Asus declined by 1.6%, and SanDisk dropped by 1.3%.

Home & Furniture

Home & Furniture showed the most aggressive early discounting of any category in our Canadian analysis. Tracking 4,362 SKUs, we found retailers heavily promoted home goods well before Black Friday weekend.

Subcategory Discount Breakdown

Home & Furniture led all categories with Pre-Black Friday discounts averaging 23.5%, but Black Friday Week added only 0.7%, the smallest incremental discount in our entire study. Kitchenware saw extraordinary pre-sale discounts of 43.2%, the highest in any subcategory we tracked. Bedding followed at 33.6%, while Furniture reached 24.3%. These deep early discounts likely aimed to drive early conversions and manage bulky inventory ahead of peak logistics constraints.

During Black Friday Week, additional discounting remained minimal across the board. Bedding posted the highest lift at 1.1%, while Kitchenware saw just 0.4%. The data suggests Canadian home goods retailers viewed the pre-sale period as their primary promotional window, with Black Friday serving more to sustain momentum than deliver new value.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

Mattress brand Zinus led gains with a 3.9% increase, positioning itself as a value-focused furniture leader during the sale period. Cuisinart climbed by 1.5%, suggesting strategic amplification of this established kitchenware brand.

Most home brands maintained relatively stable visibility throughout the sale period. Safavieh and Dorel showed essentially no change, while Better Homes & Gardens and Viscologic experienced only minor declines of 0.1% and 0.2% respectively.

Want to understand how DataWeave’s pricing intelligence platform can help your business make data-driven decisions during peak sales events? Contact us to learn more about competitive insights, price intelligence, assortment analytics, content analytics, and digital shelf analytics.

Check out our coverage on Black Friday 2025 across US, UK, and Germany. Follow our blog for more insights on retail pricing trends, brand visibility analysis, and data-driven commerce intelligence.
December 19, 2025
Black Friday 2025 Germany: Full Analysis of Discount Trends and Brand Search Visibility Across Key Categories
Black Friday 2025 solidified its position as a major retail event in the German market. German consumers demonstrated an average Black Friday budget of €317, the highest among select European countries.

The German market, however, exhibited unique consumer behavior patterns during Black Friday 2025. Rather than meticulous planning, 59% of German shoppers allowed deals to inspire their purchases, compared to just 32% who shopped with predetermined lists and budgets. This spontaneous yet budget-conscious approach distinguishes German consumers from other markets, where FOMO-driven purchasing tends to dominate.

Against this backdrop of rational deal-seeking and regional diversity, how did retailers and brands perform across key categories this Black Friday?

At DataWeave, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of Black Friday 2025 discounting trends across five major categories in the German market: Consumer Electronics, Home & Furniture, Health & Beauty, Grocery, and Apparel. Our AI-powered pricing intelligence platform monitored over 16,000+ SKUs across leading German retailers like Amazon, Aldi, Douglas, Nutritienda, Carethy, Bofrost, and more, revealing fascinating patterns in how retailers and brands approached this year’s sale season.

Our Methodology

For this analysis, DataWeave monitored average discounts across leading German retailers during two distinct periods:
- Pre-Black Friday: November 6 – November 23, 2025 – capturing early holiday deals and baseline pricing
- Additional Discounts During Black Friday Week: November 24 – December 1, 2025 – covering Thanksgiving week through Black Friday (November 28) and Cyber Monday (December 1)
Our sample encompassed the top-ranked products across subcategories on major retail sites. We also analyzed Share of Search data, which measures brand visibility by monitoring which brand names appear in the top 20 search results for critical keywords.

Black Friday 2025 Germany: The Big Picture

Our analysis covered 16,653 SKUs across five major categories. Here’s the snapshot of average discounts during the Pre-Black Friday period compared to Black Friday Week:

Key Insight: The German market presented a notably different discounting pattern compared to other markets. Pre-Black Friday discounts averaged 7% across all categories, with Black Friday Week adding 5.1% on average. Unlike the UK and US markets where retailers front-loaded promotions heavily, German retailers took a more balanced approach, with several categories actually seeing higher discounts during the main Black Friday Week.

Beauty led pre-sale discounts at 10%, followed by Electronics at 9.3%. Consumer electronics stood out with the highest Black Friday Week discounts at 9.4%, slightly exceeding even the pre-sale period at 9.3%.

Shopping Behavior Patterns: The relatively modest discount levels reflect the rational, value-oriented approach of German consumers. With the majority of shoppers setting budgets between €100-€299 and prioritizing wish fulfillment over impulse purchases, German retailers focused on strategic discounting rather than aggressive margin erosion.

Consumer Electronics

Consumer electronics dominated German Black Friday interest, with 77% of German shoppers most interested in electronics deals, making it the most anticipated category during the sales period. Our analysis of 2,077 SKUs reveals how discounts varied across subcategories and which brands dominated search visibility in this highly competitive category.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

This was one of the few categories where Black Friday Week discounts matched or exceeded pre-sale levels. Wearables led pre-sale discounting at 16.3%, followed closely by Audio & Video at 15.8%. During Black Friday Week, these categories saw additional discounts of 12.2% and 12.4% respectively.

The standout performer was Home Automation, which nearly doubled its additional discount from 7.2% to 13.9% during Black Friday Week. Mobile Devices saw additional discounts dropping from 13.4% pre-sale to 7.1% during Black Friday Week. Meanwhile Gaming doubled additional discounting from 2.1% to 4.3%.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

Our Share of Search analysis reveals significant shifts in brand visibility during Black Friday Week:

HP saw the highest share of search across Black Friday at 10.5% pre event and 11.6% during the event. Apple led with a 4.7% increase in visibility, jumping from 1.6% to 6.3%. Asus followed at 4.6%. Motorola surged 3.6 %, while wearables brand Fitbit gained 1.7%.

In stark contrast, Logitech dropped by 7.8 %, Beats fell 6.2 %, and SanDisk declined 5.5 %. Computer manufacturers Dell and Acer also struggled, falling 2.5 and 2.3 % respectively.

Home & Furniture

The Home & Furniture category in Germany showed unique discounting behavior compared to other markets, with additional Black Friday Week discounts (6.7%) actually exceeding Pre-Black Friday levels (6.1%). Our analysis of 1,403 SKUs shows how discounts were distributed across subcategories.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Kitchenware led pre-sale discounts at 8.7%. Decor surged from 5% to 7.5%, lighting jumped from 5% to 6.9%, and bedding more than doubled from 3.2% to 6.6%. These substantial increases suggest strategic timing to capture consumer attention during peak shopping days.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

Mattress brand Slumber Solutions saw the highest share of search at 21.8% pre event and 26.1% during Black Friday week. Meanwhile, another mattress brand Swedrea led all brands with a remarkable 10.8% surge in visibility, jumping from 8.8% to 19.6%. Budget-friendly furniture brand Clickbin gained 9.2%, while window treatment brand Sun Zero increased 9% and home textiles brand Safavieh surged 8.6%.

Premium and established brands also performed well: Caraway Home (cookware) rose 6.6%, mattress brand Serta gained 5.3%, and Slumber Solutions added 4.4%. Royal Gourmet, specializing in outdoor cooking equipment, gained 2.0%.

However, several mid-tier brands faced steep declines. Addison Rugs dropped 6.9% from 8.5% to just 1.6%, while Sunlifer fell 6.8 % and Maxax declined 6.4 %.

Health & Beauty

Our analysis of 6,474 SKUs reveals subcategory-level insights and dramatic brand visibility shifts that highlight the evolving German beauty landscape.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Pre-Black Friday discounts averaged 10%, with Black Friday Week adding 4.5% on average. Fragrance led pre-sale discounting at 11.6%, positioning perfumes and colognes as attractive early holiday purchases. However, Fragrance saw the smallest Black Friday Week addition at just 2.8%.

Hair Care and Skincare both showed strong performance across both periods, with Hair Care at 11.1% pre-sale and 4.9% during Black Friday Week, while Skincare registered 10.9% and 5.1% respectively. Skincare’s 5.1% Black Friday Week discount was the highest in the category.

Men’s Grooming stood apart with notably lower discounts at 3.3% pre-sale and 2.6% during Black Friday Week, suggesting either tighter margins in this subcategory or strategic positioning at different price points.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

L’Oréal Deutschland GmbH emerged as the most visible brand, surging from 37.7% to 51.9%, (+14.2). German pharmaceutical cosmetics company Medicos Kosmetik GmbH & Co. KG gained 4.4 %. Clinique gained 3.3 %, and French luxury brand Sisley added 3.1 %, German natural cosmetics brand Weleda rose 2.7 %, and Japanese prestige brand Shiseido gained 2.5 %.

The flip side? K-beauty brands and some international names faced significant challenges. Viral make-up brand Tirtir experienced the steepest decline visibility, dropping by 9.2 %. Aveda fell 6.2 %, Elizabeth Arden dropped 5.8 %, and Beauty of Joseon declined 3.8 %. German pharmacy brand Mi.to. Pharm GmbH lost 4.3 %, while Israeli makeup brand GA-DE fell 3.3 %.

The data reveals a clear German preference for European beauty heritage, pharmaceutical-grade cosmetics, and established prestige brands during Black Friday, rather than trendy K-beauty products or mid-tier international brands.

Grocery

While Grocery typically sees more modest discounts compared to discretionary categories, the German market showed interesting patterns with Black Friday Week discounts (3.5%) actually exceeding Pre-Black Friday levels (2.6%). Our analysis of 4,378 SKUs shows how German retailers approached promotions across essential and indulgent subcategories.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Pre-Black Friday discounts averaged just 2.6% in grocery. But Black Friday Week saw this surging to 3.5%, an increase that represents the highest proportional jump among all categories.

Pet Products and Household Essentials led discounting, with Pet Products at 4.6% pre-sale and an additional 5.5% during Black Friday Week. Meanwhile Household Essentials registered 4.9% and 5.4% respectively.

Beverages showed particularly strong Black Friday Week performance, jumping from 3.3% to 5.3%, while snacks doubled from 1.7% to 3.4%. Fresh categories maintained minimal promotional activity consistent with perishable inventory constraints: Meat & Seafood saw negligible discounts (0.6% pre-sale, 0.4% Black Friday Week), while Fresh Produce actually decreased from 2.4% to 2% during the main event.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

365 by Whole Foods saw the highest share of search at 9% pre event and 12% during Black Friday week. But Sprite led all brands with a 5.1% surge in share of search. Meanwhile, sister brand Coca-Cola experienced one of the steepest declines in our analysis, with visibility plummeting from 6.0% to just 0.1%. Fanta maintained modest search growth at 0.5 %. This stark divergence between two brands from the same parent company suggests vastly different promotional strategies during Black Friday Week.

Specialty and organic food brands performed well: Amy’s (organic/natural foods) gained 3.6 %, while spice brand McCormick surged 3.1 %. Pet food brand Nutro gained 1.7 %, while value-oriented Great Value added 0.8 %.

Snack brand Planters gained 0.4 %. On the decline side, Organic Valley dropped 2.8 %, Kraft Mac & Cheese fell 2.4 %, and Swanson’s declined 1.1 %.

Apparel

Apparel in the German market showed modest promotional activity compared to other markets, with Pre-Black Friday discounts averaging 5.9% and Black Friday Week at 5.2%. Our analysis of 2,321 SKUs reveals interesting patterns across fashion segments in the German market.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Footwear dominated discounting in both periods, with an impressive 23.3% pre-sale discount, and 15% additional discount during Black Friday Week. Men’s Clothing followed at 12.5% pre-sale, with additional 7.5% during Black Friday Week.

Activewear presented a unique pattern, with discounts increasing from 7.2% pre-event to additional 9.1% during Black Friday Week: one of the few subcategories to show higher discounts during the main event. Plus Size Clothing saw minimal promotional activity at 0.5% pre-sale and 0.7% during Black Friday Week, the lowest discounts in the entire category.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

Danish fashion brand Jack & Jones experienced an unprecedented surge with a staggering 19.4% gain in visibility. Sister brand Vero Moda (also owned by Jack & Jones’ parent company Bestseller) maintained flat visibility at 7.1%. Footwear brand Chaoren gained 7%. Meanwhile activewear giant Under Armour rose by 5%.

However, established sportswear giants suffered dramatic visibility losses. Adidas experienced an 11.6% decline in share of search. Dream Pairs saw visibility drop by 10.2%, Puma fell 8.4%, and plus-size brand Just My Size declined by 3.8 %.

Want to understand how DataWeave’s pricing intelligence platform can help your business make data-driven decisions during peak sales events? Contact us to learn more about competitive insights, price intelligence, assortment analytics, content analytics, and digital shelf analytics.

Check out our analysis on Black Friday Pricing and Discount trends in the USA and UK. Follow our blog for more insights on retail pricing trends, brand visibility analysis, and data-driven commerce intelligence.
December 16, 2025
Black Friday 2025 UK: In-Depth Analysis of Discount Strategies and Brand Performance Across Major Categories
Black Friday 2025 saw British shoppers spend an average of £430 each this year representing a £91 increase from last year and totaling over £10.2 billion across the sales period.

The 2025 sales event arrived at a pivotal moment for UK retail. Retail sales fell 1.1% in October 2025 as consumers held back spending in anticipation of Black Friday promotions, according to the Office for National Statistics. Over 2 in 5 UK adults participated in Black Friday shopping, with 45% planning to pick up Christmas gifts at a discount, according to a Barclays study.

Against this backdrop of cautious optimism and strategic consumer behavior, how did retailers and brands perform across key categories this Black Friday? At DataWeave, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of Black Friday 2025 discounting trends across five major categories in the UK market: Consumer Electronics, Home & Furniture, Health & Beauty, Grocery, and Apparel. Our AI-powered pricing intelligence platform monitored over 71K SKUs across leading UK retailers like Costco, Selfridges, Boots, Debenham’s, Carethy, Argos, John Lewis, Amazon, and more, revealing fascinating patterns in how retailers and brands approached this year’s sale season.

Our Methodology

For this analysis, DataWeave monitored average discounts across leading UK retailers during two distinct periods:
- Pre-Black Friday: November 6 – November 23, 2025 – capturing early holiday deals and baseline pricing
- Additional Discounts During Black Friday Week: November 24 – December 1, 2025 – covering Thanksgiving week through Black Friday (November 28) and Cyber Monday (December 1)
Our sample encompassed the top-ranked products across subcategories on major retail sites. We also analyzed Share of Search data, which measures brand visibility by monitoring which brand names appear in the top 20 search results for critical keywords.

Black Friday 2025 UK: The Big Picture

Our analysis covered 71,642 SKUs across five major categories. Here’s the snapshot of average discounts during the Pre-Black Friday period compared to Black Friday Week:

Key Insight: Pre-Black Friday discounts were substantial across all categories. This suggests UK retailers front-loaded their promotions to capture early holiday shoppers, with additional discounts during Black Friday Week adding to the baseline discounts already in place. The extended promotional period transformed Black Friday from a single-day event into a month-long campaign, with 60% of UK shoppers beginning their deal searches as early as October.

Consumer Electronics

Consumer electronics remains a cornerstone of Black Friday shopping in the UK, with technology accounting for 48% of planned consumer spending during the sales period, according to PwC.

AI is transforming how consumers shop for electronics, with AI-driven traffic to retail sites expected to rise 410% year-on-year during the 2025 holiday season. Younger shoppers particularly embraced AI tools, with 17% of Gen Z consumers using AI platforms like Chat GPT and Gemini to source and compare deals. Our analysis of 10,297 SKUs reveals how discounts varied across subcategories and which brands dominated search visibility.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Pre-Black Friday discounts averaged 11.1% across subcategories, while Black Friday Week saw an additional 2.3% discount on average. Audio & Video products led the pre-sale discounting at 16.3%, indicating retailers were eager to move inventory early in the season.

During Black Friday Week, Home Automation saw the highest additional discount at 2.8%. Wearables and Computers both saw solid 2.5% additional discounts, making them attractive categories during the peak shopping period.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

Our Share of Search analysis reveals significant shifts in brand visibility during Black Friday Week:

Bose dominated with its Share of Search more than doubling from 11.3% to 23.8%, a remarkable +12.5% gain. Lighting brand Philips Hue followed, gaining by +5.4% in share of search during Black Friday week. Notably, Meta, with it’s range of wearables, stands out for a +3.1% increase in visibility.

Apple’s Share of Search jumped from 10.1% to 16.4%, a gain of 6.4%. At the same time, Fitbit’s share dropped nearly 11%, the steepest decline in the entire electronics category. Meanwhile, Samsung and HP also lost on visibility this Black Friday in the UK.

Home & Furniture

The Home & Furniture category continues to attract UK consumers during Black Friday, though with a more measured discounting approach compared to other categories. Our analysis of 16,487 SKUs shows how discounts were distributed across subcategories.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Home & Furniture saw Pre-Black Friday discounts averaging 9.1%, with Black Friday Week adding just 1% on average, the lowest additional discount among all categories. Furniture led pre-sale discounts at 13.7%, followed by Bedding at 11.9%. This suggests retailers aggressively promoted larger home goods early in the season to capture deal-seekers.

During Black Friday Week, Kitchenware saw the highest additional discount at 1.9%, making it attractive for holiday cooking and gifting needs. Conversely, Lighting saw minimal additional promotion at just 0.5%.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

Made.com, the contemporary furniture brand, saw visibility surge during Black Friday with an impressive 8.9% increase. Similarly, emerging mattress brand Vesgantti gained 5.4%. Rug specialist Gooch Oriental also made significant gains with a 4.9% increase.

On the flip side, British heritage brands faced challenges. Both Laura Ashley and Julian Bowen saw share of search drop 2.2%. Premium mattress maker Vispring also declined 2.1%, while French cookware brand Le Creuset fell 1.9%.

Health & Beauty

Health & Beauty has emerged as a growth engine during Black Friday in the UK. The beauty industry is projected to grow 5% annually through 2030 according to a McKinsey survey. The category continues to demonstrate resilience even as consumers show caution in other discretionary categories. Our analysis of 15,816 SKUs reveals fascinating subcategory-level insights and dramatic brand visibility shifts that highlight evolving consumer preferences in the beauty space.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Health & Beauty presented a unique discounting pattern compared to other categories. Pre-Black Friday discounts averaged 14.4%, the second-highest among all categories. But Black Friday Week discounts were also robust at 6.1%, the highest additional discount increase.

Hair Care led both periods with 16.4% pre-sale discounts and an additional 6.4% during Black Friday Week. Skincare saw the highest Black Friday Week discount at 6.9%, suggesting retailers strategically saved their best skincare promotions for the main event when consumers are actively seeking holiday gift sets. Men’s Grooming stood apart with strong pre-sale discounts of 12.5% but more modest Black Friday Week additions of just 2.3%.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

The UK Beauty category saw some of the most dramatic Share of Search swings in our analysis.

Himalaya, the Ayurvedic skincare brand, dominated the category with a stunning 16.8% gain. British cult favorite Dr. Pawpaw exploded from 3.7% to 11.8%, a gain that reflects the brand’s growing mainstream appeal. Face the Future, the skincare specialist, also gained significant ground with a 4.9% increase.

Budget-friendly British brand Q+A continued its momentum, rising 4%, while prestige names like Guerlain and Tous each gained 3.8%.

Italian natural beauty brand L’Erbolario saw the steepest decline, with visibility dropping by 9%. Haircare brand Noughty fell 6.1%, and eco-beauty brand So Eco declined by 5.1%.

Grocery

While Grocery typically sees more modest discounts compared to discretionary categories, the sector remains a critical part of Black Friday shopping in the UK, particularly as consumers prepare for holiday entertaining and gifting. Our analysis of 11,979 SKUs shows how UK retailers approached promotions across essential and indulgent subcategories.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Grocery had the lowest discounts across all categories, reflecting the already-thin margins in food retail. Pre-Black Friday discounts averaged just 5.7%, with Black Friday Week adding only 1.2%. Pet Products led pre-sale discounts at an impressive 13%, significantly outpacing other grocery subcategories.

Beverages and Household Essentials followed with 9.4% and 7.7% pre-sale discounts respectively, and maintained their lead during Black Friday Week with 1.7% and 1.5% additional discounts each. Fresh categories like Meat & Seafood (1.4% pre-sale, 0.6% Black Friday Week) and Frozen Foods (1.7% pre sale, 0.6% additional discounts during Black Friday week) saw minimal promotional activity, consistent with perishable inventory constraints and tight margins.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

Doritos led with a 7.3% surge in visibility. Pepsi delivered an equally impressive performance, rising from 3.6% pre Black Friday to 10.7% during Black Friday week. Fanta too saw 5.2% gain in share of search.

Conversely, Coca-Cola gained more modestly at 1.6%, while its Sprite brand actually declined 0.9%.

Apparel

Apparel remains a Black Friday staple in the UK and is projected to deliver the strongest year-on-year growth of any UK retail segment this festive season. With clothing accounting for 39% of planned Black Friday purchases, the category represents one of the most hotly contested battlegrounds during the sales period.

Our analysis of 17,063 SKUs, the largest category in our study, reveals interesting patterns across fashion segments that demonstrate both the opportunities and competitive intensity in UK apparel retail.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Apparel showed the strongest discounting activity throughout the BFCM period among all categories. Pre-Black Friday discounts averaged 17.2%, with Black Friday Week adding 3.5%, making it one of the most heavily promoted categories.

Activewear led pre-sale discounts at an impressive 26.7%, with an additional 4.5% discount during Black Friday week. Plus Size Clothing and Men’s Clothing tied for second place in pre-sale discounts at 21.9% each. Notably, Plus Size Clothing saw the highest Black Friday Week discount at 5.4%.

Women’s Clothing saw robust discounts throughout, with 20.8% pre-sale and an additional 6% during Black Friday Week (the highest additional discount in the category).

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

White Stuff, the British lifestyle brand, saw a 7.2% surge in visibility during Black Friday. Y2K fashion made a statement as Juicy Couture jumped 5.8 %. Fast fashion player Pretty Little Thing gained in visibility by 5.2%. Comfort brands performed strongly, with Skechers gaining 4.5% and activewear specialist Sweaty Betty rising 3.4%. Even premium denim brand Levi’s gained ground, increasing share of search by 2.2%.

However, retail giants faced significant visibility challenges. John Lewis saw the steepest decline in the Apparel category, with share of search dropping by 10.6% during Black Friday week. Fast fashion giant Boohoo declined 2.5%. Premium accessory brand Coach’s share fell 4.9%.

The data suggests UK consumers gravitated toward distinctive brands with clear identities during Black Friday, whether heritage British labels, Y2K nostalgia, or comfort-focused specialists, rather than generalist retailers or fast fashion platforms.

Want to understand how DataWeave’s pricing intelligence platform can help your business make data-driven decisions during peak sales events? Contact us to learn more about competitive insights, price intelligence, assortment analytics, content analytics, and digital shelf analytics.

Check out our analysis on Black Friday 2025 Pricing and Discount trends in the USA.

Follow our blog for more insights on retail pricing trends, brand visibility analysis, and data-driven commerce intelligence.
December 16, 2025
Black Friday U.S. 2025: Comprehensive Analysis of Deals, Pricing Trends, and Brand Visibility Across Key Categories
Black Friday 2025 shattered records once again. U.S. consumers spent a record $11.8 billion online on Black Friday, a 9.1% increase from 2024 and the first time online sales exceeded $11 billion. The National Retail Federation (NRF) projects holiday retail sales (November-December) to grow 3.7% to 4.2% over 2024, with total holiday spending expected to surpass $1 trillion for the first time ever. Against this backdrop of robust consumer spending, how did leading retailers and brands perform across key categories this Black Friday?

At DataWeave, we conducted a detailed analysis of Black Friday 2025 pricing trends across five major categories: Consumer Electronics, Home & Furniture, Health & Beauty, Grocery, and Apparel. Our AI-powered pricing intelligence platform monitored nearly 80,000 SKUs across leading U.S. retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Target, Macy’s, Home Depot, Sephora, and more, revealing interesting patterns in how retailers and brands approached this year’s sale season.

Our Methodology

For this analysis, DataWeave monitored average discounts across leading U.S. retailers during two distinct periods:
- Pre-Black Friday: Up to November 23, 2025 – capturing early holiday deals and baseline pricing
- Additional Discounts During Black Friday Week: November 24 – December 1, 2025 – covering Thanksgiving week through Black Friday (November 28) and Cyber Monday (December 1)
Our sample encompassed the top-ranked products across subcategories on major retail sites. We also analyzed Share of Search data, which measures brand visibility by monitoring which brand names appear in the top 20 search results for critical keywords.

Black Friday 2025: The Big Picture

Here’s the snapshot of average discounts during the Pre-Black Friday period compared to Black Friday Week:

Key Insight: Pre-Black Friday discounts were significant across all categories. This suggests retailers front-loaded their promotions to capture early holiday shoppers, with additional discounts during Black Friday Week adding to the baseline discounts already in place.

Consumer Electronics

Consumer electronics remain one of the most anticipated categories during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Notably, AI traffic to retail websites grew 805% year-over-year, with consumers using AI tools most frequently for video games, appliances, and electronics categories. Our analysis of 10,356 SKUs reveals how discounts varied across subcategories.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

In Consumer Electronics, Pre-Black Friday discounts averaged 14.6% across subcategories, while Black Friday Week saw an additional 2.6% discount on average. Audio & Video products led the pre-sale discounting at 17.5%, indicating retailers were eager to move inventory early. During Black Friday Week, Audio & Video, Accessories, and Wearables saw the highest additional discounts (2.9-3 %), while Computers and Storage had already been heavily discounted pre-sale, leaving minimal room for further reductions during the main event.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

Our Share of Search analysis reveals significant shifts in brand visibility during Black Friday Week:

The Takeaway: Our analysis reveals significant shifts in brand visibility during Black Friday Week compared to the pre-sale period. Computing and mobile-focused brands like Apple and Asus gained substantial ground, while audio brands like Logitech, JBL, and Beats saw their visibility plummet. Apple’s Share of Search jumped from 1.58% to 6.2%, a gain of 4.6%, suggesting strong promotional activity or heightened consumer interest. Meanwhile, Logitech dropped nearly 8%, from 9.9% to just 1.2%.

Home & Furniture

The Home & Furniture category continues to be a consumer favorite during Black Friday. Our analysis of 12,610 SKUs shows how discounts were distributed across subcategories.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Home & Furniture saw Pre-Black Friday discounts averaging 13.9%, with Black Friday Week adding just 1.7% on average, the second-lowest additional discount among all categories. Bedding led pre-sale discounts at an impressive 18.6%, followed by Furniture at 16.4% and Outdoor at 15.1%. This suggests retailers aggressively promoted home goods early in the season to capture deal-seekers.

During Black Friday Week, Bedding maintained leadership with 2.4% additional discounts, while Kitchenware saw the smallest bump at just 0.9%, indicating early promotions had already captured most of the discount opportunity.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

The Takeaway: The Home & Furniture category saw some of the most dramatic Share of Search swings in our entire analysis. Emerging and value-oriented brands dominated the gains, with Swedrea surging from 8.7% to 19.6%, a remarkable 10.8% increase. Similarly, Clickbin and Costway each gained over 9%. On the flip side, established premium brands like Beautyrest and Livabliss saw sharp visibility declines, dropping over 7-8%.

Health & Beauty

Health & Beauty has emerged as a growth engine during Black Friday. The beauty industry is projected to grow 5% annually through 2030 according to a McKinsey survey. Our analysis of 16,141 SKUs reveals subcategory-level insights.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Notable finding: Health & Beauty presented a unique discounting pattern compared to other categories. Pre-Black Friday discounts averaged just 7.1%, the second-lowest among all categories. But Black Friday Week discounts were relatively strong at 4.8%. This indicates the Beauty category held back more discounts for the main event.

Notably, Hair Care was the only subcategory across our entire analysis where Black Friday Week discounts (6%) exceeded Pre-Black Friday discounts (4.6%), suggesting retailers strategically saved their best hair care promotions for the big weekend. Fragrance led pre-sale discounts at 13%, making it an attractive early shopping category.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

Health & Beauty saw some of the most dramatic Share of Search swings in our analysis, driven largely by celebrity-backed brands. Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez exploded from just 1.9% to 13.7%, a whopping 11.8% gain that made it the biggest winner across all categories. Haus Labs by Lady Gaga also surged (+4.1%), while prestige brands like Dior (+2.6%) and Clinique (+2.4%) gained ground.

The flip side? Retailer private labels took a hit: Beauty Finds by ULTA Beauty collapsed from 24% to 13.7% (-10.3%), and Sephora Collection dropped from 19.8% to 16.0% (-3.8%).

Key Takeaway: The Beauty category tells a compelling story about the power of celebrity brands during Black Friday. The Share of Search shifts appear to reflect how retailers and brands recalibrated their promotional focus for Black Friday. Celebrity-driven lines rose sharply in visibility, suggesting stronger placement, promotion, or search prioritization during the sale period. At the same time, private-label ranges from ULTA and Sephora lost ground, indicating a pivot away from house-brand visibility in favor of more spotlighted national and prestige brands throughout the event.

Grocery

While Grocery typically sees more modest discounts compared to discretionary categories, the sector remains a critical part of Thanksgiving weekend shopping. According to the National Retail Federation, grocery stores and supermarkets ranked as the third most popular shopping destination during Thanksgiving weekend, with 40% of consumers making purchases there. Our analysis of 18,823 SKUs shows how retailers approached promotions across essential and indulgent subcategories.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Grocery had the lowest discounts across all categories, reflecting the already-thin margins in food retail. Pre-Black Friday discounts averaged just 5.2%, with Black Friday Week adding only 1.5%. Household Essentials and Beverages led pre-sale discounts at 6.9% and 6.7% respectively, and maintained their lead during Black Friday Week with 2.2% additional discounts each. Fresh categories like Meat & Seafood (1.4% pre-sale, 1% Black Friday Week) and Frozen Foods (3.3%, 1%) saw minimal promotional activity, consistent with perishable inventory constraints and tight margins.

Key Takeaway: Grocery discounting remains conservative, with shelf-stable and household items seeing the most promotional activity. The Beverages and Household Essentials subcategories, which have longer shelf life and higher margins, were the primary battleground for grocery promotions during BFCM 2025.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

The Grocery category saw some surprising Share of Search swings during Black Friday Week. Most notably, there was a dramatic divergence between beverage giants: Sprite surged from 1.7% to 6.8% (+5.1%), while Coca-Cola collapsed from 6% to just 0.1% (-5.9%). This stark contrast suggests vastly different promotional strategies or algorithmic visibility changes between the two brands. Private label 365 by Whole Foods Market continued its steady rise, gaining 3%, reflecting ongoing consumer interest in store brands as shoppers seek value.

The Sprite vs. Coca-Cola divergence is one of the most striking findings in our analysis. Additionally, brands like Amy’s (organic/natural foods) and McCormick (spices/seasonings) gained significant visibility.

Apparel

Apparel remains a Black Friday staple and performed strongly this year. Our analysis of 21,749 SKUs (the largest category in our study) reveals interesting patterns.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Apparel showed strong discounting activity throughout the BFCM period. Pre-Black Friday discounts averaged 13.8%, with Black Friday Week adding 3.8%, the highest additional discount among all five categories. Men’s Clothing and Women’s Clothing led pre-sale discounts at 17.7% and 17.5% respectively, reflecting aggressive early promotions on core apparel. Interestingly, Plus Size Clothing saw the highest Black Friday Week discount at 5.4%, suggesting retailers pushed harder during the main event to drive conversions in this segment. Kids’ Clothing also saw strong Black Friday Week discounts at 4.4%.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

Apparel saw dramatic Share of Search movements during Black Friday Week. Fashion-forward brands dominated the gains: Madewell surged from 6.9% to 16.1% (+9.2%), while Alice + Olivia jumped from 14.7% to 23.6% (+8.9%). Nike also performed strongly with a 7.1% gain. Conversely, outdoor and athletic brands faced steep declines: The North Face dropped from 18.4% to 5.9%, a massive 12.5% decline, the largest in our entire analysis. Adidas fell 7.7%, Beyond Yoga declined 5.3%, and luxury brand Coach by 5%.

Key Takeaway: The data suggests fashion-forward and lifestyle brands (Madewell, Alice + Olivia, Saint Laurent) gained visibility at the expense of outdoor/athletic brands (The North Face, Adidas, Beyond Yoga). This could indicate that fashion brands invested more heavily in promotional visibility during the sale period.

Want to understand how DataWeave’s pricing intelligence platform can help your business make data-driven decisions during peak sales events? Contact us to learn more about competitive insights, price intelligence, assortment analytics, content analytics, and digital shelf analytics.

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December 9, 2025
Prime Day 2025: Shadow of Rising Prices Over Record Sales
Amazon Prime Day 2025 generated a record-breaking $24.1 billion in US online sales during its extended four-day run (July 8–11, 2025). While the expanded format helped broaden participation, it also diluted the urgency and daily peaks that typically define Prime Day.

Beneath this record-setting performance lies a more complex reality. Persistent inflation, shifting consumer behavior, and rising pricing pressures created a retail environment very different from previous years, one where higher baseline prices often replaced the deep discounts shoppers expected.

To understand these dynamics, DataWeave analyzed pricing and visibility trends across 11,495 products using our proprietary AI platform. The study focused on four major categories – Consumer Electronics, Apparel, Home & Furniture, and Health & Beauty – comparing identical SKUs from Prime Day 2024 and 2025, and tracking changes in both organic and sponsored share of search for leading brands.

The results reveal clear year-over-year price increases: Apparel led with a 9.5% rise, followed by Health & Beauty (7.9%), Consumer Electronics (5.1%), and Home & Furniture (3.9%). In total, 47% of tracked products saw higher prices, indicating that this year’s record sales were achieved in an environment of elevated base pricing rather than deeper discounts.

Multiple converging forces shaped the retail landscape leading into Prime Day 2025, pushing baseline prices higher even before promotions began.
- Supply Chain Pressures: Ongoing disruptions and elevated shipping and production costs continue to shape the cost structure across categories.
- Trade Policy Factors: Recent tariff measures and trade regulations may be contributing to upward pricing trends in certain categories, particularly those with high import dependence such as electronics and home goods.
- Labor and Operating Costs: Rising wages, transportation expenses, and general operating overhead are placing additional pressure on retailer margins and influencing pricing decisions.
- Currency Fluctuations: Shifts in exchange rates continue to add variability to the cost of imported goods, especially in globally sourced categories like electronics and apparel.
These combined pressures created a pricing environment where brands had less room for deep discounting, shaping not just how products were priced, but also how aggressively they were promoted.

To better understand the impact, we compared Prime Day 2025 prices to those from Prime Day 2024 for the same SKUs across major categories. This year-over-year view highlights how elevated baseline prices, driven by the factors outlined above, shaped the shopping experience and promotional strategies.

Consumer Electronics
- JBL prices increased 24% year-over-year, the highest among major electronics brands.
- Amazon’s own brand saw prices increase by 22%.
- Beats saw a significant 9% increase, while Sony and Samsung both experienced 8% price increases. Apple prices went up by 6%, and Google saw a 7% increase.
- Meanwhile, other established brands like LG and Motorola maintained minimal increases at 1%, Lenovo at 2%, Soundcore at 3%, and Bose and Hisense both at 5%.
Apple dominated visibility gains, jumping to 17.2% share of search during Prime Day with a 10.7% growth, likely driven by promotional focus on premium devices. Soundcore also saw significant gains of 10.3%, reaching 15.8% share of search.

LG and Amazon Basics both achieved strong 5.1% growth. Hisense gained 4.7% share with 5% price increases. Samsung and Amazon maintained strong positions with modest gains of 1.9% and 1.3% respectively.

However, several brands lost ground, with Sony declining most significantly by 1.8% share despite its strong market position, followed by Google (-0.5%) and Motorola (-0.4%).

Apparel
- Party Pants showed the highest price increases at 18% year-over-year, followed by casual wear brand Dokotoo at 13%.
- Athleisure brand CRZ Yoga saw prices increasing by 11%, while Under Armour saw prices rise by 10%.
- While Reebok experienced a significant 12% increase, Adidas saw 5% price increase.
- Meanwhile, innerwear brands like Hanes and Cupshe saw minimal price increases at 1%, while Coofandy also saw minimal increases of 1%.
- Amazon’s own Amazon Essentials maintained minimal price increases of 2%, and Jockey saw modest increases of 4%.
T-shirt brand Gildan led share of search gains with 4.0% growth along with a 5% price increase. Party Pants achieved 3.3% growth with 18% price increases, while CRZ Yoga gained 2.8% share and 11% price increases.

Amazon Essentials and Mens’ apparel brand Coofandy both improved share by 2.1%, with Amazon Essentials keeping price increases to just 2% and Coofandy at 1%. Under Armour gained 2.3% share with 10% price increase.

However, several brands lost ground, with Hanes declining significantly by 4.4% while keeping price increases to just 1%, followed by Cupshe (-1.4%) and Blooming Jelly (-0.7%).

Home & Furniture
- Mattress brand Best Price Mattress increased prices 23% year-over-year, the highest in the category.
- Amazon Basics showed 12% price increases, demonstrating strategic private label pricing.
- Home Improvement and Appliances brand Black+Decker saw a pricing increase of 11%.
- Better Homes saw an 8% increase, while most other brands saw price increases between 4-7%.
Appliance brand Acekool led visibility gains with 3.7% growth along with a 5% price increase. Amazon Basics improved significantly with a 3.6% share growth alongside its 12% price increases. Better Homes achieved 3.1% gains with 8% price increases.

Ironck gained 2.6% share with 7% price increases, and furniture brand Furinno improved by 1.5% with 5% price increases. However, several brands lost ground, with Samsonite declining most significantly by 4.4%, Best Price Mattress lost 2.1% share with its massive 23% price increase, and Allewie declined by 1.7% with 4% price increases.

Home goods face elevated pressure from expanded steel and aluminium tariffs increased to 50%.

Health & Beauty
- Minimalist saw prices increase 25% year-over-year, the highest in the category, followed by Tresemme at 20% and Oral-B at 17%.
- Neutrogena increased pricing by 14%, while Sun Bum rose 13% and Viking Revolution 12%.
- Nyx Professional Makeup saw price increases of 10%, Dove and L’Oréal Paris both at 8%, and Maybelline at 7%.
- Value-positioned brands saw modest price increases, with Philips Sonicare (6%), OGX and Banana Boat (both 5%), e.l.f. (4%), and Garnier (3%).
- Notably, Cetaphil, Colgate, and Sensodyne all kept increases to just 1%.
Dove led visibility gains with 9.3% growth along with 8% price increases. Minimalist achieved remarkable 8.1% growth even with the category’s highest 25% price increases, and Maybelline gained 4.9% share with 7% price increases.

Cetaphil improved by 4.8% with minimal 1% price increases, while e.l.f. gained 4.1% share with 4% price increases. However, several established brands lost share, with Oral-B declining most significantly by 9.3% along with 17% price increases, followed by OGX (-7.9%) with 5% price increases, Viking Revolution (-6.5%) with 12% increases, and Philips Sonicare (-5.5%) with 6% price increases.

In Conclusion

Prime Day 2025 underscores the shifting realities of retail, where persistent pricing pressures, evolving consumer behavior, and complex market forces are redefining how promotions are planned and executed. In this environment, success hinges on having the right intelligence at the right time, empowering brands to target promotions strategically, protect margins, and maintain visibility in a crowded marketplace.

As competition intensifies, the ability to anticipate trends and respond with precision will separate market leaders from the rest. At DataWeave, we equip retailers and brands with the insights needed to navigate these changes and make data-backed decisions that drive sustainable growth.

Stay connected to our blog for ongoing analysis of pricing, promotion, and visibility trends or reach out to us today to learn more.
August 11, 2025
Black Friday vs Boxing Day: Which Sale Event Offered Better Deals?
When it comes to shopping events, Black Friday stands out as one of the most anticipated dates for scoring deals. Typically occurring the day after Thanksgiving, the weekend kicks off the holiday shopping season with a frenzy of discounts. But Boxing Day, celebrated on December 26, is also well-known for its post-Christmas clearance sales.

This Black Friday, US eCommerce sales increased by a hefty 14.6% in 2024, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse. While Black Friday leads in overall revenue generation for retailers, Boxing Day presents unique opportunities for clearing post-holiday inventory.

For a consumer, which sale event is likely to offer the most attractive deals?

At DataWeave, we analyzed discounts across retailers and categories to uncover the answer.

Our Methodology

For this analysis, we tracked pricing data across major retailers for Black Friday and Boxing Day. To provide a comprehensive analysis of Black Friday pricing strategies, we explored a matched products dataset, comparing identical 14,000+ SKUs across retailers within key categories.
- Categories included: Consumer Electronics, Home & Furniture, Apparel, Health & Beauty, Grocery
- Retailers included: Amazon, Target, Walmart, Sephora, Ulta Beauty, Overstock, Home Depot, Best Buy, Saks Fifth Ave, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus
- Timeline: November 26 (Black Friday), December 26 (Boxing Day)
Average Discounts: Black Friday vs Boxing Day

Our analysis reveals that Black Friday generally offered steeper discounts across most categories, although Boxing Day wasn’t far behind. Here’s a breakdown:

While Black Friday led in most categories, Apparel saw a slight edge on Boxing Day, with discounts averaging 40.22% compared to 37.67% on Black Friday. Electronics, Beauty, and Home, however, remained more lucrative during Black Friday.

Top 5 Products Higher Discounts on Black Friday

Diving deeper into specific products, here are our top 5 picks offering better discounts during Black Friday.
- Appliances like an Immersion blender set offering a discount of 88.29%, significantly higher than its Boxing Day offer of 86.62%.
- High-end electronics like the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 also saw substantial markdowns at 84.60%.
- In beauty and fashion, both La Roche Posay’s retinol serum and Vera Bradley’s satchel offered discounts above 80%.
- Even everyday essentials like paper towels enjoyed generous discounts, with markdowns reaching 82.35% during Black Friday compared to 76.47% on Boxing Day.
Top 5 Products With Higher Discounts on Boxing Day

Boxing Day revealed some remarkable deals across diverse categories, with certain products offering significantly better value than their Black Friday counterparts.
- The JBL Go 2 portable speaker emerged as the standout, with an extraordinary 82% Boxing Day discount compared to just 20% on Black Friday—a dramatic 62% difference.
- Home furnishings showed strong Boxing Day performance, with the Costway accent armchair set reaching 80.30% off.
In Conclusion

Black Friday reigns supreme in driving early holiday sales, offering deeper discounts and drawing larger crowds. However, Boxing Day remains critical for retailers to offload surplus inventory and attract post-holiday shoppers.

By combining insights from both events, retailers can refine their strategies to maximize revenue and enhance customer satisfaction. For shoppers, the decision comes down to timing—shop early for better deals or wait to capitalize on clearance markdowns. The products and categories with more attractive offers tend to vary between these two sale events. Hence, as a shopper, it’s a good idea to keep track of prices all through the holiday season to take advantage of the best deals.

Check out our comprehensive coverage of Black Friday 2024 deals and discounts across categories.

For a deeper dive into the world of competitive pricing intelligence and to explore how our solutions can benefit apparel retailers and brands, reach out to us today!
January 21, 2025
Black Friday 2024 in Canada: Insights on Consumer Electronics and Home & Furniture
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are major retail events in Canada, with 43% and 29% of the population making purchases during these sales respectively, according to a YouGov report. Consumer electronics continue to lead the Canadian retail market during these events, with 55% of surveyed shoppers choosing to buy tech products on Black Friday. Household appliances come in second, with 25% of shoppers opting for these items, while 18% prefer to shop for furniture deals.

These statistics highlight the importance of delivering value during the Thanksgiving sales week. Retailers must cater to shoppers’ expectations with competitive pricing, attractive deals, and a seamless shopping experience. So, what unique offerings did Canadian retailers present to shoppers this season?

To understand the pricing and discount dynamics during BFCM 2024 in Canada, DataWeave analyzed discounts across leading consumer electronics and home & furniture retailers. Using our AI-powered pricing intelligence platform, we analyzed 37,108 SKUs across these categories for major retailers including Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Canadian Tire from the 10th to 29th November. We focused on the top 500 products ranked for each search keyword on each retail site, using targeted terms aligned with categories like “sofa” and “wearables”.

In the following insights, the Absolute Discount represents the reduction of the selling price compared to the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP). The Additional Discount reflects how much lower the selling price is during Black Friday compared to its price a week before the sale. This metric reveals the actual or effective value of the sale event, beyond the standard discounts typically offered.

Also check out our detailed analysis of discounts and pricing for the consumer electronics, apparel, health & beauty, grocery, and home & furniture categories across major US retailers this Black Friday.

Consumer Electronics

Retailers in Focus

Consumer electronics saw robust participation from major retailers, with Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart leading the charge. Here’s how they stacked up in terms of discounts:
- Best Buy emerged as the frontrunner in absolute discounts at 31.2%, while Amazon impressed with a notable 19.7% additional discount, indicating a strong Black Friday-specific markdown strategy.
- Walmart offered steady competition, particularly in audio and video products, which reached an average absolute discount of 37.2%. However, it’s average additional discount was only 3.1%, indicating muted BFCM-specific price reductions in this category.
Subcategory Insights

Diving deeper into consumer electronics subcategories, we observed varied discounting strategies.
- Audio & Video stood out as the most discounted subcategory, with Walmart leading at 37.2%.
- In Wearables, Walmart again took the top spot with 36.4%, while Amazon offered higher additional discounts (22.4%).
- Discounting for computers and gaming was less aggressive, highlighting strategic pricing to maintain profitability in these high-demand segments.
Brand Performance

Brand-level data highlighted how key players used Black Friday to drive visibility and sales.
- Dell led in average absolute discounts (36.7%) followed by Samsung at 36.68%
- Audio brand JBL offered significant absolute discounts at 35.9%.
- Apple and Lenovo offered comparatively fewer discounts but maintained strong visibility, as seen in their increase in the Share of Search during the sale period.
- MSI (laptop brand) and Bose (audio and earphone brand) experienced significant increases in visibility, with Share of Search increases of 5% and 3.6%, respectively.
- Notably, HP faced a decline (-3.2%) in the Share of Search, suggesting missed opportunities to align promotions with consumer interest.
Home & Furniture

Retailers in Focus

The home and furniture category saw competitive discounting, with Walmart, Canadian Tire, and Home Depot vying for consumer attention.
- Walmart took the lead with the highest absolute discounts at 36.8%. The retailer’s additional discounts were more conservative at 3.6%. This is similar to their discount levels in Consumer Electronics.
- Canadian Tire offered stiff competition, providing 31.6% absolute discounts and 25% additional discounts.
- Home Depot matched its absolute and additional discounts, maintaining consistency at 24.1%.
Subcategory Insights

Home and furniture subcategories revealed targeted discount strategies.
- Bedding emerged as the most discounted subcategory at Walmart (50.6%) and Canadian Tire (35.3%).
- Kitchenware saw competitive pricing, with Walmart leading at 42.9%, followed by Canadian Tire at 33.9%.
- Canadian Tire focused on lighting, offering the highest absolute discounts in this subcategory (38.2%)
Brand Performance

Brand-level analysis revealed stark contrasts in discounting approaches.
- Furniture brands Homcom led in absolute discounts (36.4%), while South Shore stood out with the highest additional discounts (30.2%).
- Value-oriented brands like furnishings brand Mainstays and mattress and bedding brand Zinus offered more modest discounts, focusing on consistent affordability.
- Zinus (mattresses and sofa brand) experienced a significant 7.9% increase in the Share of Search, driven by aggressive promotions.
- Home furnishings brands like Costway and Safavieh faced declines, reflecting the importance of aligning promotional strategies with consumer expectations.
Insights for Retailers and Brands

This Black Friday, Canadian retailers effectively balanced deep discounts with category-specific strategies to maximize sales. However, the fluctuating Share of Search highlights the critical need for brands to align promotions with consumer interest.

For brands and retailers looking to stay ahead of the competition, DataWeave’s pricing intelligence platform offers unparalleled insights to refine discounting strategies and boost visibility. Contact us to learn how we can help you stay competitive in this dynamic retail landscape.
December 18, 2024
A Deep Dive into Consumer Electronics Pricing During Black Friday 2024
Americans spent a whopping total of $10.8 billion online this Black Friday. As Thanksgiving Week 2024 wraps up, one thing is clear: the consumer electronics category continues to dominate seasonal shopping trends. Fueled by a blend of enticing deals and high consumer demand, the sector delivered competitive discounts across subcategories like wearables, gaming, and mobile devices.

At DataWeave, we analyzed discounting trends in the U.S. consumer electronics market during this year’s sales events. Using our AI-powered pricing intelligence platform, we tracked pricing and promotions for 22383 SKUs across Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy from November 10 to 29. We focused on the top 500 products ranked for each search keyword on each retail site, using targeted terms aligned with categories like “gaming” and “apple.” Here’s what we uncovered.

Also check out our insights on discounts and pricing for health & beauty, grocery, apparel, and home & furniture categories this Black Friday.

Retailers Battle It Out with Competitive Discounts

Discount trends reveal clear leaders in terms of markdowns:
- Walmart offered the deepest average absolute discounts at 36.9%.
- Amazon and Target followed closely, highlighting a diverse range of deals designed to appeal to budget-conscious shoppers
- Best Buy, the specialist consumer electronics retailer, offers the lowest discounts this Black Friday at 26.2%.
Note: The Absolute Discount represents the reduction of the selling price compared to the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP). The Additional Discount reflects how much lower the selling price is during Black Friday compared to its price a week before the sale. This metric reveals the actual or effective value of the sale event, beyond the standard discounts typically offered.

Subcategory Spotlight: Where the Best Deals Happened

From audio & video to wearables, each retailer carved out competitive advantages across subcategories.
- Both Amazon and Walmart offered high discounts in audio & video and wearables, but Walmart led, with discounts up to 46.3%.
- Best Buy, meanwhile, offered high absolute discounts on Mobile Devices(34%) and Storage (31%), followed by high discounts on wearables and Audio & Video.
- Amazon maintained a balanced approach, excelling in audio & video and mobile devices.
Brand-Level Insights: HP and Samsung Dominate

The biggest winners this year were brands that strategically leveraged Black Friday discounts to boost visibility and sales:
- HP took the top spot with average discounts of 36.9%, followed by Samsung at 31.4%.
- Despite its premium reputation, Apple offered an average discount of 29.3%, signaling a shift in strategy to attract deal hunters.
Share of Search: Shifting Consumer Attention

Search trends reveal how discounts shaped brand visibility:
- Microsoft saw the largest spike in share of search (+8.6%), thanks to aggressive pricing on gaming consoles and accessories.
- Marshall and Amazon also saw significant gains in visibility.
- Surprisingly, HP experienced a sharp decline (-9.8%), indicating missed opportunities despite steep discounts.
Consumer Electronics: Lowest-Priced Retailer Analysis

In the previous analysis, we focused on the top 500 products within each subcategory for each retailer, showcasing the discount strategies for their highlighted or featured items. However, to identify which retailer offered the lowest or highest prices for the same set of products, it’s necessary to match items across retailers. For this, we analyzed a separate dataset of 340 matched products across retailers to compare their pricing during Black Friday. This approach provides a clearer picture of price leadership and competitiveness across categories.

Here are the key takeaways from this analysis.

Category-Level Highlights
- Amazon leads with the highest average discount (41.35%), offering the most value to consumers. It is followed by Target (39.37%) and Walmart (36.15%).
- Best Buy, the specialist consumer electronics retailer, ranks last with an average discount of 31.53%, emphasizing a less aggressive pricing strategy compared to competitors.
Subcategory Highlights
- Wearables: Amazon offers the steepest discounts (55.40%), followed by Best Buy (50.60%) and Walmart (45.75%).
- Mobile Devices: Amazon also leads (37.94%), with Walmart (29.30%) in second place and Target trailing at 19.48%.
- Gaming: Target takes the lead (37.47%), with Amazon and Best Buy offering similar discounts around 30%.
- Computers: Target again emerges as the leader (39.18%), narrowly surpassing Walmart (36.13%).
Brand Highlights
- Apple: Amazon dominates with 53.06%, closely followed by Walmart (50.55%), while Target and Best Buy hover around 43%.
- Nintendo: Target edges out Amazon (37.62% vs. 36.54%), with Best Buy (33.21%) and Walmart (25.92%) trailing.
- Beats by Dr. Dre: Amazon leads (46.07%), with Target (37.14%) as the runner-up. Best Buy and Walmart offer comparatively modest discounts around 25%.
- Bose: Walmart emerges as the value leader (23.90%), surpassing Target (16.09%) and Best Buy (15.29%).
- Cricut: Amazon sets a high benchmark (54.13%), with Target far behind (36.43%) for this viral portable printer brand. Best Buy (12.32%) and Walmart (10.79%) offer significantly lower discounts.
What This Means for Retailers and Brands

Retailers looking to stay competitive should focus on strategic discounting and enhanced brand visibility. Brands must align with consumer expectations by:
- Leveraging platforms like DataWeave to analyze discount trends.
- Optimizing pricing and assortment strategies for seasonal demand.
For more insights into consumer electronics pricing, contact DataWeave to discover how our AI-powered solutions can drive success in today’s fast-paced market. Stay tuned for more category-specific analyses in the coming weeks!
December 6, 2024
The Apparel Market: A Closer Look at Black Friday Discounts
As the holiday shopping season kicked off, savvy shoppers embraced the spirit of the season, drawn by enticing deals. The apparel category is forecasted as the second highest earning category (Source: Statista), expected to generate revenues up to $43.9 billion, closely following consumer electronics. To understand the pricing strategies of top retailers amidst the sale season, DataWeave analyzed the pricing trends for the Apparel category this Black Friday.

We leveraged our AI-powered data platform to analyze the discounting across key retailers. Our analysis focused on the Apparel category, examining how Amazon, Walmart, Target, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus and Macy’s differentiated themselves through their discounts.

Also check out our in-depth insights on discounts and pricing for health & beauty, grocery, and home & furniture categories this Black Friday.

Our Methodology

For this analysis, we tracked the average discounts of apparel products among leading US retailers during the Thanksgiving weekend sale, including Black Friday. Our sample was chosen to encompass the top 500 ranked products in each product subcategory across during the sale.
- Sample size: 37,666 SKUs
- Retailers tracked: Amazon, Walmart, Target, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus
- Subcategories reported on: Footwear, Kid’s Clothing, Men’s Clothing, Women’s Clothing, Activewear, Plus Size Clothing, Accessories
- Timeline of analysis: 10 to 29 November 2024
We focused on the top 500 products ranked for each search keyword on each retail site, using targeted terms aligned with categories like “athleisure” and “plus size clothing”. Our methodology distinguished between standard discounts and Black Friday-specific ‘additional discounts’ or price reductions during the sale compared to the week before, to reveal true consumer value.

Key Findings

This year’s fashion discounts were unprecedented. Let’s take a look.

Retailer Level Insights
- Nordstrom leads with the highest average absolute discount at 59%, followed by Saks Fifth Avenue at 35.5% and Bloomingdale’s at 41.5%. Macy’s shows the lowest average discount at 24.1%, while Amazon has an average discount of 30.4%.
- Amazon ranks lower in both average absolute and additional discounts compared to competitors, indicating a more conservative discounting strategy.
Subcategory Analysis
- Kids’ Clothing saw the deep discounts (up to 55% at Nordstrom), reflecting growing pressure on family budgets and heightened competition to attract budget-conscious parents.
- Plus-Size Clothing emerged as a major focus, with Nordstrom leading at 53.22% average absolute discounts, signaling that retailers are increasingly prioritizing size inclusivity and appealing to a broader consumer base.
- Footwear experienced robust discounting, particularly at Bloomingdale’s with 37% average absolute discounts, showing a competitive approach to attract customers looking for seasonal footwear deals.
- Activewear displayed substantial discounts, with Walmart offering up to 41% on average, aligning with the trend of consumers looking for practical and comfortable attire during the winter season.
Brand Level Insights

Apparel brands, meanwhile, also offer telling insights.
- Top Discounting Brands: Aqua leads with an average absolute discount of 44.58%, followed by Boss at 42.33% and Burberry at 37.84%.
- Lowest Discounts: Athletic Works shows the lowest average absolute discount at 31.23%, with a minimal additional discount of 3.73%.
- Competitive Advantage: Brands like Ralph Lauren and Boss show strong discounts, indicating aggressive marketing during the sale.
Share of Search Insights
- Top Gainers: Adidas and Nike each saw an increase of 1.20% in their share of search during Black Friday/Cyber Monday, highlighting their strong brand presence and consumer interest.
- Top Losers: Reebok experienced a sharp decline, losing 2.60% in its share of search, while Levi’s also dropped by 0.60%.
- Search Trends: The data suggests a strong consumer preference for activewear brands like Nike and Adidas and a decline in interest for traditional apparel brands like Levi’s.
Who Offered Most Value This Black Friday

In the previous analysis, we focused on the top 500 products within each subcategory for each retailer, showcasing the discount strategies for their highlighted or featured items. However, to identify which retailer offered the lowest or highest prices for the same set of products, it’s necessary to match items across retailers. For this, we analyzed a separate dataset of 418 matched products across Apparel specific retailers to compare their pricing during Black Friday. This approach provides a clearer picture of price leadership and competitiveness across categories.

Here are the key takeaways from this analysis.

Category-Level Analysis

At the overall category level, Macy’s emerged as the lowest-priced retailer, offering the highest average discount of 28.72%, followed closely by Nordstrom (26.06%). The steep decline in average discounts from Saks Fifth Avenue (14.42%) and Neiman Marcus (7.93%) highlights a clear gap in discounting strategies.
- Macy’s and Nordstrom are aggressively competitive on pricing in the overall apparel category, likely capturing consumer attention with substantial discounts.
- Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus may rely more on brand perception and luxury positioning rather than heavy discounting.
Subcategory-Level Analysis
- Neiman Marcus tops the ranking with an impressive 60.85% average discount, outperforming Macy’s (52.86%) and Nordstrom (43.04%) for Men’s Clothing. We see a similar trend with Neiman Marcus offering more value across Women’s Clothing as well, compared to other retailers.
- The competition in footwear was intense, with Neiman Marcus narrowly securing the top spot at 31.03%, slightly ahead of Saks Fifth Avenue (30.28%) and Macy’s (30.07%).
- Saks Fifth Avenue led by a significant margin in the Activewear category, offering 39.89% average discounts, indicating a strong push in this growing segment.
- Macy’s followed at 32.16% in Activewear, while Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom had comparatively lower discounts of 26.40% and 19.52%, respectively.
Brand-Level Analysis
- Kate Spade New York: Neiman Marcus leads with the highest discount of 55.23%, reflecting strong price leadership in premium fashion, closely followed by Saks Fifth Avenue at 51.66%.
- Coach: Neiman Marcus dominates with a significant 75.85% discount, showcasing an aggressive promotional strategy for this luxury brand.
- Spanx: While Neiman Marcus leads with 28.22%, discounts across other retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s, and Nordstrom are clustered within a competitive range of 17–19%.
- Montblanc: Macy’s takes the lead with 20.32%, signaling its competitiveness even in high-end accessories, with Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom closely behind.
- Ugg: Saks Fifth Avenue leads with 31.42%, focusing on maintaining price leadership for this popular brand, while other retailers remain competitive with discounts around 25–30%.
What’s Next

To win over price-conscious shoppers, retailers need to stay competitive and consistently offer the lowest prices.

For a deeper dive into the world of competitive pricing intelligence and to explore how our solutions can benefit apparel retailers and brands, reach out to us today!

Stay tuned to our blog for more insights on different categories this Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
December 6, 2024
Breaking Down Grocery Discounts This Black Friday
As shoppers flocked online and to stores during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the grocery category stood out as a key battleground for retailers. With inflation affecting consumer spending, discounted groceries have become a critical driver for both shopper savings and retailer competitiveness.

In fact, according to the NRF, one of the top shopping destinations during Thanksgiving weekend were department stores (42%), online (42%),and grocery stores and supermarkets (40%). Clearly, consumers are looking to stock up in bulk on their groceries to maximize their savings.

To understand the pricing dynamics in the grocery category, DataWeave analyzed grocery discounts across leading grocers, uncovering significant trends that shaped consumer choices during this holiday shopping period.

Our research encompassed retailers like Amazon, Target, and Walmart, examining their discounting strategies across subcategories, alongside trends in share of search for leading CPG companies.

Also check out our detailed analysis of discounts and pricing for health & beauty and home & furniture this Black Friday.

Key Grocery Market Stats for Black Friday-Cyber Monday 2024
- Retailer Discounts: Walmart offered the highest average absolute discount at 27.6%, followed by Amazon at 20.4% and Target at 14.0%
- Subcategory Insights: Beverages Category at Walmart saw the deepest discounts, with an average of 33.4%
- Top Gaining Brands: Cesar experienced the largest increase in share of search during the sales period (+3.89%)
This blog will dive deeper into grocery discount trends and brand-level strategies, offering insights for retailers looking to stay competitive in the grocery sector.

Our Methodology

For this analysis, we tracked the average discounts offered by major U.S. grocery retailers during the Thanksgiving weekend, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We focused on key subcategories within the grocery segment, capturing trends in discounting strategies.
- Sample Size: 18,324 SKUs
- Retailers Tracked: Amazon, Walmart, Target
- Subcategories Reported On: Fresh Produce, Dairy & Eggs, Pantry Essentials, Snacks, Frozen Foods, Meat & Seafood, Household Essentials, Beverages, Pet Products, Baby Products
- Timeline of Analysis: November 10 to 29, 2024
In the following insights, the Absolute Discount represents the reduction of the selling price compared to the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP). The Additional Discount reflects how much lower the selling price is during Black Friday compared to its price a week before the sale. This metric reveals the actual or effective value of the sale event, beyond the standard discounts typically offered.

Key Findings

Retailer-Level Insights
- Walmart emerged as the leader in grocery discounting, offering the highest average absolute (27.6%) and additional (18%) discounts.
- Amazon adopted a mid-tier discounting strategy, with average absolute discounts of 20.4%.
- Target, while more conservative, maintained competitiveness in select subcategories like baby products.
Subcategory Insights
- Pantry Essentials saw Walmart leading with an average discount of 31.2%, appealing to budget-conscious consumers stocking up for the holidays.
- Fresh Produce showed consistent discounting across retailers, with Amazon slightly ahead at 27%.
- Beverages stood out for significant discounting at Walmart, with an impressive 33.4% average discount.
Brand-Level Insights
- Lay’s led in absolute discounts (37.52%) and additional discounts (26.23%) showcasing aggressive pricing in the snacks subcategory.
- Good & Gather maintained its competitive edge with strong discounts, appealing to price-conscious consumers seeking value.
- Brands like Blue Buffalo (pet food brand) offered significant absolute discounts, but with a low additional discount of just 2%, the overall impact of the sale event on effective value was limited.
Share of Search Insights
- Cesar (dog food brand), Tide (laundry staple) and Doritos saw significant gains in share of search, reflecting successful promotional strategies.
- Brands like Pampers (baby diapers brand), Healthy Choice, (frozen foods brand) and Pedigree (pet food brand) experienced a decline, indicating less effective engagement during the sale period.
Who offered the lowest prices?

In the previous analysis, we focused on the top 500 products within each subcategory for each retailer, showcasing the discount strategies for their highlighted or featured items. However, to identify which retailer offered the lowest or highest prices for the same set of products, it’s necessary to match items across retailers. For this, we analyzed a separate dataset of 1433 matched products across retailers to compare their pricing during Black Friday. This approach provides a clearer picture of price leadership and competitiveness across categories.

Here are the key takeaways from this analysis.

Category-Level Analysis
- Walmart is the lowest priced retailer overall for the grocery category, with an impressive average discount of 44.60%. This significant discount advantage makes Walmart a leading option for value-seeking consumers.
- Target follows with strong discounts of 36.73%, indicating solid pricing in comparison but less aggressive than Walmart.
- Interestingly, Amazon was the most expensive in Grocery, with an average discount of only 6.3%.
Subcategory-Level Analysis
- Walmart leads in various subcategories such as Pet Products (21.12%), Dairy & Eggs (13.79%), Household Essentials (13.05%), Frozen Foods (15.07%), and Meat & Seafood (17.60%), showcasing its extensive value across the board.
- Target excels in Beverages (14.58%) and Baby Products (15.00%) with competitive discounts, standing out in these specific subcategories.
- Kroger provides notable value in Pantry Essentials (20.04%) and Fresh Produce (15.85%), although its overall average discount is lower than Walmart’s.
- Amazon consistently ranks lower in terms of average discounts across most subcategories, highlighting it as less competitive for consumers seeking the lowest prices.
Brand-Level Analysis
- Walmart also holds the top position for several key brands like Cheetos (14.92%) and Dannon (8.81%), making it the best option for consumers looking for budget-friendly choices across popular brands.
- Target takes the lead for brands like Betty Crocker (25.20%) and Chobani (11.37%), showing that it can offer value for specific products.
- Kroger maintains strong discounts for brands such as Delmonte (9.19%), but it does not outpace Walmart in the overall grocery brand comparison.
- Amazon generally lags behind in average discounts for most brands, with Dannon (1.12%) and Chobani (2.43%) showing significantly lower discounts.
Walmart is the lowest priced retailer in the grocery category and provides substantial value across a wide range of subcategories and popular brands. This ties in with Walmart’s ELDP pricing strategy. The retailer leads in overall average discounts and maintains its position as the go-to for price-conscious consumers. Target offers strong value in certain subcategories and brands but falls short of Walmart’s broad value based pricing advantages.

What’s Next

For grocery retailers, competitive pricing and targeted promotions are critical to driving sales during key shopping events. As consumers continue to prioritize value, staying ahead in the discounting game can significantly impact market share.

For detailed insights into grocery discounting strategies and to explore how DataWeave’s solutions can help retailers optimize their pricing, contact us today!

Stay tuned to our blog for further analyses of other categories during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
December 5, 2024
Black Friday 2024: Home & Furniture Pricing Trends Analyzed
The Home & Furniture category continues to thrive, propelled by consumer interest in creating personalized and functional living spaces. In 2023, the U.S. furniture and home furnishings market was valued at approximately $641.7 billion in 2023 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 5.1% from 2024 to 2032. Black Friday and Cyber Monday play a crucial role in fueling this growth, offering consumers a mix of premium and affordable options across subcategories.

To better understand market trends and discount strategies this Black Friday, at DataWeave we tracked over 18,149 SKUs across major home & furniture retailers, including Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Overstock, from November 10 to 29, 2024. Using our AI-powered pricing intelligence platform, we focused on the top 500 products in subcategories like kitchenware, furniture, decor, lighting, outdoor items, and bedding.

In our analysis, the Absolute Discount represents the reduction of the selling price compared to the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP). The Additional Discount reflects how much lower the selling price is during Black Friday compared to its price a week before the Black Friday sale. This metric reveals the actual or effective value of the sale event, beyond the standard discounts typically offered.

Also check out our insights on discounts and pricing for the health & beauty category this Black Friday.

Retailer Performance: Who Led the Discount Race?

Retailers showed varying discount strategies for Home & Furniture products. Walmart emerged as the leader in absolute discounts (37.5%) while Amazon offered the highest additional discount of 14%. Best Buy maintained competitive pricing across all subcategories, while Overstock and Home Depot offered relatively modest discounts.

Subcategories in Focus

Breaking down the discounts by subcategory provides deeper insights into consumer priorities and retailer strategies:
- Kitchenware saw strong competition, with Walmart (30.40% absolute discounts) and Amazon (29% absolute discounts) dominating.
- Lighting became a discount hotspot, with Walmart offering up to 45.8% in absolute discounts and 25.3% additional markdowns.
- Furniture remained a core focus for Target, delivering an impressive 34% average absolute discount.
- Bedding stood out at Walmart, where discounts peaked at 49.6%.
Brand Spotlight: Who Stood Out?

Among top-performing brands, furniture brand Costway offered the highest discounts, with an average of 48.4%. Meanwhile, Adesso (lighting solutions), Mainstays and Safavieh (both home furnishings brands) balanced discounts and premium appeal.

Search Visibility: The Winners and Losers

Share of search dynamics revealed significant shifts in brand visibility during Black Friday:
- Furniture brand Costway (+1.2%) and home improvement player Black+Decker (+1.5%) gained visibility.
- On the flip side, premium brands like Safavieh known for rugs and home furnishings (-16.8%) and furniture brand Burrow ( -1.7%) saw declines.
Who Offers the Lowest Prices?

In the previous analysis, we focused on the top 500 products within each subcategory for each retailer, showcasing the discount strategies for their highlighted or featured items. However, to identify which retailer offered the lowest or highest prices for the same set of products, it’s necessary to match items across retailers. For this, we analyzed a separate dataset of 735 matched products across Home & Furniture specific retailers to compare their pricing during Black Friday. This approach provides a clearer picture of price leadership and competitiveness across categories.

Here are the key takeaways from this analysis.

Category-Level Highlights
- Amazon emerges as the lowest-priced retailer across Home & Furniture categories, with the highest average discount of 27.50%, closely followed by Walmart (26.09%).
- Overstock and Wayfair trail with average discounts of 22.93% and 20.71%, respectively, while Home Depot offers the least aggressive pricing at 18.14%. This is notable, as all 3 players are known specialists in the category.
Subcategory Highlights
- Amazon stands out as the leader in multiple subcategories, including Appliances, Furniture, Decor, and Outdoor, offering competitive average discounts of around 26-29%.
- Overstock leads in Bedding and Kitchenware, with strong average discounts of 24.26% and 20.72%, respectively.
- Wayfair is notable for Lighting, with an average discount of 19.95%, and is also competitive in Outdoor and Furniture categories.
- Walmart consistently ranks high in several subcategories like Appliances and Bedding, providing solid discounts of around 22-23%.
What’s Next

For home & furniture retailers, driving maximum value during mega sale events like Black Friday involves offering bundles and sets to meet customer demands and trend expectations. Gaining insights into competitor discounts and pricing can help furniture retailers get an edge amid this environment.

Want to know how DataWeave’s intelligence platform can empower your business during peak sales events? Contact us to discover more about competitive insights, price intelligence, and data-driven decision-making.
Stay tuned to our blog to see more coverage on Black Friday 2024.
December 4, 2024
Health & Beauty Deals on Black Friday 2024: Insights from Top Retailers and Brands
The U.S. health and beauty retail sector shows remarkable resilience amid economic uncertainties, with the skincare market projected to hit $21.83 billion in 2024. Black Friday data reinforces this trend, with health and beauty products seeing a 14.6% surge in web traffic compared to last year.

At DataWeave, we conducted an in-depth analysis of Black Friday discounting trends in the U.S. health and beauty sector. DataWeave’s AI-powered pricing intelligence platform was used to monitor pricing and discounts across Sephora, Ulta Beauty, Walmart, Target, and Amazon during Black Friday 2024. The study covered 19985 SKUs from November 10-29. We focused on the top 500 products ranked for each search keyword on each retail site, using targeted terms aligned with categories like “skincare” and “fragrance”.

The results? Beauty leads across categories in discount depth this year, with some retailers offering significant markdowns.

The Beauty Boom: More Than Just Looking Good

If there’s one thing the pandemic taught us, it’s that self-care isn’t just a luxury – it’s a necessity. This Black Friday proved that beauty has become an indispensable part of consumers’ lives, with retailers offering unprecedented discounts and crafting strategic promotions to capture the growing demand.

The Absolute Discount represents the reduction of the selling price compared to the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP). The Additional Discount reflects how much lower the selling price is during Black Friday compared to its price a week before the sale. This metric reveals the actual or effective value of the sale event, beyond the standard discounts typically offered.

Ulta Beauty led with 45% average discounts, followed by Sephora at 38.1% and Walmart at 35.2%. In terms of additional Black Friday discounts, Ulta maintained dominance at 35%, with Sephora following at 28%.

Hair care emerged as the standout category, with Ulta Beauty offering up to 56% discounts, reflecting sustained demand for at-home beauty routines. Skincare saw fierce competition, with Sephora emphasizing premium discounts (37%) while Walmart focused on value pricing (32.5%).

Fragrance and Makeup attracted consumers with targeted promotions from Walmart and Ulta Beauty, signaling strong demand for gifting items.

Major beauty brands echoed the sentiment. Premium skincare brand Clinique leads with 50.6% average discounts. Meanwhile, drugstore staples like Revlon (29.1%) and Maybelline (24.4%) balanced accessibility and affordability, driving mass-market appeal. Popular beauty and makeup brand L’Oreal Paris also offered a modest 22.8% average discount, reinforcing its position as a value-oriented brand.

The more interesting story? The massive shift in brand visibility, as our share of search rankings denote:
- Shampoo and hair care brand Tresemmé saw an unexpected 5.5% jump in the share of search results
- Beauty brand Herbal Essences gained 5.1% in share of search well
Declines in share of search were noted for brands like L’Oreal Paris (-1.8%) and Pantene (-0.6%), indicating missed opportunities in promotional visibility.

Insight: What’s driving this beauty boom? TikTok and social media continue to fuel beauty purchases, with viral products driving significant search and sales spikes. Plus, the “skinification” of hair care has turned basic shampoo shopping into a full-blown beauty ritual.

Who Offered the Lowest Prices?

In the previous analysis, we focused on the top 500 products within each subcategory for each retailer, showcasing the discount strategies for their highlighted or featured items. However, to identify which retailer offered the lowest or highest prices for the same set of products, it’s necessary to match items across retailers. For this, we analyzed a separate dataset of 1133 matched products across Health & Beauty specific retailers to compare their pricing during Black Friday. This approach provides a clearer picture of price leadership and competitiveness across categories.

Here are the key takeaways from this analysis.
- Bloomingdale’s emerges as the overall leader, offering the highest average discount of 14.87%, closely followed by Bluemercury (12.41%).
- Ulta Beauty ranks third (10.94%), demonstrating competitiveness across key subcategories, while Sephora trails with the lowest average discount (7.33%), reflecting a more premium positioning.
- Ulta Beauty leads in Hair Care with the highest discount (22.62%), while Bluemercury dominates in Skin Care (13.81%), Makeup (22.98%), and Fragrance (10.6%).
- Sephora consistently offers the lowest discounts across all subcategories, reflecting their premium positioning.
- Bluemercury offers the lowest prices for luxury brands like Kiehl (27.02%) and Laura Mercier (34.87%), with Bloomingdale’s closely trailing.
- Bloomingdale’s leads for Bumble and Bumble (13.59%) and Hourglass (23.41%), showcasing strong promotional efforts.
- Sephora maintains a more restrained discount strategy, with notable leadership only for Estée Lauder (7.18%).
- Ulta Beauty shines in offering the steepest discount for Briogeo (33.26%), emphasizing competitiveness in key brands.
What’s Next for Holiday Discounting?

For retailers, the message is clear: traditional holiday playbooks need a serious update. For shoppers, it means unprecedented opportunities to score deals in categories that traditionally held firm on pricing.

Want to stay ahead of retail trends and optimize your holiday shopping strategy? DataWeave’s commerce intelligence platform helps brands and retailers strategically navigate these shifts. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you make data-driven decisions in this rapidly evolving retail landscape.

Stay tuned to our blog for forthcoming analyses on pricing and discounting trends across a spectrum of shopping categories, as we continue to unravel the intricacies of consumer behavior and market dynamics.
December 3, 2024
Early Black Friday Deals Analyzed: How Top Retailers Stack Up on Discounts
Black Friday, once confined to a single weekend, has evolved into a shopping season that now stretches well before Thanksgiving. With inflation hovering around 3% and consumer confidence showing signs of recovery, retailers are adapting their promotional calendars to capture early-bird shoppers and maintain a competitive edge.

Major retailers, including Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy, have capitalized on this trend by launching promotions weeks in advance, signaling the traditional holiday rush is now a month-long event. At DataWeave, we put these deals under a microscope.

Our Methodology

Using DataWeave’s advanced, AI-powered pricing intelligence platform, we tracked early Black Friday deals across Consumer Electronics, Home & Furniture, Health & Beauty, and Apparel categories. We monitored dedicated Black Friday deal pages on Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and Sephora to gather and analyze discount data a week prior to Black Friday weekend.

Who’s Offering the Best Deals Across Categories?

Our pre- Black Friday analysis reveals a clear pattern of premium brands offering deeper discounts across categories ahead of the holiday. Here are some key findings around retail players:
- Walmart emerges as the most aggressive discounter across categories, leading in Health & Beauty (57.07%), Apparel (48.97%), and Consumer Electronics (43.35%).
- Amazon maintains consistent but lower discounts (28-29%) across categories, suggesting potential deeper cuts ahead.
- Best Buy and Sephora, both category specialists, play it conservative compared to mass retail players.
Let’s look at each category more closely to get a detailed snapshot of the deals this Thanksgiving week:

Health & Beauty

Our analysis reveals that it’s not electronics, but the health & beauty category that leads with the widest discount range pre Black Friday, making it the category to watch out for.
- Walmart takes the lead with an aggressive 57.1% average discount in this category, capitalizing on its value-oriented reputation.
- Beauty specialist Sephora holds modest beauty discounts (32.81%) compared to other retailers.
- Amazon offers the broadest range of SKUs (571) in the category.
Among the health & beauty brands we analyzed, cosmetics brand Tarte and viral K-Beauty skincare brand COSRX stand out with discounts above 40%, appealing to cost-conscious beauty enthusiasts.

Consumer Electronics

Our pre- Black Friday analysis reveals interesting insights about consumer electronics deals this season.
- Walmart, once again, emerges as the frontrunner in the category with 43.4% average discounts.
- Best Buy plays it conservative in electronics (30.75%), despite being a category specialist, but offers the most extensive SKU coverage (3030).
- Amazon’s consistent 29.7% discount across 1,749 SKUs suggests they’re probably holding back their best deals for Prime members during Black Friday.
Brand-specific data for the category reveals significant deals on Speck (48.07%) and smart TV brand Insignia (39.22%), making accessories and mid-tier electronics attractive for early shoppers. Core computing (HP at 32.14%) and electronics brands maintain more conservative discounts. It remains to be seen if this changes on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

Apparel

Our analysis of the apparel category reveals several highlights:
- In the apparel category too, Walmart dominates with an impressive 49% average discount, effectively targeting price-sensitive shoppers in the fashion segment.
- Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus, both known for apparel, offer significant discounts at 43.2% and 37.8% respectively.
- Amazon’s expansive SKU coverage (1344) is countered by a modest 29.5% discount, showing its focus on variety over depth of discounts.
Premium fashion brands dominate the highest discounts this Black Friday in the apparel category. Vince Camuto leads with over 45.1% average discount. Notably, Levi and Nike’s aggressive 44.43% and 43.50% discounts suggests significant inventory positions or intent to capture market share.

Home & Furniture

Our analysis reveals an interesting trend across the category.
- In the home & furniture category too, Walmart leads at 41.8% average discounts. Target follows closely, but with significantly lesser SKUs on offer.
- Amazon’s 28.1% discount, though the lowest among major players, spans a substantial 1,982 SKUs, reinforcing its position as a marketplace for diverse needs.
Top 3 Products With the Highest Discounts Across Retailers

To provide a clearer picture of the early Black Friday landscape, we analyzed the top 3 products with the most substantial discounts in consumer electronics and health & beauty categories. These insights highlight how retailers are leveraging strategic discounts on high-value items to attract early shoppers.

Top Discounted Products in Consumer Electronics

Premium TVs dominate the discount scene, with LG’s 83″ OLED offering up to 44.5% off on Amazon, closely followed by a 44.4% discount on Best Buy, showcasing aggressive competition. The same product has much lower discounting on Walmart, but notably, the product is retailed at $3999.9, at least $1000 less than other retailers, highlighting Walmart’s commitment to offering lowest prices.

Gaming consoles, like the PlayStation 5 Slim Bundle, show moderate discounts (ranging from 15% on Walmart and Target to 25% at Best Buy), appealing to tech-savvy shoppers.

Notable competition is evident in price matching across major retailers, particularly in TVs and high-value electronics like the Nikon Z 8 camera, where Walmart offers the deepest discount at 13.75%, edging past Amazon and Best Buy.

Top Discounted Products in Health & Beauty

Viral skincare staples like Tatcha’s Water Cream show tight discounting consistency, with Walmart offering 19.47% off compared to Amazon’s 20% and Sephora’s 20.83%.

Trending haircare brand Olaplex displays greater disparity, with Walmart leading with a 33.33% discount, surpassing Amazon and Sephora. Luxury brand, Yves Saint Laurent’s Satin Lipstick is one of the highest discounted items across retailers.

Looking Ahead

Our analysis suggests that while some early deals offer genuine value, particularly in premium beauty and high-end electronics, many retailers might be holding their best discounts for Black Friday.

For shoppers, the key is being selective: jump on premium brand discounts now (since they’re likely to remain the same though the weekend), but wait on mid-range electronics and home goods where better deals are likely to emerge on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

For retailers, the imperative is clear: dynamic pricing intelligence is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge while protecting margins. Competitive insights will be critical as the holiday season progresses to balance market share against profitability.

Stay tuned for our Black Friday Cyber Monday analysis next week, where we’ll track how these early discounts compare to the main event’s deals!
November 28, 2024
Mastering Retail Media Metrics: A Deep Dive into Share of Media
Brands are investing millions of dollars in digital retail media to make their products stand out amid unrelenting competition.

The ad spend on digital retail media worldwide was estimated at USD 114.4 billion in 2022, and the current projections indicate that it will grow to USD 176 billion by 2028. This amounts to a 54% increase in just six years.

The current surge in digital retail media advertising has led brands to find an effective way to monitor the efficacy of their ad spend. While Share of Search has long been used to measure brand visibility effectively, the metrics often missed tracking ads on retail sites.

DataWeave’s Share of Media solution helps solve this problem.

What is the Share of Media?

At DataWeave, Share of Media is a metric used to measure a brand’s presence in sponsored listings and banner ads on eCommerce platforms. It captures how often a brand appears in paid promotions compared to competitors, offering insights into advertising visibility and effectiveness.

These days most marketplaces seamlessly blend banner ads and sponsored listings into organic search results. Let’s take a closer look.

Banner Advertising

Banner advertising strategically places creative banners across websites—often at the top, bottom, or sides. Some eCommerce platforms also integrate these banners into product search listings.

What makes banner ads so special is the unique ability to allow marketers to use various types of media in a single ad, such as images, auto-play videos, and animations. Brands can also present curated collections of products. This flexibility provides marketers with creative opportunities to differentiate from competitors, capture customer interest, and encourage conversions.

Sponsored Listings

Sponsored listings are paid placements within search engine results or eCommerce platforms. They are usually marked as ‘sponsored’ or ‘ad,’ and they often appear at the top of search results and alongside organic product listing results.

Unlike organic search results, sponsored listings are prioritized based on the advertiser’s bid amount and relevance to users’ search queries.

Sponsored listings offer a strategic advantage by enabling businesses to connect directly with consumers who are actively searching for their products. This targeted approach ensures that marketing efforts are focused on individuals with high intent of making a purchase, maximizing the potential return on investment.

The Power of Banner Ads and Sponsored Listings

Banner ads and sponsored listings are great choices for boosting customer engagement and product sales. Here are four key advantages they offer:
- Enhanced Visibility: Digital retail media strategically places your brand where it will stand out—outshining competitors and grabbing the attention of high-purchase-intent consumers.
- Precision in Reach: These ads target specific keywords or categories, allowing for highly focused advertising based on demographics and search intent.
- Minimal Conversion Friction: Smooth transitions from ads to a brand’s native store or product listing on the marketplace keep conversion friction to a minimum.
- Brand Awareness and Recall: Consistent exposure to your brand through banner ads and sponsored product listings can leave lasting impressions and build brand recognition.
The bottom line is that it’s increasingly important for brands to monitor their Share of Media.

How to Monitor Your Brand’s Share of Media

DataWeave’s Digital Shelf Analytics (DSA) platform extends beyond the traditional Share of Search metrics and provides robust support for monitoring the Share of Media.

DataWeave monitors the Share of Media in two ways: keywords and product categories. Users can view Share of Media insights through aggregated views, trend charts, and detailed tables. The views are designed to show brand visibility and the overall competitive landscape. For example, the screenshot below, taken from DataWeave’s dashboard, showcases the Share of Media across keywords, categories, and retailers.

Share of Media by Keyword

The Share of Media metric captures a brand’s advertising presence within search listings for a designated keyword. This provides a comprehensive view of a brand’s visibility and promotional efforts across retail platforms, helping brands validate and gauge the effectiveness of their ad spend.

For example, the screenshot below shows the trend of manufacturer’s Share of Media by keyword—‘baby food.’

Share of Media by Category

The Share of Media metric measures the presence of brands’ banner ads and sponsored listings across product categories on retail sites. This helps brands see which product categories require more investment, making it easier for them to spend their ad budget wisely.

The screenshot below illustrates manufacturers’ Share of Media by category across retailers.

Share of Media: An Essential Ecommerce Metric

As retail media continues to evolve, our analytics must follow—after all, knowledge is a competitive advantage. In the dynamic world of eCommerce, where competition is fierce and consumer attention is scarce, understanding your share of media is crucial.

Analyzing the Share of Media can give brands a competitive edge. By regularly monitoring and analyzing this metric, you can make data-driven decisions to improve your brand’s visibility, attract more customers, and ultimately drive sales growth. With a deeper understanding of their target audience and market dynamics, brands can refine promotional efforts to drive more effective results and optimize return on ad spend (ROAS).

For more information on how Digital Shelf Analytics can enhance your brand’s digital shelf presence, request a demo or contact us at contact@dataweave.com.
October 14, 2024
The Complete Guide to Competitive Pricing Strategies in Retail and E-commerce

Your budget-conscious customers are hunting for value and won’t hesitate to switch brands or shop at other retailers.

In saturated and fiercely competitive markets, how can you retain customers? And better yet, how can you attract more customers and grow your market share? One thing you can do as a brand or retailer is to set the right prices for your products.

Competitive or competition-based pricing can help you get there.

So what exactly is competitive pricing? Let’s dive into this strategy, its advantages and disadvantages, and how it can be used to stay ahead of the competition.

What is Competitive Pricing?

Competitive or competition-based pricing is a strategy where brands and retailers set product prices based on what their competitors charge. This method focuses entirely on the market landscape and sets aside the cost of production or consumer demand.

It is a good pricing model for businesses operating in saturated markets, such as consumer packaged goods (CPGs) or retail.

Competitive Pricing Models

Competitive pricing isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy. The approach includes various pricing models that can be customized to fit your business goals and market positioning.

Here’s a closer look at five of the most common competition-based pricing models:

Price Skimming

If you have a new product entering the market, you can initially set a high price. Price skimming allows you to maximize margins when competition is minimal.

This strategy taps into early adopters’ willingness to pay a premium for new project categories. As competitors enter the market, you can gradually reduce the price to maintain competitiveness.

Premium Pricing

Premium pricing lets you position your product as high-quality or luxurious goods.

When you charge more than your competitors, you’re not just selling a product—you’re selling status and an experience. This strategy is effective when your offering is of superior quality or has unique features that justify a higher price point.

Price Matching

Price matching—also known as parity pricing—is a defensive pricing tactic.

By consistently matching your competitors’ prices, you can retain customers who might otherwise, be tempted to switch to an alternative.

This approach signals your customers that they don’t need to look elsewhere for what they need and can feel comfortable remaining loyal to your brand.

Penetration Pricing

Penetration pricing is when you set a low price for a new product to gain market share quickly. The opposite of price skimming, this strategy can be particularly effective in price-sensitive or highly competitive industries.

By attracting customers early, you can also deter some competitors from entering the market. This bold move can establish your product as a market leader from the get-go.

Loss Leader Pricing

Loss leader pricing is a strategic sacrifice that can lead to greater gains in the long run.

By offering a product at a low price—sometimes even below cost—you can attract new customers to your brand and strengthen your current customers’ loyalty.

Eventually, you can cross-sell other higher-margin products to your loyal customer base to cover the loss from your loss leader pricing and increase sales of other more profitable products.

Key Advantages of Competitive Pricing

Although it’s not the only pricing strategy available, competitive pricing has some significant advantages.

It is Responsive

Agility is synonymous with profit in industries where consumer preferences and market conditions shift rapidly.

Competitive pricing allows you to adapt quickly—if a competitor lowers their prices, you can respond promptly to maintain your positioning.

It is Simple to Execute and Manage

Competitive pricing is straightforward, unlike cost-based pricing, which requires complex calculations and spans various factors and facets.

By closely monitoring competitors’ prices and adjusting your prices accordingly, you can implement this pricing strategy with relative ease and speed.

It Can Be Combined with Other Pricing Strategies

Competitive pricing is not a standalone strategy—it’s a versatile approach that can easily be combined with other pricing strategies. For example, say you want to use competitive pricing without losing money on a product. In this case, you could use cost-plus pricing to determine a base price that you won’t go below, then use competitive pricing as long as the price stays above your base price.

Key Disadvantages of Competitive Pricing

While competition-based pricing has its advantages, it’s not without its pitfalls. Here are some potential disadvantages of competitive pricing.

It De-emphasizes Consumer Demand

If you focus solely on what competitors are charging, you could overlook consumer demand.

For example, you could underprice items that consumers could be willing to purchase for more. Or, you might overprice items that consumers perceive as low-value, which can reduce sales.

You Risk Price Wars

If you and your competition undercut each other for customer acquisition and loyalty, you will eventually erode profit margins and harm the industry’s overall profitability. It’s a slippery slope where everyone loses in the end.

There’s Potential for Complacency

When you base your prices on beating those of competitors, you might neglect to differentiate your offerings through innovation and product improvements. Over time, this can weaken your brand’s position and lead to a loss of market share. Staying competitive means more than just matching prices—it means continuously evolving and adding value for the consumer.

4 Tips for a Successful Competitive Pricing Strategy in Retail

Here are four competition-based pricing tips for retailers:

Retailer Tip #1. Know Where to Position Your Products in the Market

For competitive pricing to work, you must understand your optimal product positioning in the overall market. To gain this understanding, you must regularly compare your offerings and prices with those of your key competitors, especially for high-demand products.

Then, you can decide which competition-based pricing model is suitable for you.

Retailer Tip #2. Price Dynamically

Dynamic pricing is a tactic with which you automatically adjust prices on your chosen variables, such as market conditions, competitor actions, or consumer demand.

When it comes to competitive pricing, a dynamic pricing system can track your competitors’ price changes and update yours in lockstep.

Price-monitoring tools like DataWeave allow you to stay ahead of the game with seasonal and historical pricing trend data.

Retailer Tip #3. Combine Competitive Pricing with Other Pricing Strategies

Competitive pricing can be powerful, but it doesn’t have to stand alone. You can enhance its benefits with complementary marketing tactics.

To illustrate, you can bundle products to offer greater value than what your competitors are offering. You can also leverage loyalty programs to offer exclusive discounts or rewards so customers keep returning, even when your competitors offer them lower prices.

Retailer Tip #4. Stay in Tune with Consumer Demand

Competition-based pricing aligns you with your competitor, but don’t lose sight of what your customers want. Routinely test your pricing strategy against consumer behavior to ensure that your prices reflect the actual value of your offerings.

5 Tips for a Successful Competitive Pricing Strategy for Consumer Brands

If you’re thinking about how to create a competitive pricing strategy for your brand, consider these five tips:

Brand Tip #1. Identify Competing Products for Accurate Comparisons

The first step in competitive pricing is to know the value of what you’re selling and how it compares to that of your competitors’ products. This extends to private-label products, similar but not identical products, and use-case products.

Product matching ensures your pricing decisions are based on accurate like-for-like comparisons, allowing you to compete effectively.

Brand Tip #2. Understand Your Product’s Relative Value

Knowing how your product competes on value is key to setting the right price. If your product offers higher value, price it higher; if it offers less, price it accordingly. This ensures your pricing strategy reflects your product’s market placement.

Brand Tip #3. Consider Brand Perception

Even if your product is virtually the same as a competitor’s, your brand’s perceived value may be different, which plays a crucial role in pricing.

If your brand is perceived as premium, you can justify higher prices. Conversely, if customers perceive you as a value brand, your pricing should reflect affordability.

Brand Tip #4. Leverage Value-Based Differentiation

When your prices are similar to competitors’, you must differentiate your products by expressing your product value through branding, packaging, quality, or something else entirely.

This differentiation will compel consumers to choose your product over other similarly priced options.

Brand Tip #5. Stay Vigilant with Price Monitoring

Your competitors will update their pricing repeatedly, and you will, too.

It can be difficult and time-consuming to monitor your competitive pricing, so you’ll need a system like DataWeave to monitor competitors’ pricing and manage dynamic pricing changes.

This vigilance ensures your brand remains competitive and relevant in real time.

4 Essential Capabilities You Need to Implement Successful Competition-Based Pricing

You’ll need four key capabilities to implement a competitive pricing strategy effectively.

AI-Driven Product Matching

Product matching means you’ll compare many products (sometimes tens or hundreds) with varying details across multiple platforms. Accurate product matching at that scale requires AI.

For instance, AI can identify similar smartphones to yours by analyzing features like screen size and processor type. DataWeave’s AI product matches start with 80–90% matching accuracy, and then human oversight can fine-tune the data for near-perfect matches.

You can make informed pricing decisions once you know which competing products to base your prices on.

Accurate and Comprehensive Data

A successful competition-based pricing strategy depends on high-quality, comprehensive product and pricing data from many retailers and eCommerce marketplaces.

By tracking prices on large online platforms and niche eCommerce sites across certain regions, you’ll gain a more comprehensive market view, which enables you to make quick and confident price changes.

Normalized Measurement Units

Accurate price comparisons are dependent on normalized unit measurements.

For example, comparing laundry detergent sold in liters to laundry detergent sold in ounces requires converting either or both products to a common base like price-per-liter or price-per-ounce.

This normalization ensures accurate pricing analysis.

Timely Actionable Insights

Timely and actionable pricing insights empower you to make informed pricing decisions.

With top-tier competitive pricing intelligence systems, you get customized alerts, intuitive dashboards, and detailed reports to help your team quickly act on insights.

In Conclusion

Competitive pricing or competition-based pricing is a powerful strategy for businesses navigating crowded markets, but you must balance competitive pricing with your brand’s unique value proposition.

Competitive pricing should complement innovation and customer-centric strategies, not replace them. To learn more, talk to us today!

October 14, 2024
DataWeave’s AI Evolution: Delivering Greater Value Faster in the Age of AI and LLMs
In retail, competition is fierce, and in its ever-evolving landscape, consumer expectations are higher than ever.

For years, our AI-driven solutions have been the foundation that empowers businesses to sharpen their competitive pricing and optimize digital shelf performance. But in today’s world, evolution is constant—so is innovation. We now find ourselves at the frontier of a new era in AI. With the dawn of Generative AI and the rise of Large Language Models (LLMs), the possibilities for eCommerce companies are expanding at an unprecedented pace.

These technologies aren’t just a step forward; they’re a leap—propelling our capabilities to new heights. The insights are deeper, the recommendations more precise, and the competitive and market intelligence we provide is sharper than ever. This synergy between our legacy of AI expertise and the advancements of today positions DataWeave to deliver even greater value, thus helping businesses thrive in a fast-paced, data-driven world.

This article marks the beginning of a series where we will take you through these transformative AI capabilities, each designed to give retailers and brands a competitive edge.

In this first piece, we’ll offer a snapshot of how DataWeave aggregates and analyzes billions of publicly available data points to help businesses stay agile, informed, and ahead of the curve. These fall into four broad categories:
- Product Matching
- Attribute Tagging
- Content Analysis
- Promo Banner Analysis
- Other Specialized Use Cases
Product Matching

Dynamic pricing is an indispensable tool for eCommerce stores to remain competitive. A blessing—and a curse—of online shopping is that users can compare prices of similar products in a few clicks, with most shoppers gravitating toward the lowest price. Consequently, retailers can lose sales over minor discrepancies of $1–2 or even less.

All major eCommerce platforms compare product prices—especially their top selling products—across competing players and adjust prices to match or undercut competitors. A typical product undergoes 20.4 price changes annually, or roughly once every 18 days. Amazon takes it to the extreme, changing prices approximately every 10 minutes. It helps them maintain a healthy price perception among their consumers.

However, accurate product matching at scale is a prerequisite for the above, and that poses significant challenges. There is no standardized approach to product cataloging, so even identical products bear different product titles, descriptions, and attributes. Information is often incomplete, noisy, or ambiguous. Image data contains even more variability—the same product can be styled using different backgrounds, lighting, orientations, and quality; images can have multiple overlapping objects of interest or extraneous objects, and at times the images and the text on a single page might belong to completely different products!

DataWeave leverages advanced technologies, including computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), and deep learning, to achieve highly accurate product matching. Our pricing intelligence solution accurately matches products across hundreds of websites and automatically tracks competitor pricing data.

Here’s how it works:

Text Preprocessing

It identifies relevant text features essential for accurate comparison.
- Metadata Parsing: Extracts product titles, descriptions, attributes (e.g., color, size), and other structured data elements from Product Description Pages (PDP) that can help in accurately identifying and classifying products.
- Attribute-Value Normalization: Normalize attributes names (e.g. RAM vs Memory) and their values (e.g., 16 giga bytes vs 16 gigs vs 16 GB); brand names (e.g., Benetton vs UCB vs United Colors of Benetton); mapping category hierarchies a standard taxonomy.
- Noise Removal: Removes stop words and other elements with no descriptive value; this focuses keyword extraction on meaningful terms that contribute to product identification.
Image Preprocessing

Image processing algorithms use feature extraction to define visual attributes. For example, when comparing images of a red T-shirt, the algorithm might extract features such as “crew neck,” “red,” or “striped.”

Image hashing techniques create a unique representation (or “hash”) of an image, allowing for efficient comparison and matching of product images. This process transforms an image into a concise string or sequence of numbers that captures its essential features even if the image has been resized, rotated, or edited.

Before we perform these activities there is a need to preprocess images to prepare them for downstream operations. These include object detection to identify objects of interest, background removal, face/skin detection and removal, pose estimation and correction, and so forth.

Embeddings

We have built a hybrid or a multimodal product-matching engine that uses image features, text features, and domain heuristics. For every product we process we create and store multiple text and image embeddings in a vector database. These include a combination of basic feature vectors (e.g. tf-idf based, colour histograms, share vectors) to more advanced deep learning algorithms-based embeddings (e.g., BERT, CLIP) to the latest LLM-based embeddings.

Classification

Classification algorithms enhance product attribute tagging by designating match types. For example, the product might be identified as an “exact match”, “variant”, “similar”, or “substitute.” The algorithm can also identify identical product combinations or “baskets” of items typically purchased together.

What is the Business Impact of Product Matching?
- Pricing Intelligence: Businesses can strategically adjust pricing to remain competitive while maintaining profitability. High-accuracy price comparisons help businesses analyze their competitive price position, identify opportunities to improve pricing, and reclaim market share from competitors.
- Similarity-Based Matching: Products are matched based on a range of similarity features, such as product type, color, price range, specific features, etc., leading to more accurate matches.
- Counterfeit Detection: Businesses can identify counterfeit or unauthorized versions of branded products by comparing them against authentic product listings. This helps safeguard brand identity and enables brands to take legal action against counterfeiters.
Attribute Tagging

Attribute tagging involves assigning standardized tags for product attributes, such as brand, model, size, color, or material. These naming conventions form the basis for accurate product matching. Tagging detailed attributes, such as specifications, features, and dimensions, helps match products that meet similar criteria. For example, tags like “collar” or “pockets” for apparel ensure high-fidelity product matches for hard-to-distinguish items with minor stylistic variations.

Including tags for synonyms, variants, and long-tail keywords (e.g., “denim” and “jeans”) improves the matching process by recognizing different terms used for similar products. Metadata tags categorize similar items according to SKU numbers, manufacturer details, and other identifiers.

Altogether, these capabilities provide high-quality product matches and valuable metadata for retailers to classify their products and compare their product assortment to competitors.

User-Generated Content (UGC) Analysis

Customer reviews and ratings are rich sources of information, enabling brands to gauge consumer sentiment and identify shortcomings regarding product quality or service delivery. However, while informative, reviews constitute unstructured “noisy” data that is actionable only if parsed correctly.

Here’s where DataWeave’s UGC analysis capability steps in.
- Feature Extractor: Automatically pulls specific product attributes mentioned in the review (e.g., “battery life,” “design” and “comfort”)
- Feature Opinion Pair: Pairs each product attribute with a corresponding sentiment from the review (e.g., “battery life” is “excellent,” “design” is “modern,” and “comfort” is “poor”)
- Calculate Sentiment: Calculates an overall sentiment score for each product attribute
The final output combines the information extracted from each of these features, which looks something like this:
- Battery life is excellent
- Design is modern
- Not satisfied with the comfort
The algorithm also recognizes spammy reviews and distinguishes subjective reviews (i.e., those fueled by emotion) from objective ones.

Promo Banner Analysis

Our image processing tool can interpret promotional banners and extract information regarding product highlights, discounts, and special offers. This provides insights into pricing strategies and promotional tactics used by other online stores.

For example, if a competitor offers a 20% discount on a popular product, you can match or exceed this discount to attract more customers.

The banner reader identifies successful promotional trends and patterns from competitors, such as the timing of discounts, frequently promoted product categories or brands, and the duration of sales events. Ecommerce stores can use this information to optimize their promotion strategies, ensuring they launch compelling and timely offers.

Other Specialized Use Cases

While these generalized AI tools are highly useful in various industries, we’ve created other category—and attribute-specific capabilities for specialty goods (e.g., those requiring certifications or approval by federal agencies) and food items. These use cases help our customers adhere to compliance requirements.

Certification Mark Detector

This detector lets retailers match items based on official certification marks. These marks represent compliance with industry standards, safety regulations, and quality benchmarks.

Example:
- USDA Organic: Certification for organic food production and handling
- ISO 9001: Quality Management System Certification
By detecting these certification marks, the system can accurately match products with their certified counterparts. By identifying which competitor products are certified, retailers can identify products that may benefit from certification.

Nutrition Fact Table Reader

Product attributes alone are insufficient for comparing food items. Differences in nutrition content can influence product category (e.g., “health food” versus regular food items), price point, and consumer choice. DataWeave’s nutrition fact table reader scans nutrition information on packaging, capturing details such as calorie count, macronutrient distribution (proteins, fats, carbohydrates), vitamins, and minerals.

The solution ensures items with similar nutritional profiles are correctly identified and grouped based on specific dietary requirements or preferences. This helps with price comparisons and enables eCommerce stores to maintain a reliable database of product information and build trust among health-conscious consumers.

Building Next-Generation Competitive and Market Intelligence

Moving forward, breakthroughs in generative AI and LLMs have fueled substantial innovation, which has enabled us to introduce powerful new capabilities for our customers.

These include:
- Building Enhanced Products, Solutions, and Capabilities: Generative AI and LLMs can significantly elevate the performance of existing solutions by improving the accuracy, relevance, and depth of insights. By leveraging these advanced AI technologies, DataWeave can enhance its product offerings, such as pricing intelligence, product matching, and sentiment analysis. These tools will become more intuitive, allowing for real-time updates and deeper contextual understanding. Additionally, AI can help create entirely new solutions tailored to specific use cases, such as automating competitive analysis or identifying emerging market trends. This positions DataWeave to remain at the forefront of innovation, offering cutting-edge solutions that meet the evolving needs of retailers and brands.
- Reducing Turnaround Time (TAT) to Go-to-Market Faster: Generative AI and LLMs streamline data processing and analysis workflows, enabling faster decision-making. By automating tasks like data aggregation, sentiment analysis, and report generation, AI dramatically reduces the time required to derive actionable insights. This efficiency means that businesses can respond to market changes more swiftly, adjusting pricing or promotional strategies in near real-time. Faster insights translate into reduced turnaround times for product development, testing, and launch cycles, allowing DataWeave to bring new solutions to market quickly and give clients a competitive advantage.
- Improving Data Quality to Achieve Higher Performance Metrics: AI-driven technologies are exceptionally skilled at cleaning, organizing, and structuring large datasets. Generative AI and LLMs can refine the data input process, reducing errors and ensuring more accurate, high-quality data across all touchpoints. Improved data quality enhances the precision of insights drawn from it, leading to higher performance metrics like better product matching, more accurate price comparisons, and more effective consumer sentiment analysis. With higher-quality data, businesses can make smarter, more informed decisions, resulting in improved revenue, market share, and customer satisfaction.
- Augmenting Human Bandwidth with AI to Enhance Productivity: Generative AI and LLMs serve as powerful tools that augment human capabilities by automating routine, time-consuming tasks such as data entry, classification, and preliminary analysis. This allows human teams to focus on more strategic, high-value activities like interpreting insights, building relationships with clients, and developing new business strategies. By offloading these repetitive tasks to AI, human productivity is significantly enhanced. Employees can achieve more in less time, increasing overall efficiency and enabling teams to scale their operations without needing a proportional increase in human resources.
In our ongoing series, we will dive deep into each of these capabilities, exploring how DataWeave leverages cutting-edge AI technologies like Generative AI and LLMs to solve complex challenges for retailers and brands.

In the meantime, talk to us to learn more!
September 18, 2024
A Guide to Digital Shelf Metrics for Consumer Brands
Our world is increasingly going online. We work online, socialize online, and shop online every day. As a consumer brand, you need to ensure complete awareness of your brand’s online presence across eCommerce platforms, search engines, and media.

Only by deeply understanding the customer journey can you ensure that your product is reaching your ideal customers and maximizing your brand’s market share. You need data to intrinsically understand your customer journey and make changes where you’re lacking.

As the old adage goes: ‘You can’t manage what you don’t measure.’

You need digital shelf metrics to measure and start benchmarking your buyer’s journey. To find several of these types of key performance indicators (KPIs), you need a digital shelf analytics solution. These platforms allow you to track various metrics along the path to purchase from the awareness stage to the post-purchase phase across the entire internet, helping to inform online and offline sales strategies.

Digital shelf analytics will help you gain insights into how your brand is doing versus the competition, which areas are lagging behind in historical performance, and what activities are driving sales. There are innumerable ways in which you can leverage these valuable insights. But how do you know which KPIs to start tracking with your digital shelf analytics solution?

Here, we’ve summarized the top metric types your peers report, track and base their decisions on.

With these KPIs in hand, consumer brands like yours can ensure that their products are consistently visible and appealing to their target audience across online marketplaces, ultimately enhancing conversion rates, market share, and profitability.

Read this guide to learn more about the top digital shelf metrics consumer brands are tracking and how to use them in your own strategy.

1. Share of Search

Share of Search (SoS) is a KPI in digital shelf analytics that measures how frequently a consumer brand’s products appear in search results on eCommerce platforms relative to the competition for specific keywords. A good digital shelf analytics solution will be able to show this metric across all the top marketplaces and retailers, such as Amazon and Walmart, but also more niche marketplaces for industry-specific selling.

This metric provides brands with a quantifiable way to measure how frequently their products are being “served up” to customers on online marketplaces. Essentially, it measures visibility and discoverability.

With Share of Search on DataWeave, you can slice and dice your data in innumerable ways. These are a few important views you can see:
- Aggregated SoS
- Organic and Sponsored SoS scores
- SoS scores across brands, retailers, keywords, cities
- Historical SoS score trends
Once you have benchmarked your SoS and category presence relative to your competition, you need to start interpreting the data. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help interpret your findings:
- Which of my key categories have the lowest SoS score?
- Which products feature low on search results because they are out of stock?
- Are my competitors’ products faring better due to sponsored searches?
- Is my SoS low due to poor content quality?
With insights in hand, you will know which actions to take to drive the biggest impact. For example, you could increase sponsored search results or improve organic reach by optimizing product pages.

Understanding your SoS is essential to maximizing the awareness phase of your customer journey. It will help you improve your brand visibility and increase product conversions through better search and category presence.

2. Share of Media

Share of Media (SoM) is a KPI that is just as impactful, if not more so, than the SoS metric. However, only a limited number of brands track it or use it to drive strategic action. This makes it a perfect opportunity for brands looking to get an edge on the competition.

But what is SoM in digital shelf analytics? Essentially, it’s a way of measuring retail media advertising activities like brand-sponsored banners, listings, videos, ads, and promotions that sometimes blend into search results. The main types of retail media advertising exist in two categories: banner advertising and sponsored listings.

Banner advertising involves strategically placing designed banners within websites and search listings. These banners raise brand awareness and drive traffic to online storefronts.

Sponsored listings are paid placements within search results on search engines or eCommerce platforms. They are prioritized based on the total bid amount and the product’s relevance. These paid listings are marked with “sponsored” or “ad.”

It’s important to run these types of advertising campaigns on eCommerce platforms to gain customer visibility. In fact, “some 57% of US consumers started their online shopping searches on Amazon as of Q2 2023.” If you aren’t showing up, paying for placement can help.

These listings serve to enhance your brand’s overall visibility, help you gain more precise reach, increase conversions, and drive better brand awareness and recall with your customers.

These efforts aren’t free, however, so measuring their effectiveness is critical not only to gain all the listed benefits but to also not waste your valuable marketing budget. The SoM KPI can help a consumer brand answer questions like:
- Where are the opportunities to increase paid ads?
- Which categories could benefit from a promotional boost or a strategic and streamlined allocation of ad spend?
- Which of my competitors have active banners and what is their share of media by keyword?
- How has my ad spend trended historically in comparison to my competitor?
DataWeave’s digital shelf analytics (DSA) is among the first providers to offer Share of Media KPI tracking and analysis. This is because it requires advanced, multi-modal AI to gather, view, and aggregate listings that encompass text, images, and video. With Share of Media tracking facilitated by DataWeave, consumer brands can track and analyze the effectiveness of their own promotional investments as well as those of their competitors.

3. Content Quality

The content quality metric measures how well your product content adheres to the retailer’s specific guidelines, which are in place to steer traffic and sales on their sites.

With the help of a DSA platform’s AI and ML capabilities, you can measure different elements of your product detail pages (PDPs), such as titles, descriptions, images, videos, and even customer reviews. You need to know which elements are missing, where they are missing, and which ones are negatively affecting sales so you can take corrective action.

Did you know that the average cart abandonment rate is 69.99%? The quality of your content can significantly impact this number. Ensuring that your content is high-quality will help influence product discoverability, customer engagement, and conversion rates. It will also help position you ahead of the competition. If your content quality is poor, you may find yourself with lower search rankings, a higher return rate, and more abandoned carts.

Here are some questions you can answer with the help of the content quality digital shelf metric:
- Is my product content at a retail site exactly what was syndicated?
- Are there any retailer initiated changes to my product content?
- Are my product content updates reflected on the retailer platforms?
- How well does my product content comply with the retailer guidelines?
- How do I optimize my product content for enhanced discoverability and conversion?
DataWeave’s content quality digital shelf analysis helps consumer brands ensure that product content on eCommerce platforms is high-quality and benchmark their product listings against the competition. It does this through a combination of AI-driven quality analysis and by presenting brands with actionable recommendations. These optimized suggestions are based on the top-performing products so you can focus your valuable time on the areas that will drive the biggest impact.

4. Pricing & Promotions

Your customers can easily shop around to find the best price for the product you’re selling. If your competitor is selling it cheaper, you’ll lose that sale.

That’s why it’s essential to understand the pricing and promotional landscape for each of your products and categories. This can be a challenge, especially if it’s a common product or comes in multiple pack sizes or variants.

It’s equally important to track pricing and promotions even at individual, physical stores. Doing so will allow you to remain competitive and responsive to local market dynamics by tailoring your pricing strategies based on regional competition. You don’t want your products to be overpriced (lost sales) or underpriced (lost profit) in specific markets.

Harmonizing insights when operating an omnichannel consumer brand is extremely difficult without the aid of a digital shelf analytics solution. Insights need to be aggregated between desktop sites, mobile sites, and mobile applications, as well as from physical storefronts.

Questions you can answer with the help of the pricing & promotions digital shelf metric include:
- How do my product prices and promotions compare to my competitors?
- How consistent is my product pricing across retail websites?
- How does my product pricing vary across regions, ZIPs, and stores?
- How do price changes influence my sales numbers?
- Are there regional differences in pricing and promotion effectiveness?
DataWeave’s digital shelf analytics platform stands out with its sophisticated location-aware capabilities, which enable the aggregation and analysis of localized pricing and promotions. The platform defines locations based on a range of identifiers, such as latitudes and longitudes, regions, states, ZIP codes, or specific store numbers.

The platform can also extract promotional information, such as credit card-based or volume-based promotions. You can see variances across retailers, split by price groups, brands, and competitors. DataWeave specializes in enabling brands to conduct in-depth analyses across a wide array of attributes so you can answer just about any pricing or promotional question you have.

5. Availability

The availability KPI in digital shelf analytics measures the in-stock and availability rates for a brand’s products across eCommerce and physical locations. Similar to the pricing and promotions metric, it relies heavily on location awareness, down to individual stores. Measuring both online availability and offline in-stock rates will help you understand the big picture and take more informed replenishment action.

When you start leveraging the availability KPI with the help of digital shelf analytics, you can improve inventory management, boost product discoverability, increase the frequency with which your online product listings convert, and generally drive more sales. This KPI is essential for ensuring your customers can always find and buy the products they want.

With the availability KPI, you can start answering questions like:
- What is my overall in-stock rate?
- Which of my products frequently go out of stock?
- How does product availability vary across different regions and stores?
- What is the impact of availability on my conversion rates?
- Are there any seasonal trends in product availability that I need to address?
- How quickly are we resolving stockout issues across different locations?
- What are my biggest opportunities to reduce stockouts?
DataWeave enables consumer brands to track their product availability metric through automated data collection from various eCommerce platforms in conjunction with physical in-stock rates. The platform provides granular, store-level insights so you can understand regional stock variations and optimize inventory distribution. By tracking historical availability data, you can identify seasonal patterns and predict future demand to pre-empt stockout issues. All of this can be configured with automatic notifications to alert you when there has been a stockout event or when a low stock threshold has been passed, facilitating timely replenishment.

6. Ratings & Reviews

The final KPI in our guide is the ratings & reviews digital shelf metric. Consumers rely heavily on genuine feedback from their peers and refer to star ratings, posted comments, and uploaded pictures to inform their buying decisions. This KPI analyzes the impact of customer feedback and reviews on your products’ performance across eCommerce platforms so you can measure overall brand perception and isolate areas of opportunity.

This metric does something other digital shelf metrics don’t; it can inform your product strategy. It can help you identify repeat complaints that your product team can address with the manufacturer or use for the design of future products.

Some questions you can answer with this powerful KPI include:
- What is the overall customer sentiment towards my products based on ratings and reviews?
- Which product features are frequently mentioned positively or negatively by customers?
- How do my product ratings and reviews compare to those of my competitors?
- Are there common issues or complaints that need to be addressed to improve customer satisfaction?
- Which products have the highest and lowest ratings, and why?
With DataWeave’s digital ratings and reviews feature, you can keep a pulse on customer sentiment to take short-term action as well as decide long-term strategy. You can leverage reviews to influence product perception, refine products, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.

DataWeave’s Digital Shelf Metrics

Each one of these metrics is interconnected and collectively influences a brand’s success. For instance, improving content quality and earning higher ratings can significantly enhance your product’s visibility in search results, thereby boosting the Share of Search digital shelf metric. By focusing on a comprehensive approach that integrates these metrics, brands can ensure their products are consistently visible, competitively priced, well-reviewed, and readily available.

DataWeave gives consumer brands the means to execute a holistic digital shelf strategy. From a single portal, track and improve digital shelf metrics like Share of Search, Share of Media, Pricing and promotions, Availability, and Ratings and Reviews.

Our solutions help audit and optimize the most critical KPIs that drive sales and market share for brands so you can stay competitive in a dynamic digital landscape and foster long-term customer satisfaction.

Ready to get started? Schedule a call with a specialist to see how it can work for your brand.
August 21, 2024
How Digital Shelf Analytics Can Fix Common Revenue Growth Management Challenges for Consumer Brands
As consumer goods brands increasingly turn to eCommerce marketplaces as a source of profitable growth, it becomes harder for teams to grapple with the complexity of revenue growth management.

This complexity emerges from multiple fonts: there are hundreds, and even thousands, of competitors to consider when formulating strategies for managing pricing, promotion, and assortment changes. The world is currently experiencing a period of unprecedented supply chain instability, shifting more consumers away from traditional retail and into eCommerce shopping. And finally, consumer buying patterns, preferences, and trends are constantly shifting.

Revenue growth management (RGM) and net revenue management (NRM) were once less complex processes; but that is no longer the case. Now, some 80% of consumer brand CEOs report that they “aren’t satisfied with their RGM results.”

Gathering data, analyzing it, and acting on it quickly stand out as major challenges that businesses must overcome to grow their market share, earn more profits, and capitalize on market shifts in real time. In this article, we’ll dive into RGM and NRM, the obstacles business teams face, and explore how using technology for digital shelf analytics can help bridge the gap.

What is Net Revenue Management (NRM) or Revenue Growth Management (RGM)?

Every consumer goods company aims to increase profits and grow market share. This requires a concerted effort in RGM and net revenue management (NRM) strategy. Whether a company has a specific team dedicated to this task or relies on the abilities of business analysts or merchandisers, this function is crucial.

It’s worth mentioning that though the terms NRM and RGM are often used interchangeably, there are subtle differences. While both net revenue management and revenue growth management focus on maximizing overall revenue for the brand, NRM typically has a narrower focus and is specific to optimizing profitability through product pricing, promotion, product mix, and cost management. RGM strategies are a bit broader and tend to look at the top line to grow market share and expand the customer base.

The Challenges Revenue Teams Face

Differentiating between ‘good growth’ and ‘bad growth’ is central to NRM and RGM. Net revenue management and revenue growth management teams need the data and tools in place to determine if growth in one area is coming at the expense of another so as not to cannibalize business. Tracking and analyzing extensive data to successfully take action on opportunities and determine whether strategies are working as intended consumes a tremendous amount of mental bandwidth. The fact that these decisions are incredibly time-sensitive only compounds the issue.

To cope, many teams in charge of NRM or RGM employ digital shelf analytics strategies to help speed up data aggregation and analysis to make sure they’re capitalizing on potential opportunities.

eCommerce has added a whole new layer of complexity to consumer goods sales. Instead of a few relatively stable prices at big-box stores, a single item for sale may experience high price volatility, with dozens of minute pricing changes occurring online each day. In some cases, consumers become blind to price volatility, letting brands increase prices, but consumer sentiment, the overall price elasticity of the product, and dozens of other factors go into determining the final price of an online product. Net revenue teams need to modernize and adapt to changing eCommerce environments to competitively price, promote, and grow their revenue.

Here are the top three challenges standing in the way of net revenue management and revenue growth management teams and solutions to address these issues.

Challenge 1: Incomplete or Inaccurate Data

Incomplete and inaccurate data are critical for Net Revenue Management and Revenue Growth Management teams to get under control when attempting to modernize in a digital-centric selling environment. As more competitors enter the market, many brands find it hard to make strategic decisions without the complete picture.

Data may be incomplete or inaccurate because a brand is analyzing only part of the market, such as Amazon or another enterprise-scale eCommerce marketplace. Additionally, they might not be analyzing all types of online media, such as branded ads, sponsored search listings, or sponsored category listings.

Most importantly, another pitfall is the lack of hyperlocal data. Generalized data across regions, states, ZIPs, and stores can skew the decision-making process and result in poor outcomes.

Overcoming Incomplete or Inaccurate Data

In order to get the full picture, consumer brands need to ensure they have a view of the entire competitive landscape across their channels. This includes gathering data down to the case pack, the unique product identifier, and the geography, including ZIP and store. They also need the respective MSRP by SKU, the unit normalized price, and the selling price at a specific moment in time. This is done by aggregating brick-and-mortar store information available online, such as when stores list curbside pickup SKUs and pricing online.

Individual teams cannot manually gather all this detailed data. The growth in eCommerce means there is simply too much data to find and aggregate. Instead, they can employ digital shelf technology to get more data from more sites. Teams can leverage AI to better match product listings, ads, and even visuals to avoid missing data on listings that lack common attributes, such as UPCs for normalization.

To add to this, advanced pricing intelligence systems can cache URLs to help teams audit and verify their data, avoiding delays and confusion when ad hoc requests arise.

Challenge 2: Difficulty in Making Sense of the Competitive Landscape

Once net revenue management and revenue growth management teams have gathered all of the available data, it’s time to make sense of it. This is a monumental challenge, and ends up being the stage where most NRM and RGM teams flounder. Disparate marketplaces include different product attributes and images. This makes it extremely complicated to sync competitors’ data to ready it for analysis, especially if this analysis is carried out manually in Excel. These are some of the attributes that teams need to harmonize in order to make sense of the competitive landscape:
- Product identifiers (UPC, SKU, Internal Code)
- Size, case, pack, volume, bundled offerings
- Language
- Currency
- Stock Status (Whether the product is available or not)
- Platform-specific attributes such as ‘Amazon’s Choice,’ ‘Best Seller,’ etc.
Teams also need to group and classify various categories of promotions. These can include sponsored listings, banner ads, coupons, bank offers, and others. Each of these categories needs to be tracked separately. This vast array of data points across hundreds of sites creates a big data problem for teams.

Making Sense of the Competitive Landscape

The best way to overcome this challenge is to task a digital shelf analytics system with gathering and harmonizing data automatically across the consumer goods competitive landscape. Competitive and market intelligence tools can help break down an overwhelming amount of data, matching similar products across competing brands and analyzing their various strengths and weaknesses. Once the technology matches complex product attributes and identifiers, it becomes easier for teams to gain insights and exploit findings. In a sense, the data needs to be cleaned before analysis can occur.

Technology can gather data in multiple ways, and the best systems employ several methods to get the best matches. Data consumption modes include API integrations, CSV and Excel file uploads, and proprietary scrapers that view websites independently of direct inputs. Having all the data in a single place helps net revenue management and revenue growth management teams gain indicative insights on product popularity, pricing, and sales, on their own and competitor products.

Challenge 3: Lack of Timely Visibility

The final challenge that many net revenue management and revenue growth management teams face is something of a ‘silent killer’ — timeliness. Even if they successfully gather data across the entire competitive landscape and harmonize that data into a format for easy analysis, a lack of timeliness can render even the best actions irrelevant.

Speed is of the utmost importance when there are market changes. If a product goes viral and competitors raise prices in response to increased demand, without timely visibility, the trend may be over before a consumer goods brand can successfully increase its prices for the duration of the trend. This can mean lost margins.

Another example is analyzing data and incorporating lagging promotional and sales data into analyses. This can skew pricing strategies because timely data is not accessible to inform decision-making. Many teams waste time firefighting due to a lack of timely pricing and promotional intelligence data.

Get Near Real-Time Insights for Faster Decision Making

Using technology that allows for net revenue management and revenue growth management teams at consumer goods brands to establish update frequencies can be a game changer. Teams can set update frequencies based on their need. They can set up the system to check a fast-moving product daily, while a slow-moving item might only need to be checked weekly, monthly, or even quarterly. This allows teams to focus on the highest-impact products first and address the largest exceptions before they lose out on an opportunity. Managing exceptions with a digital shelf analytics platform saves teams significant time instead of poring over low-impact changes in the data.

Digital Shelf Analytics for Net Revenue Management

Modernizing a consumer goods brand’s net revenue management or revenue growth management processes requires advanced digital shelf analytics. DataWeave provides consumer goods companies with the technology they need for quick and accurate pricing, promotional, and assortment intelligence. By tracking over 200 million products each day, users can be sure they get the widest and most timely view of the competitive landscape. DataWeave’s deep industry knowledge is baked into every aspect of its platform.

Learn more by requesting a demo today!
August 20, 2024
Competitor Price Monitoring in E-commerce: Everything You Need to Know
Picture this: You wake up one morning to discover that your top competitor reduced their prices overnight. And now your shopper traffic has tanked and your sales have taken a hit.

Unfortunately, this is a common scenario because your customers can compare prices online in seconds—and loyalty lies with the budget.

So, how can you protect your business? Price monitoring.

Price monitoring solutions can help you keep abreast of competitor price changes—which, of course, will help you improve your pricing strategies, retain your customers, and maximize your profits.

How? In this article, we’ll explore:
- What is price monitoring
- The key benefits of price monitoring for retailers and brands
- What a capable price monitoring solution can do
What Is Price Monitoring?

Price monitoring is the process of tracking and analyzing your competitor’s prices across various online and offline platforms. By monitoring competitors’ prices, you can understand market price trends and adjust your prices strategically—which, in turn, helps you remain competitive, increase margins, and improve customer retention.

5 Benefits of Price Monitoring

Competitor price monitoring can help you:
1. Gain a competitive edge: Competitor price tracking allows you to adjust your prices to remain attractive to consumers.
2. Maximize revenue: With timely pricing data, you’re empowered to identify optimum price points that strike a delicate balance between maximizing revenue and maintaining customer loyalty.
3. Retain customers: Consumers are looking for the most value for their dollar, so maintaining consistently competitive pricing is crucial for retaining loyal customers.
4. Understand promotional effectiveness: Price monitoring helps businesses evaluate the effectiveness of their promotions and discounts. By comparing the impact of different pricing strategies, businesses can refine their promotional tactics to maximize sales and customer engagement.
5. Understand market movements: By analyzing historical pricing data, you’re better positioned to anticipate future pricing changes — and adjust your strategies accordingly.
4 Essential Capabilities of Price Monitoring Software

Here are four capabilities to look for when choosing a price monitoring system.

1. AI-Driven Product Matching

Product matching is the process of identifying identical or similar products across different platforms to ensure accurate price comparisons.

If your price monitoring solution can’t reliably match your products with competitors’ across various sales channels at scale, you’ll end up with poor data. Inaccurate data will then lead you to make misinformed pricing decisions.

Product matching needs to be accurate and comprehensive, covering a wide range of products and product variations—even for including private label products.

For example, AI-driven product matching can recognize a specific brand and model of sneakers across multiple online stores—even if product descriptions and images differ. Here’s how it works in a nutshell:
- Sophisticated algorithms and deep learning architecture enable AI to identify and match products that aren’t identical but share key characteristics and features.
- Using unified systems for text and image recognition, the AI matches similar SKUs across hundreds of eCommerce stores and millions of products.
  The AI zeroes in on critical product elements in images, like a t-shirt’s shape, sleeve length, and color.
- The AI also extracts unique signatures from photos for rapid, efficient identification and grouping across billions of indexed items.
DataWeave’s AI algorithm can initially match products with 80–90% accuracy. Then, humans can bring contextual judgement and make nuanced decisions that the AI might miss to correct errors quickly and push for accuracy closer to 100%. By integrating AI automation with human validation, you can achieve accurate and reliable product-matching coverage at scale.

2. Accurate and Comprehensive Data Collection and Aggregation

The insights you derive are only as good as the data you collect. However, capturing comprehensive pricing data is tough when your competitors operate on multiple platforms.

For truly effective price monitoring insights, you need consistent, comprehensive, and highly accurate data. This means your chosen price monitoring system should:
- Scrape data from various sources, such as desktop and mobile sites and mobile applications.
- Pull data from various online platforms like aggregators, omnichannel retailers, delivery intermediaries, online marketplaces, and more.
- Handle data from different regions and languages.
- Collect data at regular intervals to ensure timeliness.
DataWeave’s online price monitoring software covers all of these bases and more with a fast, automated data source configuration system. It also allows you to painlessly add new data sources to scrape.

Instead of incomplete or inaccurate data, you’ll have comprehensive and up-to-date data, allowing you to respond quickly to market changes with confidence.

3. Seamless Normalization of Product Measurement Units

You can’t compare apples to oranges—or price-per-kilogram to price-per-pound.

For price monitoring to be accurate, there must be a way to normalize measurement units—so that we’re always comparing price-per-gram to price-per-gram. If we compare prices without taking into account measurement units, our data will be misleading at best.

Let’s take a closer look. Say that your top competitor sells 12oz cans of beans for $3, and you sell 15oz cans for $3.20. At first glance, your larger cans of beans will appear more expensive—but that’s not true. If we normalize the measurement unit—in this example, an oz—the larger can of beans offers more value to customers.

Unit of measure normalization facilitates sound price adjustments based on accurate and reliable data. For this reason, every business needs a price tracking tool that can guarantee accurate comparisons by normalizing unit measurements—including weight, volume, and quantity.

4. Actionable Data and an Intuitive User Experience

Knowledge is only powerful when applied—and price monitoring insights are only useful when they’re accessible and actionable.

For this reason, the best price monitoring software doesn’t just provide insights based on accurate and comprehensive data, but it also provides several ways to understand and deploy those insights.

Ideal price monitoring solutions provide customized pricing alerts, intuitive dashboards, detailed reports, and visuals that are easy to interpret—all tailored to each particular team or a team member’s needs. These features should make it easy for team members to compare prices against those of competitors in specific categories and product groupings.

Your price tracking tool should also permit flexible API integrations and offer straightforward data export options. This way, you can integrate competitive pricing data with your pricing software, Business Intelligence (BI) tools, or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

4 Ways Retailers Can Leverage Price Monitoring

Retailers can use price monitoring tools to remain competitive without compromising profitability—here’s how:

1. Track Competitors’ Prices

Competitor price monitoring helps you avoid being undercut—and, as a result, maintain market share. By tracking competitor prices in real-time, you can adjust prices to remain competitive, especially in dynamic markets. Ideally, you should monitor both direct competitors selling the same products and indirect competitors selling similar or alternative products. This way, you’ll have a complete picture of market prices and can make more informed pricing adjustments.

2. Understand Historical and Seasonal Price Trends

As a retailer, you may want to analyze historical data to identify price patterns and predict future price movements—especially in relation to holidays and seasonal products. Knowing what’s coming, you’re better positioned to plan for pricing changes and promotional campaigns.

3. Implement Dynamic Pricing

Dynamic pricing is the process of adjusting prices based on real-time market conditions, product demand, and competitors’ prices—allowing you to respond faster to market changes to maintain optimized prices.

4. Optimize Promotional Strategies

Price monitoring tools can track retail promotions across numerous online and offline sales avenues, providing insight into the nature and timing of competitors’ promotions. This data can help you determine which promotions are most effective—and which aren’t—allowing you to improve your own promotions and discounts, and allocate marketing resources where it matters most. This is especially beneficial during peak sales periods.

3 Ways Brands Can Employ Price Monitoring

Here are three ways brands can use price monitoring to remain profitable, protect brand equity, and gain a competitive edge.

1. Maintain Consistent Retail Prices

Minimum advertised price (MAP) policies are designed to prevent retailers from devaluing a brand while ensuring fair competition among retailers. Price monitoring applications allow your brand to track retailers’ prices to detect MAP policy violations. Data in hand, you can maintain consistent pricing across online sales channels, physical stores, and retail stores’ digital shelves — and, critically, protect your brand equity.

2. Improve Product and Brand Positioning

When you understand how your products’ prices compare to those of competitors, you can set prices to improve brand positioning. For example, if you want to position your brand as luxurious and high-quality, you need to set higher product prices than budget-friendly alternative products.

3. Ensure Product Availability

You can use a price monitoring solution to track product availability to ensure products are always in stock, even across different physical stores and online marketplaces. If a product is frequently sold out, you can adjust production levels or help retailers to improve their inventory management.

Key Takeaways: E-commerce Price Monitoring

Price monitoring software allows you to compare your products’ prices with competitors. This valuable data can help you:
- Optimize revenue through timely price changes and dynamic pricing
  Avoid being undercut by competitors
- Improve pricing strategies and promotions to increase sales and retain customers
- Maintain consistent prices across sales channels
To learn more, check out our article, What is Competitive Pricing Intelligence: The Ultimate Guide here or reach out and talk to us today!
August 1, 2024