Sonderangebote im Lebensmitteleinzelhandel (English shop)

Eine empirische Analyse für Deutschland

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The subject of this study is the analysis of pricing behaviour in promotional offers in German food retailing. In this study, promotional offers are defined as temporary price reductions with unchanged product performance. The magnitude of the price reduction is set at at least 5% of the regular price, and the duration is limited to a maximum of four weeks.

Theoretical explanations for promotional offers include consumers’ differing levels of information, differing opportunity costs and differing willingness to pay. On the firm side, intertemporal price discrimination, inventory holding costs and perishability or obsolescence play a significant role.

The hypotheses of the empirical analysis are based on the theoretical models of HOSKEN AND REIFFEN (2001) and RICHARDS (2006). HOSKEN AND REIFFEN (2001) show, among other things, that promotional pricing for perishable and non-perishable products within the same store is negatively correlated. A key result of RICHARDS (2006) is the complementarity of promotional depth and promotional frequency within stores.

The data basis consists of a retail panel from Madakom GmbH and a household panel from GfK.

Central results of this study are that price fluctuations in promotional offers are greater for non-perishable products than for perishable ones. Contrary to theoretical expectations, promotional offers cannot be observed more frequently for perishable products than for non-perishable ones. Whether a negative correlation of promotional offers exists within stores cannot be unequivocally determined using two different methods.