Yetta’s Chief Executive, Rohan Dhowan, on why protecting margin is more critical than ever, and how his customers are addressing this.
With retailers and brands across Australia facing pressure to safeguard margin, we spoke with Yetta Chief Executive, Rohan Dhowan, about how the company’s retail intelligence offerings – Pricing Insights, Dynamic Pricing and Pricebot – are helping resolve this issue for customers like Diageo, Smeg and The Good Guys.
Dhowan’s background in eCommerce, business and technology, means he understands the complexities and nuances of the market – especially during downturns. Pricing Insights, a product of Yetta, stands out as a sophisticated pricing and promotional tool that helps businesses maintain competitive pricing strategies whilst ensuring profitability by having live, accurate and reliable market data in Australia and New Zealand.
Rohan Dhowan, Chief Executive of Yetta Pty Ltd
Pressure on Price
“Pricing pressure is a significant concern for our clients, especially brands and retailers who are constantly under the microscope to deliver value to their customers without eroding their margins,” Dhowan notes. “Our platform enables clients to dynamically adjust prices based on their own rules and changing market conditions, ensuring they are always aligned with customer demands and internal financial goals.
Understandably, some businesses are cost-cutting right now but what we have consistently found, is that the ones investing in data analytics are making more back with better margin control, more efficient operations, and sustainable growth. We work to a conservative ROI: every dollar invested in pricing data generates at least five, if not more.
“Our customers have also reported significant savings in time. Over a year, that sum accumulated to 3-months within one Pricing Team.”
Yetta’s retail intelligence platform helps brands and retailers save time and grow margin.
Recent statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics underscore the retail sector’s susceptibility to economic shifts, highlighting the importance of strategic pricing in sustaining business growth. Yetta’s Pricing Insights tool is designed to give retailers a competitive advantage by having market data at their fingertips down to the detail of their competitors stock levels. This data not only supports price beat guarantees and brand promises but also significantly reduces cart abandonment, enhancing the overall customer purchasing journey.
Dhowan observes, “this year’s Australian Retail Outlook Report really brings home the pressure retailer leaders are under. 51% of Australian retail leaders and brands said increasing margin is their TOP business priority. But many are leaving money on the table due to lack of nuanced insight in the pricing market. In an economic downturn, it is critical to use only reliable intelligence.”
Buyer Journey
When asking Dhowan what has had the most significant impact on the industry these past few years, he replies, “Covid, the uplift in eCommerce versus bricks and mortar, cots of living, and the buyer journey.
“We know consumers are shopping around, and their first port of call is online. 60% start the buying journey on retailer websites or apps, and with more tech entering the market, and AI getting more sophisticated, the trend of dynamic pricing is a space to watch. We already see a world where there is multiple pricing for the same product, with member and online specials. This will get more sophisticated with pricing changing by the minute, based on your location, shopping habits, where your shopping journey began … even your carbon footprint.
“Pricing pressure is a significant concern for our clients, especially enterprise brands and retailers who are constantly under the microscope to deliver value to their customers without eroding their margins,” Dhowan notes. “Our platform enables clients to dynamically adjust prices based on their own rules and changing market conditions, ensuring they are always aligned with customer demands and internal financial goals.
“Understandably, some businesses are cost-cutting right now but what we have consistently found is that the ones investing in data analytics are making more back with better margin control, more efficient operations, and sustainable growth. We work to a conservative ROI: every dollar invested in pricing data generates at least five, if not more.
“In addition, with growing costs, consumers are less brand conscious, so retailers can drop branded products for private or no name labels. Yetta is investing in R&D to build technologies that provides for a far more sophisticated matching technology driven by AI and dynamic pricing tools to help manage the radical pricing we are seeing.”
Persuasive Pricing
Dhowan explains Pricebot, a recent offering to Yetta’s stable of products, as a “daily pricing data feed to fuel low price promises, that helps retailers reduce cart abandonment and protect share of market.” He adds, “that said, Pricebot isn’t a race to the bottom, it’s a race to keep customers on your site, assuring them that they’re getting the best deal.”
Yetta, under Dhowan’s leadership, has become synonymous with pricing and promotional data analytics. Their approach combines comprehensive market analysis, competitive benchmarking and customised strategy development to help clients optimise their operations and achieve sustainable growth. Dhowan goes onto mention that, “the brands and retailers that have adopted change management from the top, see the biggest positive impact on margin. It’s a really dynamic space to work in, so we’re evolving all the time to suit our customers’ needs.”