Fake Sale!

Can you spot the Fake Sale in the above image? Unfortunately most consumers’ can’t either.

First, we at Ghost Tree Sales love the Dr. Bronner’s soap company. This brand is a CPG and soap category leader in many ways including organic, fair trade and frankly just good soap. The “Fake Sale” above was not the fault of Dr. Bronner’s but instead a very large EDLP retailer who ran this deal in 2023 online.

First, an EDLP retailer should be selling product at an “everyday low price” and not running sales. The price an EDLP retailer charges is always a lower price compared to a conventional high-low retailer. EDLP prices are not the lowest in the market and they are not the highest in the market, but they are somewhere in the middle and always set at that EDLP price. Safeway is an example of a high-low retailer that has high everyday prices but runs regular deep deals (sales) to drive sales. Grocery Outlet is an example of a deep discount retailer that sells at the lowest price in the market (40-60% less than high-low). So why is this EDLP retailer running a deal? Probably a rookie category manager who has yet to master the EDLP price strategy.

Second, and most importantly for this blog is the $14.97 “SALE” price. All retailers will sell 32oz Dr. Bronner’s soap varieties at the same retail price. In this case the peppermint, lavender and Citrus are all $14.97. However, here we see that the peppermint price has been increased to $17.99 (should be $17.97 = odd pricing) and then promoted on sale at $14.97. This is a fake sale because $14.97 is the regular EDLP price. Sadly, +500 customers bought at this fake price thinking they were getting a deal.

Can you guess who this retailer is that is running a FAKE SALE and clearly taking advantage of E-Commerce for gain at the expense of the consumer? (Hint: Crystal Bridges) When caught, a couple clicks will remove this fake sale from the retailer’s E-commerce platform. Oops, how did that happen?…silly us.