ESM has partnered with competitor price monitoring firm Profitero to launch a new European grocery price survey.
In the ESM-Profitero Pan-European Price Survey, we will report on a selection of A-brand products and their varied prices, in leading supermarkets across the UK, France and Ireland.
Profitero is a provider of online competitor pricing data to supermarkets across Europe and beyond; its clients, among others, include upmarket supermarket Waitrose and pure-play online grocery Ocado.
Profitero also partners with global market research firm Nielsen and IBM.
For the first ESM-Profitero Pan-European Price Survey, we asked Profitero to compare the prices of a shopping basket of A-brands at supermarkets in the UK, Ireland and France.
From this initial sample survey, ESM analysed the results to understand how retailers are using pricing to grow sales and profit margins in these key grocery markets.
With regular promotions being an everyday strategy tool in the UK, prices are often kept artificially low for a short period of time – e.g. the current milk promotions.
In the ESM-Profitero Pan-European Price Survey of an identical basket of everyday baskets, from nappies to cereal, our analysis showed that Sainsbury's was 82% of the cost for a similar basket at Tesco.
However, analysis of the luxury champagne brand Veuve Cliquot showed the largest disparity in price between the rival supermarkets - priced at €28.50 at Sainsbury's compared to €44.92 at its competitor Tesco.
What we found to be the most surprising outcome from the new pricing survey is the price differential unveiled between Tesco UK and Tesco Ireland.
In the same basket of groceries, only Sprite and Carte D'Or were found to more expensive to purchase in the UK; all other items had a higher cost if purchased at Tesco Ireland.
The Profitero comparative pricing data on the A-brands in European supermarkets in the ESM-Profitero Pan-European Price Survey is now published in the current issue of ESM magazine.
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© 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine
