The REALtail truth about promotions

IRI conducted a study of over 85,000 promotions in the UK to help answer the question ‘Do promotions really help retailers?’ and analysed the results using statistical modelling. Of the 85,000 promotions analysed, over half had a negative category impact.

Over the last year, there has been a big change in the promotional landscape in the UK.

Due to the continuing rise of the discounters and pressure on food wastage, the traditional UK major retailers are moving away from deep discount multibuys to clearer price cuts and ‘Round Pound’ deals.

The frequency of multibuys has reduced by 40% compared to last year. Retailers hope to give a clear and easy to understand deal structure for the shoppers. But do promotions really help retailers?

IRI has conducted a study looking at over 85k individual promotions to answer this question. A look at statistical modelling shows us the results are very surprising.