{"id":63006,"date":"2025-02-20T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vendavo.com\/?p=63006"},"modified":"2025-10-15T17:30:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T23:30:45","slug":"pricing-trends-to-boost-profit-cx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vendavo.com\/pricing\/pricing-trends-to-boost-profit-cx\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Pricing Trends to Boost Profit and CX"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Originally published on September 26, 2024. Last updated on February 20, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vendavo\u2019s 2025 Pricing and Profitable Growth Outlook surveyed the industry\u2019s top pricing professionals for their views on pricing talent, maturity, challenges, pricing models, and more. Morgan Short<\/a>, Senior Director of Content & Web Strategy covers some of the highlights from the research and unpacks how organizations can build their pricing strategy, bridge the C-suite gap, quantify pricing impact, and embrace AI’s influence. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pricing is more than just applying a standard mark-up to costs\u2014it\u2019s about delivering the right price, to the right customer, at the right time. With increasing competitive and economic pressures, organizations must balance customer expectations, willingness to pay, and profitability while navigating increasingly complex challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price optimization<\/a> is the process of deciding the most effective pricing for a product or service. It is how organizations find the optimal price their customer is willing to pay<\/a> for a product: not so high that they risk losing that customer\u2019s business, not so low that they sacrifice margin. While counter-intuitive, price improvement has a greater positive impact on the bottom line than cost-cutting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to optimizing your pricing for superior customer experiences and profitability, here are 10 key trends to take note of today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>10 Key Pricing Trends to Leverage This Year<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>1. Emerging Priority: Customer Experience Drives Willingness to Pay<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Based on Vendavo’s 2025 Pricing for Profitable Growth Outlook<\/a>: Customer experience (34%) and product support (32%) will surpass sustainability (30%) as the top factors influencing buyers’ willingness to pay thresholds. As such, brand reputation\/company values rank higher for distributors (33%) compared to manufacturers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buyers increasingly prioritize frictionless transactions and post-purchase support over sustainability commitments as economic optimism grows. But, “it\u2019s not about sacrificing one for the other\u2014it\u2019s about integrating sustainability into a broader value proposition,\u201d highlights Kalle Aerikkala<\/a>, Business Consultant at Vendavo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“When you combine sustainable efforts with solid product support and reliable availability, you can justify higher prices while meeting both customer expectations and regulatory demands. The key is to use pricing strategies that reflect the full value you\u2019re offering, not just the cost,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>2. Pricing Function Demands Strategic Investment<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Getting the right people on board is mission-critical for a well-executed pricing strategy, and talent acquisition is projected to be a top priority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vendavo’s report found that 52% of enterprises employ 11-20 pricing specialists, with 95% planning to acquire more price-centric talent. The top three most critical skills include price management (29%), strategic thinking (25%), and AI proficiency (24%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The ROI speaks for itself: a 1% price improvement drives 8.7% operating profit growth, according to McKinsey & Company<\/a>, justifying investments in skilled employees and AI-powered pricing platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>3. AI Will Drive Price Management Practices<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A little over one-third (37%) of manufacturers and distributors say their current systems leverage AI to some level to assist with price management, according to Vendavo\u2019s report. Almost half (45%) say AI will improve and scale pricing processes, but they are slowly moving forward with fully adopting AI technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ajay Raiyani<\/a>, Solutions Director at Experis Pricing Solutions, foresees, \u201cAs AI recommendations align more with market expectations, trust in the tool grows. A human-AI partnership is key to successful AI adoption in pricing<\/a>. This enables more accurate pricing decisions, leading to higher margins and a better competitive edge for clients.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>4. Take Control of Your Pricing Strategy, Now<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We caught up with some of the brightest minds in pricing at Vendavo’s 2025 Sales Kickoff in Atlanta and asked them \u201cwhat’s in\u201d and \u201cwhat’s out\u201d for 2025. Check out this video of the event on LinkedIn<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n