New research from Which? has found that some customer deals may not be as good as they seem. In some cases, non-member prices are an outright rip-off. The investigation found concerning membership pricing practices at Boots and Superdrug and at supermarkets.
As a result, Which? is calling for action to tackle confusing loyalty pricing practices.
55% of survey respondents thought that non-member prices for retailers were higher than the usually prices of products at the same retailer. Some shoppers even expressed suspicions that shops are hiking the non-member prices for some products to make the discounts seem better than they are.
“We looked at the pricing history of thousands of products and found that, while the majority of discounts were not misleading, there were some questionable non-member prices and some examples that looked like an outright rip-off. Meanwhile some products were always, or almost always, on loyalty promotion, making it difficult to spot a genuine deal.” says Ele Clark, Which? retail editor.
Which? identified cases where prices were raised to a higher price for a relatively brief period before going on “offer”.
An example found at Superdrug was an Ultimate Day & Night Duo – Olay Regenerist & Retinol Bundle. This product was £71.98 for non-members, while for members it was £59.99. However, this product was only £71.98 for 13 days. Prior to that it was £35.98 for everyone.
Which? found 649 products at Boots where the price for non-members was raised on the same day the loyalty promotion began. Some of these might have been on a different kind of promotion immediately before the loyalty price launched, but the change raises questions about the tactics at play and if the non-member prices used to highlight the supposed savings are genuine.
Superdrug’s loyalty prices offered an average 33% off the higher non-member price.
“Guidance on pricing laws needs to be updated to include loyalty pricing, to help regulators crack down if businesses break the rules. The CMA should continue to monitor loyalty pricing practices across key consumer sectors and be ready to use its new powers to take action against retailers that don’t comply.” continues Clark.
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act will also soon give the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) powers to hit businesses with fines, without going through the courts, to enforce the law.