We have some big and happy news to announce: BlackLocus has just been acquired by The Home Depot! Our passion for data-driven decision making led us to start BlackLocus a few years ago. We wanted to create the next version of business intelligence software for retailers. We wanted to mix internal data with public data. [...]

Check out our new BlackLocus stickers. They are awesome! Thank you  stickermule.com!  

Raising prices can be one of the most difficult business decisions to navigate, mainly because of the backlash a company can face from customers and the media. The consequences of a price increase can be potentially costly, and in today’s economy companies can especially face storms of negative criticism. But raising prices is all part [...]

In the quest for profits and better pricing we ask ourselves this one question: how can we get our customers to pay more for our products? Retailers must be able to charge the prices necessary in order to sustain a profitable and successful business, and this most likely includes pricing higher than a lower-priced competitor. [...]

Creating a cross-channel retail strategy that is harmonious in both the offline and online spaces can be a tough challenge.  “Window shopping” can now mean the window of an internet browser, and “traffic” can refer to the kind with feet or the kind with clicks.  With online sales during the holiday season of 2011 growing [...]

What are you trying to achieve when setting prices? This question seems like it has an obvious answer – to gain profits, but pricing is more than just naming prices. Behind each price tag is an entire strategy dedicated to increasing profits (while simultaneously communicating value to consumers). Here are four pricing strategies (more here!) [...]

In the last blog post I wrote about how price wars are bad (and upon further thought, not just bad – awful) competitive pricing strategies for businesses and potentially whole industries. One company lowers its prices and may have a temporary advantage. This could result in rivals matching the price cuts the next day, eventually leading to no real change [...]

A good competitive pricing engine should make it easy for you to find your competitors’ prices. An even better one should provide focused data to help you discover your own products that are either priced too high or too low. How does BlackLocus.com make that happen? Check out our approach to great competitor pricing analysis. Watch this short [...]

When I first heard about price wars, my brain immediately thought of money-hungry business executives attempting to destroy their competition by redirecting money towards their own company. Images flooded my head of a tyrant CEO tenting his fingers and muttering “excellent” in a sinister voice, much like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. Don’t worry, I’m [...]

Restaurant patrons shell out $16 billion in gratuities per year – yes, $16 billion worth of voluntary payments. Of course there is social expectance to tip your server, but what makes people pay more than they have to? Even if the standard, expected tip is 15 percent, what makes customers fork out higher gratuities? And [...]