Real-world pricing projects. Challenge, approach, results.
How market leaders in retail, e-commerce, and B2B have professionalized their pricing and developed it into a core competency—together with the Price Management Institute.
Cases in Detail
What our clients achieve with pricing.
Click through the cases: each with initial situation, approach, client testimonials, and results.
01
XXXLutz / XXXLdigital
FURNITURE RETAIL & E-COMMERCE
Selection, piloting, and rollout of pricing software, integrated with customer-centric pricing strategy.
Read case →
02
ANWR Group
Development of a flexible commission and platform pricing model for ANWR Media.
Read case →
03
Vistaprint
Print & Print-on-Demand
Read case →
Pricing Software & Competitive Monitoring
XXXLutz & XXXLdigital: The new era of pricing.
How one of Europe’s leading furniture retail groups selected, implemented, and integrated professional pricing software with a customer-centric pricing strategy.
Industry
Software Selection, PoC & Rollout
The digital world complicates pricing. Prices are transparent and comparable with just a few clicks. But which product features are important from a customer’s perspective and justify price differences? How comparable are products and their prices, really? And how can prices be set to ensure the price-performance ratio remains balanced from the customer’s point of view? Today, a successful e-commerce business is inconceivable without data-driven pricing.
As early as 2021, the XXXLutz Group recognized this need. To make the right decision not only for their digital organizational unit, XXXLdigital, but also for the entire XXXLutz Group, they enlisted the renowned pricing expert Dr. Markus Husemann-Kopetzky, founder and managing director of the Price Management Institute (PMI).
The Path to Optimal Pricing Software
Initially, Dr. Husemann-Kopetzky assisted the team in selecting a professional tool for competitor monitoring. A core team from the Purchasing and Category Management departments defined the internal requirements and established the criteria for evaluating providers. They clearly differentiated between price comparisons of identical and similar products.
They presented this project to senior management and successfully completed it.
"Since we were extremely satisfied with both the process and the result, we extended our collaboration to include the selection and implementation of professional pricing software."
For this purpose, PMI utilized a structured procedural model, divided into two main phases: software selection, and the Proof of Concept (PoC) and rollout.
Together with Dr. Husemann-Kopetzky, XXXLdigital formed a new project team that systematically identified the requirements for the new software and managed the entire selection process from that point forward.
First, they created a long list of vendors, which they filtered using objective criteria. Use cases helped refine the requirements. A pre-screening identified the most suitable solutions, ultimately resulting in a short list.
With the remaining companies, the RFI process (Request for Information) began. The respective service providers presented their models and received immediate feedback from the project team. They clarified open questions in workshops where concrete case examples were meant to demonstrate the software’s practical suitability. After critical evaluation, they selected their preferred vendor.
"Without the support of Dr. Husemann-Kopetzky, we would not have been able to conduct this process. He worked with us to develop the right questions to achieve our goal. Thanks to his extensive expertise, he knew what matters when individually selecting the right pricing software."
In early 2024, the Proof of Concept (PoC) was conducted to test the software under real-world conditions. The team established clear evaluation criteria beforehand, as the PoC results were critical for the final rollout decision.
In preparation for the rollout, the project team, together with Dr. Husemann-Kopetzky, designed a customer-centric pricing strategy and translated it into assortment segmentation. This product clustering precisely defined customer price expectations for specific items and set prices accordingly.
Practical Test and Rollout
Parallel to detailed planning, XXXLdigital finalized the contract with the selected vendor.
"With the implementation of the pricing tool, we are positioned for the future. Data-based work gives us a decisive advantage, as we can respond flexibly to market movements and strengthen our competitiveness."
ANWR Media: Competitive in e-commerce.
You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Vimeo. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationMid-sized e-commerce is under pressure: Large platforms shape the rules with aggressive pricing strategies and high market penetration. At the same time, customer expectations for transparency, availability, and fair prices are rising. For mid-sized retailers, this means: They must defend their margins, offer competitive terms, and simultaneously invest in service and assortment. This tension increasingly pressures the market—especially for platforms that work in partnership with retailers.
ANWR Media, with its platforms schuhe.de and sport2000.de, also faced precisely this challenge. By the end of 2023, it became clear that a strategic adjustment of fee and price structures was necessary to ensure long-term competitiveness.
Against this backdrop, affiliated retailers quickly highlighted areas requiring action: The rigid commission model restricted their ability to respond flexibly to market fluctuations. Particularly in an environment of constant price and margin pressure, there was a growing demand for fairer terms and greater flexibility in pricing. ANWR Media took this feedback seriously and initiated a strategic project, implemented in collaboration with pricing expert Dr. Markus Husemann-Kopetzky (PMI). The objective was to develop a retailer-centric model that establishes fair conditions while simultaneously enhancing the platforms’ competitiveness.
To translate retailer demands into concrete measures, ANWR Media used a clearly structured approach. Over several stages—from analysis through retailer interviews to model adjustments and empirical testing—the new commission and pricing model was developed over approximately 6 months. Particularly important was the close involvement of retailers: Their feedback formed the foundation for key changes such as redesigning the return fee or introducing a more flexible commission structure.
"As a board member, it was important to us to consistently consider the retailer perspective. We see pricing not just as an operational lever, but as a strategic tool to position our platforms for the future and strengthen mid-sized businesses in competition."
A clear focus emerged from the structured approach: realigning commissions and prices. At the center was the development of a flexible, retailer-oriented commission model and new pricing logic that is more transparent and market-aligned. Additionally, channel-specific pricing was designed to address the different requirements of distribution channels—an aspect many pilot retailers considered crucial for future competitiveness.
The approach followed an overarching goal: “Triple Win”. This means a solution that equally improves retailer earnings, strengthens ANWR Media’s platforms, and offers customers a fair, transparent shopping experience.
"I was impressed by how openly and solution-oriented the project collaboration was—even on complex or critical topics. Especially regarding technical requirements, it was crucial to show realistic paths and address challenges clearly. In the end, a model emerged that is both practical and forward-looking—and that, to me, is the real recipe for success."
Before the new model is widely rolled out, ANWR Media initiated a pilot phase with eight retailers. The tests quickly demonstrated the effectiveness of the adjustments: commission revenues increased by approximately 14% at sport2000.de and by 6% at schuhe.de. Retailers particularly praised the fairer commission structure and increased transparency in pricing.
+14%
SPORT2000.DE
Increase in commission revenue during pilot phase
+6%
SCHUHE.DE
Increase in commission revenue during pilot phase
8
Pilot Retailers
Before broad rollout, with continuous feedback loop
"The project was intensive and not always easy, but we gained crucial insights and collectively opened up real opportunities for action. The open exchange between retailers, board, and project team was a game-changer—because different perspectives came together and pricing was deliberately made a top priority. That our retailers contributed so actively despite full calendars and demanding daily business was anything but self-evident—and certainly one of the keys to success."
Co-Managing Director, ANWR Media
Key Insights from the Project
–
Commission Logic
–
Pricing Logic
Competitive prices immediately positively impact demand. To fully leverage this potential, professional inventory management is the next critical lever.
–
Order Allocation Logic
–
IT & Data
Although the adjustments were challenging, the project demonstrated: With combined forces, even complex system changes can be successfully mastered—and the foundation for further optimization is established.
Outlook: Setting the course for the future
The adjustments remain in pilot phase. Based on current experience, ANWR Media is working with retailers and external pricing expert Dr. Markus Husemann-Kopetzky (PMI) on next steps—including smarter inventory management, implementation of channel-specific pricing, and further refinements to the commission model.
"The project showed that partnership-based pricing is key to mid-sized business competitiveness. Together with retailers and thanks to Markus Husemann-Kopetzky's expertise, we gained valuable insights and laid the foundation to develop our platforms for the future."
Tim Wiese, Co-Managing Director, ANWR Media
Vistaprint: Increasing promotion ROI with Advanced Analytics.
Vistaprint, an international leader in print and marketing solutions and part of the Vista Group with over one billion euros in annual revenue, generates a significant portion of its growth through promotional campaigns. Discounts and promotions are an established tool for demand activation. At the same time, with increasing promotional intensity, the risk grows of merely shifting demand temporally rather than sustainably increasing it. This so-called pull-forward effect made it increasingly difficult to validly assess the actual value contribution of individual campaigns and manage them strategically.
Over time, it became clear that established KPIs only reflected part of reality. Numerous campaigns appeared successful in the short term but led to margin losses or inefficient demand shifts in the long term. Vistaprint wanted clarity: Which promotions generate true incrementality? Which merely create short-term peaks? And how can the entire promotional portfolio be managed so that growth and profitability remain balanced?
Against this background, the Promotional Performance Steering initiative was launched in collaboration with the Price Management Institute under the leadership of Dr. Markus Husemann-Kopetzky.
From the outset, the collaboration was characterized by a high level of professionalism, methodological clarity, and a clear focus on actionable results. Anna Kloss, Vice President Product for Marketing, Personalization, and Data at Vistaprint, describes the value of the initiative as follows:
"The Promotional Performance Steering initiative was pivotal in revisiting how we look at and manage promotions at Vistaprint. The collaboration was marked by a high level of professionalism, methodological clarity, and results-oriented pragmatism."
Anna Kloss, Vice President Product, Marketing, Personalization & Data, Vistaprint
In the first step, the joint project team analyzed the actual effects of promotions in detail and data-driven. The pull-forward effect was systematically quantified across different countries, product areas, and campaign types. In parallel, the team developed several methodological approaches to make the real incremental contribution of individual promotions transparent and comparable.
These methodologies were then integrated into operational decision-making processes in a proof of concept. This was accompanied by workshops and intensive one-to-one sessions to closely involve Marketing, Pricing, Product, and Analytics and establish a shared decision-making logic.
The collaboration combined analytical complexity with pragmatic implementation. Rachele Williams, Domain Lead for Assortment, Pricing, and Promotions at Vistaprint, particularly highlights the working approach in the project:
"Thank you for your inspirational leadership and consultancy in the project and for the bundles of energy and passion you brought. We had a lot of fun working with you, too."
Impact: Better Decisions and More Efficient Discounting
With the newly developed approaches, Vistaprint succeeded for the first time in comprehensively evaluating promotions—not just based on short-term performance metrics, but according to their actual incremental value contribution. This made campaign planning significantly more targeted. Teams received clear decision-making foundations, discussions about campaign effects gained precision and objectivity.
At the same time, key optimization levers were identified that helped reduce discount inefficiencies and consistently question unproductive promotions. The initiative also created a common language across functions and strengthened the role of the Pricing department as a strategic partner in the organization.
Today, Vistaprint uses the insights gained to manage promotions in a more structured, data-driven, and profitable manner. The initiative laid the foundation for a modern promotional strategy based not on intuition but on validated effects.
The result is a significantly more precise view of promotional impact, higher decision quality, and new potential for sustainable profitability improvement in a highly competitive market environment.
∞
Clearer View
of the real incremental contribution of each promotion
↑
Higher Decision Quality
through consistent, transparent data
↓
Less Discount Inefficiency
through reduction of unproductive promotions
Let's discuss your pricing reality.
In a 30-minute initial consultation, we will jointly clarify which levers from the cases shown here could be transferable to your situation—and where the fastest value for your company lies.