Your Pricing Strategy Guide

[Dragonfly]

I work as a Sr. Business FP&A Analyst (Financial Planning & Analysis) in a profession, so I thought it would be interesting to do a complete analysis on various pricing strategies. I will tell you, in summary, your best bet is to keep your prices at about 10% above market value. For those interested in the details here you go...

Hopefully the economics in the game change to more complex dynamics. The developer really should evaluate this, because if he wants to encourage store owners to put products on sale, then the sale prices need to increase demand to influence revenue, which it doesn't appear that sales do that, currently.

For this test, (lvl 50's), I did not expand the product line or the store. The only thing I changed was the prices. I ran 3 days for each pricing strategy and for my analysis, I kept the COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) as the average of all days I ran each test under that pricing strategy. The results below are clear that the +10% Market Value is the best strategy as it maximizes your profit and maximizes your Gross Margin.

For the non-finance people:
The best way to measure results is in your Gross Profit and Gross Margin. The reason you don't want to depend solely on Sales Revenue is because if your Sales increase, so do your COGS (Costs of Goods Sold) and Direct Costs. This means you need to account for your costs of doing business to best determine your actual results. Gross Profit and Gross Margins account for these costs and is a better indicator of your actual performance.

In Summary:
Sales do not increase demand or revenues
Marking up prices increases complaints - They do not buy the products, thus reducing revenues & profits. However, at about 10% above the market price, the loss of sales is over-ridden by increase profit on the products that DO Sell. However, going above 10%, the number of complaints (and lost sales) begin to overwhelm the profits gained and you begin to lose on your bottom line.

Here are the detailed results:

Pricing Strategy: 5% Sale (5% below Market Value)
Average Revenue: $3416
Customers: 58
Rev / Customer: $58.90
Direct Costs: $3060
Gross Profit: $400
Gross Margin: 11.7%
Complaints: 0

Pricing Strategy: AT Market Value
Average Revenue: $4427
Customers: 57
Rev / Customer: $77.67
Direct Costs: $3175
Gross Profit: $1252
Gross Margin: 28.3%
Complaints: 0

Pricing Strategy; +5% above Market Value
Average Revenue: $4395
Customers: 56
Rev / Customer: $78.48
Direct Costs: $2793
Gross Profit: $1602
Gross Margin: 36.5%
Complaints: 5

Pricing Strategy: +10% above Market Value
Average Revenue: $4402
Customers: 56
Rev / Customer: $78.61
Direct Costs: $2750
Gross Profit: $1652
Gross Margin: 37.5%
Complaints: 12

Pricing Strategy: +15% above Market Value
Average Revenue: $4103
Customers: 57
Rev / Customer: $71.98
Direct Costs: $2708
Gross Profit: $1395
Gross Margin: 34.0%
Complaints: 45

Pricing Strategy: +20% above Market Value
Average Revenue: $3967
Customers: 58
Rev / Customer: $68.40
Direct Costs: $2393
Gross Profit: $1574
Gross Margin: 39.7%
Complaints: 64

You could argue that the +20% strategy margin is the highest result, however, your profit isn't the highest, and the +20% strategy is the higher risk strategy that doesn't provide as high of a profit. I believe if I ran the test for longer than 3 days each, this would be even more clear. Also, when I graphed out the results, there's a bell curve that shows the peaks for each metric around the 10% mark, which indicates the design of the economics of the game seems to benefit from the +10% strategy, as it currently is built out.

Future updates may change these numbers and it may be worth re-running this test once there's an update that seems to warrant re-running the test or if actual results over time seem to be off from my pricing strategy. It also might be worth increasing the sample size from 3 days each test to 5 days each. Lastly, what I could do to best even out the direct costs between strategies is to run 2 days at a new pricing strategy before taking the measured results.

[Dingus Hingus]

This was super helpful, thank you for making it easy for me to just set market price n not think about it

[Quantum]

Testing Pricing Strategies in Supermarket Simulator with TdoStatistics Mod

I've been testing different pricing strategies in Supermarket Simulator using the TdoStatistics mod, which provides detailed per-product data—far superior to the default end-of-day statistics that only focus on customer behavior. My goal was to explore the relationship between pricing, sales volume, and profitability. Below are my findings, along with concerns and limitations regarding the interpretation of these results.

Pricing Test Results
At Market Value: No loss in sales.
10% Above Market: 2.8% of sales lost.
20% Above Market: 10% of sales lost.
30% Above Market: 20% of sales lost, with 6 products marked as overpriced (none sold).
40% Above Market: 35% of sales lost, with 15 products marked as overpriced.

Profit Impact Using Simplified Examples
To make this straightforward, I've simplified these numbers based on % equivalent numbers from a typical day in my game:

At Market Value:

Earnings: $1,000
Purchase Costs: $400
Bills: $150
Profit: $450

at 10% above market:

Sales Drop: 2.8% → Earnings = $972
Price Increase: 10% boost → Adjusted Earnings = $1,069.20
Purchase Costs: Drop 2.8% → $388.8
Bills: $150
Profit: $538.8 (~19.7% higher than market value)

at 20% above market:

Sales Drop: 10% → Earnings = $900
Price Increase: 20% boost → Adjusted Earnings = $1,080
Purchase Costs: Drop 10% → $360
Bills: $150
Profit: $570 (~26.7% higher)

at 30% above market:

Sales Drop: 20% → Earnings = $800
Price Increase: 30% boost → Adjusted Earnings = $1,040
Purchase Costs: Drop 20% → $320
Bills: $150
Profit: $570 (~26.7% higher)

Sales Drop: 35% → Earnings = $650
Price Increase: 40% boost → Adjusted Earnings = $910
Purchase Costs: Drop 35% → $260
Bills: $150
Profit: $500 (~11.1 higher)

Key Observations and Limitations
Overpricing and Unsold Products: At 30% markup or higher some products went unsold. Adjusting individual product prices might improve results. i theorize that, some product will suffer less of a sales loss at higher profit margins

Customer Spending Limits: Customers may have daily spending caps, which could limit the effectiveness of higher markups. This is a theory, as the game’s complex market model may affect results in ways not visible through my tests.

Limitations of These Tests
The original post's findings were limited by a short three-day test duration, insufficient consideration of buy prices—which can vary based on stock levels at the start of each test—and a narrow focus on gross profit and margin. This emphasizes the need for more extensive testing to fully understand customer behavior and pricing strategies.

While my tests also lasted three days, I benefited from the TdoStatistics mod for more detailed product data. However, even with this mod, my results don’t account for all market variables or customer behavior patterns, making them theoretical rather than reflective of real-world testing; thus, both tests have inherent flaws.

Conclusion
The optimal pricing strategy seems to lie between 10% and 20% above market value. However, there’s potential for 30% or higher to be more profitable if unsold items are adjusted. For instance, pricing slow-moving products at 20% above market value while keeping popular items at 30% could balance sales volume and profit margins.

Additionally, higher prices typically result in fewer items sold overall, reducing the need for frequent restocking, which creates an opportunity to cut staffing costs and boost profits. If you’re buying and selling 20% fewer items at a 30% markup, you’ll need 20% fewer staff to handle and transport goods, further enhancing profitability.


Suggestions for Future Tests to Improve Consistency:

Helpful mods:

Auto Price Update: Automatically adjusts prices daily based on a set % above market value.
Rack Refill: Orders enough stock to fill racks each morning, ensuring consistent purchases.
FastForward: Speeds up the game (up to 10x) for faster testing and larger sample sizes.
Auto Pay Bills: does what it sounds like

Store Setup:

Use a maxed-out store level to ensure a consistent customer base across tests.
Minimize player involvement to measure restockers' efficiency and identify issues like “can’t find product” errors.

Restocking & Cashiers:
Deducting tomorrow’s order cost from today’s sales ensures a clearer picture of daily profit. If you made lots of sales one day but need a big restock the next, matching the next day’s order cost with the previous day’s profit avoids misleading results

In future updates, restockers might become faster with leveling systems, carrying multiple boxes or moving 2-6x faster.
Test automation with only cashiers—though currently, there’s no penalty for using fewer cashiers and waiting after hours for customers to clear out. Cashiers are too slow compared to real life, so changes are likely before full release.
Eager for Final Testing:

Once the game leaves early access and systems are finalized, better testing can be conducted to confirm strategies.

[cowswithpuns]

I honestly still can't work out what the acceptable pricing algorithm is; I'm not entirely convinced it's linear.

For example, I price goods a flat 4% higher than market price (mp), rounding to 5 cents. For higher priced items this seems to be fine, but just lost a sale on yoghurt (mp = $1.69, store price = $1.75) for being "too expensive". One the other hand, I use ~6% on alcohol for role-play purposes (e.g. BK beer mp = $1.75, store price = $1.85), and so far that's been fine.

I'm perplexed. It doesn't seem related to the restock/buy cost either, e.g. sodas can be okay at 500% of buy cost.

[cowswithpuns]

Except kegs, the cap seems lower on kegs for some reason? Argh! I just want to know where the sweet spot is between maxing prices and avoiding complaints. It's getting tedious just running days to make money...

[Swisspike]

Originally posted by cowswithpuns:

I honestly still can't work out what the acceptable pricing algorithm is; I'm not entirely convinced it's linear.

For example, I price goods a flat 4% higher than market price (mp), rounding to 5 cents. For higher priced items this seems to be fine, but just lost a sale on yoghurt (mp = $1.69, store price = $1.75) for being "too expensive". One the other hand, I use ~6% on alcohol for role-play purposes (e.g. BK beer mp = $1.75, store price = $1.85), and so far that's been fine.

I'm perplexed. It doesn't seem related to the restock/buy cost either, e.g. sodas can be okay at 500% of buy cost.

I stand by my original statement that 10% is the sweet spot. Works quite well for me.

[cowswithpuns]

Oh I'm not disagreeing, I just personally don't like having the "too expensive" comments, and would like to avoid them if possible.

[Golly]

Originally posted by cowswithpuns:

I honestly still can't work out what the acceptable pricing algorithm is; I'm not entirely convinced it's linear.

For example, I price goods a flat 4% higher than market price (mp), rounding to 5 cents. For higher priced items this seems to be fine, but just lost a sale on yoghurt (mp = $1.69, store price = $1.75) for being "too expensive". One the other hand, I use ~6% on alcohol for role-play purposes (e.g. BK beer mp = $1.75, store price = $1.85), and so far that's been fine.

I'm perplexed. It doesn't seem related to the restock/buy cost either, e.g. sodas can be okay at 500% of buy cost.

Yeah I don't know how it's determined either. I've had Chokipik cereal at 12% of market price without getting any complaints about it for a long time, while the level 3 bottled water I get complaints every once in a while if I go above 5%. Meanwhile the Narvalo Dark Roast mostly sells with a 25% increase (slowly working my way down until I no longer get complaints).

[cowswithpuns]

That's interesting, thank you for the info! Maybe it's more item (or type) specific than I originally thought?

[ClownSweep]

Anyone know how to tell what 10% above would be based on price i dont know how to calculate that

[Swisspike]

Originally posted by Kanik:

Anyone know how to tell what 10% above would be based on price i dont know how to calculate that

$3 is $3.30. $12 is $13.20. Bust out your calculator, and multiply the price by 1.1 .... so $5.80 would be an additional 58 cents, or $6.38

[Dakota_Martin00]

Originally posted by Swisspike:

Originally posted by Kanik:

Anyone know how to tell what 10% above would be based on price i dont know how to calculate that

$3 is $3.30. $12 is $13.20. Bust out your calculator, and multiply the price by 1.1 .... so $5.80 would be an additional 58 cents, or $6.38

Or just get one of the mods that do it for you to the exact percentage 😉

[wolfedg]

I round up to the nearest 0.50 cent increment from market value. If its 0.78 its 1.00 if it 2.36 its 2.50

[Swisspike]

Originally posted by wolfedg:

I round up to the nearest 0.50 cent increment from market value. If its 0.78 its 1.00 if it 2.36 its 2.50

I just do it in my head. Takes about a half second.

[The Rogue Wolf]

Originally posted by TJgalon:

i just keep everything under market price, more or less making sure the price ends in sets of .25, for easy change, lol

I round up to the nearest quarter and then add another $.25 to that. It's why I call my store "The Quartermaster".

[.HaruuMin47_EN]

I add & raise to nearest x.50 or just make it $1 above the market price coz... it's convenient cashing out.

Now that the OP mentioned Percentage of the average price, wish we have this option and for now... gonna use a calculator lmao