Retailer targets greater transparency in effort to position itself as UK market’s fresh-led value food retailer
Morrisons, the UK’s fourth-largest grocery retailer, has launched an online price-checking service designed to reassure shoppers that price cuts during any particular week are not simply temporary promotions designed to boost sales in a particular week.
The move follows the company’s recent announcement that it was going to be “permanently cheaper” by pursuing a strategy of price reductions on 1,200 everyday essential items in order to build its reputation as a fresh-led value grocer.
Industry analyst MySupermarket.com, which is running the service, will monitor price reductions across Morrisons’ entire range and publish its findings on the website, providing visual illustrations of individual products’ pricing history.
Shoppers will be able to look at any of the products on offer and check the retailer hasn’t in fact put prices up.
Commenting on the new price transparency website, Morrisons chief executive Dalton Philips said: “We’re serious about getting cheaper and setting new standards in transparency of pricing. We want our customers to be proud of the products they buy and be reassured that they are cheaper. We have nothing to hide.”
The cheaper prices are already being communicated to customers through a new marketing campaign with the strap line ‘I’m Your New Cheaper Morrisons’.