[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":193},["ShallowReactive",2],{"announcements":3,"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-promotion-that-went-live-on-thursday":4,"_nav_\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-promotion-that-went-live-on-thursday":182},[],{"id":5,"title":6,"authors":7,"badge":10,"body":12,"date":164,"description":165,"extension":166,"image":167,"meta":169,"navigation":170,"path":171,"seo":172,"stem":175,"tags":176,"updated":180,"__hash__":181},"posts\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-promotion-that-went-live-on-thursday.md","The promotion that went live on Thursday",[8],{"name":9},"Peter Laughton",{"label":11},"Promotions",{"type":13,"value":14,"toc":154},"minimark",[15,19,22,27,30,33,37,40,43,46,49,62,65,68,72,75,78,82,85,88,91,95,104,112,121,132,136,139],[16,17,18],"p",{},"You agreed the promotion weeks ago. The price list went to every retailer with the same start date. Monday morning, your biggest account is live, the second is not, and the third has gone deeper than the price you agreed. By the time anyone notices, the week is half gone.",[16,20,21],{},"That is the normal shape of a promotion, in any category and any country. We know because we measured it, starting with the UK.",[23,24,26],"h2",{"id":25},"what-we-did","What we did",[16,28,29],{},"In September we read the category pages of 18 UK retailers every day for two markets, gaming headsets and air fryers: Amazon UK, Argos, Currys, AO.com, Very, John Lewis, Game, Scan, Overclockers, Ebuyer, Box, Littlewoods, Asda, Tesco, B&Q, The Range, Robert Dyas and Marks Electrical. That is 2,394 page items, matched to 1,211 products, of which 332 were on sale at two or more of those retailers.",[16,31,32],{},"We did not use any retailer's promotion labels. A promoted badge on a category page usually means a paid placement, not a price drop, so it tells you nothing about the deal. We looked at price alone. A drop is a fall of 10% or more against the previous read within seven days. A promotion is the same product dropping at two or more retailers in the same country within three days of each other. That is how a sales lead recognises one without seeing the plan, and it is how we found them.",[23,34,36],{"id":35},"what-we-found","What we found",[16,38,39],{},"Across the two markets in September, 63 promotions ran at two or more retailers.",[16,41,42],{},"Only 13 of them, 21%, went live on the same day at every retailer that took part. The other 50 were staggered: one retailer first, the rest following over one, two or more days.",[16,44,45],{},"A further 402 price drops happened at a single retailer only. Some of those will be retailer-led clearance, some will be a promotion that only one account ran. Either way the brand is funding a price it cannot see across the shelf.",[16,47,48],{},"Three examples from the month, retailers named, as they appeared on the page:",[50,51,52,56,59],"ul",{},[53,54,55],"li",{},"A Ninja Foodi MAX Pro Health Grill dropped at Argos and John Lewis on 9 September. Very and AO.com followed on the 10th.",[53,57,58],{},"An Asus TUF Gaming H3 headset dropped at Ebuyer on 15 September. Overclockers, Scan and Box followed on the 16th.",[53,60,61],{},"A gaming headset from a brand we work with dropped to £74.99 at Argos and Very on 23 September. Currys and John Lewis followed on the 24th. From the 23rd, Amazon was already lower than all of them, at £67.95.",[16,63,64],{},"The chart at the top of this post shows that headset day by day, read from the Eebz pricing view.",[16,66,67],{},"A one-day gap is at the limit of what a daily read can prove, because we read each page between midnight and 05:30 local time. Two days or more is solid.",[23,69,71],{"id":70},"why-the-first-day-matters","Why the first day matters",[16,73,74],{},"A promotion is a planned price drop, agreed and usually funded by the brand. The retailer that goes live first takes the week's volume while the others wait. The retailer that never goes live still claims the support. And the retailer that lands below the agreed price resets what the whole market thinks the product is worth, a few weeks before Black Friday.",[16,76,77],{},"The cost is not abstract. Sell-out allowances and rebates are paid against days the price was down. Without a daily record of what each retailer actually showed, the brand pays what it is invoiced.",[23,79,81],{"id":80},"can-we-talk-about-promotion-compliance-in-the-uk-and-europe","Can we talk about promotion compliance in the UK and Europe?",[16,83,84],{},"An aside, because two things get muddled.",[16,86,87],{},"A price drop is always lawful. A brand agreeing and funding a promotion with its retailers is ordinary trade, and checking that the drop went live is a check on the retailer's side of the deal. What UK and EU competition law prohibits is the other direction: fixing a resale price or pressuring a retailer to put a price up. Eebz reports what retailers charge; it never sets or pressures a retailer's price.",[16,89,90],{},"The other half is how the drop is shown. In the EU the reference price must be the lowest of the previous 30 days; the UK has no 30-day rule, but a reference price still has to be genuine. Build that gap into the calendar and the promotion lands on the day. Not legal advice; check your own terms with counsel.",[23,92,94],{"id":93},"what-to-do-before-black-friday","What to do before Black Friday",[16,96,97,98,103],{},"Pick your ten most important products and your key retailers. Write down the agreed start date and the agreed price for each. Then, on the morning of the start date, look at what every retailer is actually showing, and keep looking every day the promotion runs. Richard's ",[99,100,102],"a",{"href":101},"\u002Fblog\u002Fblack-friday-won-or-lost-before-november","Black Friday checklist"," covers the rest of the preparation.",[16,105,106,107,111],{},"That is what Eebz does for its customers: a read of every retailer, timed to when that retailer reprices, delivered by the time you get into work. Every exception becomes a task for the right owner, and Ada, Eebz's action layer, can tell the account owner the morning a retailer has not gone live and draft the first note. This is an early version of a digital shelf salesperson, and promotions are where it earns its keep. ",[99,108,110],{"href":109},"\u002Fsolution\u002Fpromotions","See how Eebz tracks promotions",".",[113,114,115,118],"blockquote",{},[16,116,117],{},"And an engine that catches a launch on day one catches a price drop the morning it happens. That is why Eebz is simply the best product for tracking promotions, in any category.",[16,119,120],{},"Peter Laughton, Co-founder",[16,122,123,127,128,111],{},[124,125,126],"strong",{},"Want to see your own numbers?"," Pick a product and a market and we show you what each retailer actually ran. ",[99,129,131],{"href":130},"\u002Ffree-audit","Request a free digital shelf audit",[23,133,135],{"id":134},"method-note","Method note",[16,137,138],{},"Daily category-page reads, 1 to 28 September 2026, UK, Gaming Headphones (22 category pages) and Air fryers (12 category pages), 18 retailers as listed. Items keyed by listing and mapped to product; 332 products sold at two or more of these retailers. Drop: 10% or more against the previous read within 7 days. Promotion: the same product dropping at two or more retailers within 3 days; the event starts on the first drop day. Pages are read between 00:00 and 05:30 local time, so a one-day stagger is at the limit of a daily read; two or more days is solid. Retailer promotion flags were examined and found to record sponsored placement, so they were not used. Amazon pages are Best Sellers lists (top 100), not the full category. Currys pages refreshed intermittently in September and are included only where read. Category-page prices, which for some retailers show the default variant. The chart uses product-page prices from the Eebz pricing view, 16 to 30 September 2026.",[16,140,141,142,148,149,111],{},"Sources for the pricing law points: ",[99,143,147],{"href":144,"rel":145},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.hsfkramer.com\u002Fnotes\u002Fip\u002F2024-posts\u002Fcjeu-confirms-that-price-reduction-claims-must-be-based-on-lowest-price-in-last-30-days",[146],"nofollow","CJEU ruling on the 30-day prior price",", ",[99,150,153],{"href":151,"rel":152},"https:\u002F\u002Frpclegal.com\u002Fsnapshots\u002Fconsumer\u002Fspring-2022\u002Feuropean-commission-publishes-guidance-on-price-promotions-under-the-omnibus-directive",[146],"European Commission guidance on the Omnibus Directive",{"title":155,"searchDepth":156,"depth":156,"links":157},"",2,[158,159,160,161,162,163],{"id":25,"depth":156,"text":26},{"id":35,"depth":156,"text":36},{"id":70,"depth":156,"text":71},{"id":80,"depth":156,"text":81},{"id":93,"depth":156,"text":94},{"id":134,"depth":156,"text":135},"2026-10-30","We read 18 UK retailers every day in September and found 63 promotions. Only 13 went live on the same day at every retailer. Here is what the stagger costs, and how to check yours before Black Friday.","md",{"src":168},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fpromotion-went-live-on-thursday\u002Fheadset-promotion-sept-2026.webp",{},true,"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-promotion-that-went-live-on-thursday",{"title":173,"description":174},"Promotion Compliance: Only 21% of Promotions Start on the Day","Eebz read 18 UK retailers daily in September 2026: 63 promotions, 13 live on the same day everywhere. What a staggered start costs, and the EU 30-day rule.","blog\u002Fthe-promotion-that-went-live-on-thursday",[11,177,178,179],"Pricing","Black Friday","Digital Shelf",null,"0STKXqMFMkOvOvwQf9ghCsJXc2Bgb9gFhCw2hIFx_HQ",[183,188],{"title":184,"path":185,"stem":186,"description":187,"children":-1},"The Future of Retail and E-commerce","\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-future-of-retail-and-ecommerce","blog\u002Fthe-future-of-retail-and-ecommerce","How relationships informed by data are driving the digital retail shelf - and what brands need to do to stay ahead.",{"title":189,"path":190,"stem":191,"description":192,"children":-1},"When Your Developers Start Asking for More Work, Something Fundamental Has Changed","\u002Fblog\u002Fwhen-your-developers-start-asking-for-more","blog\u002Fwhen-your-developers-start-asking-for-more","When a developer asks to take on a full Epic instead of a single Feature, you know something has shifted. Four weeks with Claude Code and the results speak for themselves.",1793370899689]