special offer
Special Offers (also: special price , special offer , price action , low price ; english special offer ; falsely even short range ) are a form of supply , generally as a temporary price reduction of a product in wholesale and retail trade to understand and to the end users are directed. Similar offers can also be found in sales .
General
Special offers are part of the company's pricing policy and represent an essential marketing instrument that retailers use for customer loyalty or customer acquisition . They should offer the customer the same product quality at a lower price. Their classic form is the price reduction of certain goods that were previously offered at normal prices , while special offers of goods that were not previously offered represent a relatively new form.
A characteristic of special offers is their time limit. This takes place, for example, at times of generally low demand (e.g. discounts on happy hour , cheap nice weekend tickets from transport companies or umbrellas in a hot period).
The definition of the special offer causes difficulties, because it must be distinguishable from other price policy measures (such as the seasonal end-of-season sale , discount promotions or permanent low prices). In July 1935, an order from the Reich Minister of Economics defined special offers as “individual goods, labeled according to quality or price, which are offered without a time limit and which fit into the regular business operations of the entire company or the company department”. This was based on Section 7 (2) UWG a. F. according to which special offers refer to individual goods labeled according to price or quality and are integrated into regular business operations. This legal definition was dropped without replacement in July 2004. The trade research of the University of Cologne brought out the following definition in 1995: “The special offer is a sales policy measure in which individual goods and services are combined in the context of regular business operations in the retail sector, sometimes with an announcement of a time limit usually offered at a greatly reduced price and promoted in a special way ”.
Legal issues
Like special events, special offers are permissible under competition law after the ban on special events was lifted in July 2004. Special events are the " sales events in retail outlets that take place outside of regular business transactions , which, without being any sales or clearance sales, serve to accelerate the sale of goods and whose announcements create the impression that special sales benefits are granted". The promise of price reductions is a fundamentally permissible and also supporting advertising medium for promoting performance competition. Such practices are only incompatible with good morals in competition if the courted consumer is misled into making his purchase decision based on whether he is granted special additional discounts instead of on the price worthiness and product quality of the goods offered.
Therefore, some competition law restrictions apply to special offers. They are initially subject to the general provisions of § § 1 and § 3 UWG, according to which excessive attractiveness or extremely low pricing, especially below cost price , is prohibited. Special offers must not give the impression that the entire range is just as cheap as the special offer. If retailers fear that they will not have the products on offer in stock for a reasonable period of time and in appropriate quantities, they need to provide customers with more specific information. Commercial clauses such as “while stocks last” are not suitable for informing customers about the small amount offered. Unfair acts according to § 5 para. 1 no. 2 UWG who takes advantage of the occasion of the sale as the existence of a specific price advantage, the price or the manner in which it is calculated.
Section 5a (2) UWG classifies it as unfair towithhold essential information fromthe consumer which, depending on the circumstances, he needs to make an informed business decision and the withholding of which is suitable to induce the consumer to make a business decision which otherwise he would not have met. Essential information is also withheld if it is provided but is done in an unclear, incomprehensible or ambiguous manner. The advertising brochure is an offer within the meaning of Section 5a (3) UWG, which also applies to special offers. For an offer within the meaning of this provision, according to the Federal Court of Justice (BGH),it is sufficientthat the consumer can make a business decision on the basis of the information provided in the advertising brochure. According to this, it is not necessary for the consumer to be able to submit a declaration of intent to purchase the advertised products.
According to Section 20 (3) UWG, the sale of goods and commercial services below the cost price by “companies with market power superior to small and medium-sized competitors ” is prohibited if it is not only occasional or “objectively justified”. Strictly speaking, it is not just the sale but an offer below cost price that is prohibited. Therefore special item markets do not belong to the category of special offers, but to special events. Special item trading is a form of economically sensible use of goods that have to be sold in large numbers at short notice. Special offers must be related to individual articles, because offering whole groups of goods at low prices is prohibited; the judgment was about "special offers for women's coats and costumes". Special offers may not be limited in time, but a calendar-based period is permissible.
calculation
The starting point for the price calculation for the special offer is the normal price ( list price ), from which there is loss-free scope for price reductions down to the cost price . Special offers are prices that are at least 5% below the normal price. Since selling below cost price is usually only allowed for small and medium-sized companies , there can also be losses when selling special offers. The overall operational success is based on the applied mixed calculation , which also takes into account more expensive, non-discounted compensation items. Further price reductions (such as discounts) are normally not granted for the special offer.
Reasons and consequences
The reasons for special offers can be product-related (reduction of the warehouse risk through clearance , risk of spoilage or obsolescence ), business-related ( new opening , marketing , business closure ) or market-related ( price differentiation , increase in consumption , end of the product cycle ). Special offers trigger advertising costs, which in the food retail trade arise mainly from advertising special offers.
Special offers can result in customers staying away from their traditional businesses and becoming at least casual customers of the business offering special offers ( frequency effect ). Make an excellent instrument of psychological retail marketing represents to attention to energize for the store, triggering bond purchases or to make room in the warehouse (clearing of slow-moving items , seasonal products). In retail, special offers are usually placed in internal company locations that attract the public , for example in the entrance area, in "trip baskets" or on the front sides of individual shelves ( gondola head ). Special offers are also advertised conspicuously because their announcement can lead to the conclusion that the range is generally inexpensive. They can lead to hoarding so that you can still enjoy inexpensive goods after the low price offer has expired. Special offers can also lead to a brand change by the customer. The targeted search for deals by certain customers called cherry-picking ( English cherry picking ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kristin Hansen, Special Offers in Grocery Retailers , 2006, p. 1
- ↑ § 1 Paragraph 2 Order of the Reich Minister of Economics of July 4, 1935
- ↑ Institute for Trade Research at the University of Cologne, Committee for Definitions of Terms from the Trade and Sales Industry, 1995, p. 85
- ↑ § 1 Paragraph 1 Order of the Reich Minister of Economics of July 4, 1935
- ↑ BGH GRUR 1999, 755 - Collection of old clothes
- ↑ Large Commentary UWG, Introduction: Sections 1 to 12 , 2006, p. 53
- ↑ BGH, judgment of September 17, 2015, Az .: I ZR 92/14
- ↑ BGH, judgment of September 17, 2015, Az .: I ZR 92/14
- ↑ BGH, judgment of February 4, 2016, Az .: I ZR 194/14
- ↑ BGH, judgment of February 4, 2016, Az .: I ZR 194/14
- ↑ BGH, judgment of March 20, 1997, Az .: I ZR 241/94
- ↑ BGH GRUR 1962, 42, 44
- ↑ BGH GRUR 1958, 395
- ↑ Kristin Hansen, Special Offers in Grocery Retailers , 2006, p. 13 ff.
- ^ Kristin Hansen, Special Offers in Grocery Retailers , 2006, p. 103
- ↑ Kristin Hansen, Special Offers in Grocery Retailers , 2006, p. 1
