A chart was published years ago that documented the impact of
discounting at the retail level. It provided a simple scale that
informed you what the sales increase needed to be to break even on a
discount promotion...for example if you cut the price by 10@ you
needed a 30% lift in sales to generate the same level of profit
dollars. I wanted to get a copy of that simple chart.

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Request for Question Clarification by richard-ga on 06 Sep 2002 06:20 PDT

Hello:

The fourth item at
http://abigcorporation.com/RefCalculators1B.html#SPREAD-SALES
is the program that you are looking for.  But unfortunately the link
was dead when I tried it.

There are other 'live' links on the same page that may also serve your
needs.  If you have any questions about them or if you would like me
to offer them as an answer, please let me know via a clarification of
your question.

Google Researcher
richard-ga

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Clarification of Question by jfj-ga on 06 Sep 2002 07:37 PDT

Richard,
Nice work...however the answer is in the form of a static chart- not
an interactive link. The y axis of the chart lists the % discount that
the retailer offers the consumer ( 10% off - 20% off) the x axis
documents the retailers GPM ( 30% - 35%) the center of the chart
simple documents the sales volume lift that the retailer needs to
generate the dollar profit he would realize without the sale. For
example if a retailer has a 25% GPM on a product and discounts it by
20% he needs to sell 500% more to get the same dollar profit -
assuming his cost remains the same.This chart has not been needed for
the past 11 years - but as more and more retailers get desperate for
top line sales - they need to know what they are doing to their bottom
line profits.
Joe

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Request for Question Clarification by eiffel-ga on 06 Sep 2002 13:12 PDT

Would this be acceptable as a table instead of a chart?

The row headings would list the % discount that the retailer offers
the consumer, the column headings would list the retailer's GPM%, and
the body of the table would show the sales lift needed.

Hi jfj,

It seems that the kind of chart you seek is not widely available
nowadays. Most web pages that discuss the tradeoffs between
discounting and profits assume the people will use a calculator, a
spreadsheet or an interactive application to work out the sales lift
needed to restore profits foregone by discounting.

Calculators can yield the correct answer, but they do not make the
point as dramatically as a chart does.

As I could not find the exact chart that you seek on the web, I
calculated the figures and put them into a chart using the Open Office
Draw application. You can download the chart from here:

http://www.lucidmatrix.com/uploads/q62245.gif 

The chart will remain available at that address for thirty days only,
so you may wish to save a copy from your browser.

Please let me know if the chart is not in the format that you were
seeking.


Additional links:

This relationship between discounting, foregone profit and required
sales increase is explained and discussed (in the context of comic
book sales) at the Comix Experience website:

Tilting at Windmills #17 (By Brian Hibbs)
http://www.comixexperience.com/taw17.htm


Google search strategy:

chart OR graph profit discount sales
://www.google.com/search?q=chart%20OR%20graph%20profit%20discount%20sales

"impact of discounting" profits
://www.google.com/search?q=%22impact+of+discounting%22+profits


Regards,
eiffel-ga