In this special year-end episode of Pricing Heroes, we revisit one of our most widely listened-to conversations of the year: our 2025 pricing predictions roundtable. Recorded in January, this episode brought together nine leading pricing experts to share their perspectives on the forces they believed would shape pricing throughout the year ahead.

Now, as 2025 comes to a close, those predictions read less like forecasts and more like a reflection of the realities pricing teams have spent the year navigating. From tariffs and inflation pressures to the rapid adoption of AI, growing scrutiny of algorithmic pricing, and the ongoing evolution of pricing organizations, this episode offers a valuable opportunity to reflect on what held up, what proved more complex in practice, and what pricing leaders can take forward into 2026.

Rather than revisiting predictions in hindsight, this conversation captures how experienced practitioners were thinking about pricing at the start of the year — and why many of those perspectives remain highly relevant today.

Featured Experts:

🎙️ Stephan Liozu – Chief Value Officer, Zilliant
🎙️ Per Sjöfors – Author of The Price Whisperer
🎙️ Oliver Banks – Retail Transformation Expert, Author of Driving Retail Transformation
🎙️ Ayon Bhattacharyya – Founder & CEO, Biz Growth Spurt
🎙️ Markus Husemann-Kopetzky – Founder, Price Management Institute
🎙️ Danilo Zatta – Pricing Advisor, Author of The 10 Rules of Highly Effective Pricing
🎙️ Maciej Kraus – Managing Partner, Movens Capital, Author of The Future of Pricing
🎙️ Tim J. Smith – CEO, Wiglaf Pricing & Adjunct Professor, DePaul University
🎙️ Alex Halkin – Founder & CEO, Competera

Key Topics:

• How tariffs, trade policy, and inflation reshaped pricing decisions in 2025
• The shift from AI experimentation to practical adoption in pricing teams
• Why algorithmic and dynamic pricing drew public and regulatory scrutiny
• The growing importance of data foundations and pricing governance
• How value-based pricing gained relevance in a more price-sensitive environment
• Why competing on price alone continues to erode margins and trust
• The evolving role of pricing teams as part of broader revenue intelligence functions

Get in touch with us

----------

Get your free copy of Get Ready for the Future Of Pricing with our A-Z Guide.

For more information about AI pricing solutions, check out our Corporate sponsor Competera.ai.

In this episode of Pricing Heroes, we speak with Caroline Cookson, Founder of Cookson Partners and former Global Strategy and Analytics Leader at Brown-Forman. With more than 15 years of experience in finance, brand strategy, and commercial leadership, Caroline has helped shape pricing strategies for world-class spirits brands including Jack Daniel’s, Glendronach, and Gin Mare. Caroline shares how pricing can connect brand positioning, consumer psychology, and retail execution — and why fairness, transparency, and values-led decision-making are becoming the new foundation of effective pricing leadership.

Key Topics:

• How pricing bridges finance, brand identity, and consumer perception
• Working “from shelf price backwards” when retailers control the final price
• Building global frameworks that balance guardrails with local flexibility
• How values-led brands can price confidently and maintain integrity
• Moving beyond cost-plus: creating structure and discipline around discounting
• When smaller businesses should invest in pricing talent, data, and tools
• The ethics of AI pricing and how transparency builds consumer trust

Recommended Resources:

• Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
• Works of Rory Sutherland and Mark Ritson

Connect with Caroline Cookson on LinkedIn. 

Get in touch with us

----------

Get your free copy of Get Ready for the Future Of Pricing with our A-Z Guide.

For more information about AI pricing solutions, check out our Corporate sponsor Competera.ai.

In this episode of Pricing Heroes, we speak with Pooja Gerera, VP Insights and Strategy — formerly VP of Sales and Pricing — at Zooplus, Europe’s leading online pet retailer. Over nearly a decade, Pooja has helped scale Zooplus’s pricing function from a small, experimental team into a data-driven commercial engine spanning 20 European markets. She shares her journey from systems engineering and telecom pricing to leading one of Europe’s most advanced retail pricing organizations, building automation, managing elasticity, and balancing autonomy with control through her “freedom within a framework” philosophy.

Key Topics:

• How a background in technology shaped Pooja’s approach to scalable, automated pricing
• Building Zooplus’s pricing team and evolving from manual to machine-learning models
• Segmenting assortments and applying differentiated strategies across 20 European markets
• Managing competing priorities between pricing, promotions, and sales operations
• Leadership lessons: earning trust, aligning cross-functional teams, and empowering autonomy
• Why elasticity and channel-based pricing can transform traffic and price perception
• The future of e-commerce and AI as the next major disruption in retail pricing

Recommended Resources:

• Thought leaders Pooja follows: Fabian Uhrich, Danilo Zatta, and Chris Herbert
• EPP (European Pricing Platform) events and conferences

Connect with Pooja Gerera on LinkedIn.

Get in touch with us

----------

Get your free copy of Get Ready for the Future Of Pricing with our A-Z Guide.

For more information about AI pricing solutions, check out our Corporate sponsor Competera.ai.

In this episode of Pricing Heroes, we speak with Barrie Carmel, a pricing, margin, and revenue management consultant with more than 30 years of experience, including senior leadership roles at Bed Bath & Beyond and Michaels. Barrie shares her journey from foodservice into retail pricing leadership and reflects on what it means to balance precision and speed, manage promotions and customer perception, and lead pricing in an era of public scrutiny.

Key Topics:

• Lessons from transitioning between B2B foodservice and large-scale retail
• How to manage complexity when in-store price execution depends on labor
• The decline of coupon culture and the challenge of generational shifts in value perception
• Why framing conversations in customer-centric terms builds credibility and influence internally
• Electronic shelf labels and AI — opportunities, risks, and why data protection is essential
• How litigation and regulation are likely to reshape fairness standards and reference pricing practices

Recommended Resources:

• Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut
• Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
• Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Connect with Barrie Carmel on LinkedIn.

Get in touch with us

----------

Get your free copy of Get Ready for the Future Of Pricing with our A-Z Guide.

For more information about AI pricing solutions, check out our Corporate sponsor Competera.ai.

In this episode of Pricing Heroes, we speak with Lee Mackedanz, Founder and Managing Partner of Value Capture Consulting, and a veteran pricing executive with leadership roles at Kohl’s, JCPenney, Fossil Group, Office Depot, SuperValu, and Advance Auto Parts. Lee shares his journey from merchant at Best Buy to becoming a pricing leader responsible for more than $700 million in incremental sales and margin improvements. He explains what it takes to build credibility with merchants, lead organizational change, and lay the right foundations before investing in technology.

Key Topics:

• Transitioning from merchandising to pricing leadership
• Competing with Amazon by pricing to value, not just price
• Building pricing maturity at Kohl’s and winning buy-in for a new discipline
• Why persuasion, influence, and small wins drive change management success
• How to structure promotions and discounts as strategic resources
• The foundations required for AI pricing — data, governance, and clear strategy
• Why courage, collaboration, and transparency define great pricing leaders

Recommended Resources:

• The Pricing Roadmap by Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt
• ChiefPricingOfficer.com

Connect with Lee Mackedanz on LinkedIn.

Get in touch with us

----------

Get your free copy of Get Ready for the Future Of Pricing with our A-Z Guide.

For more information about AI pricing solutions, check out our Corporate sponsor Competera.ai.

How is AI transforming the way retailers price products and forecast demand? In this episode of Pricing Heroes, the leading retail pricing podcast, we speak with Jayadeep Shitole, Principal Data Scientist of Applied AI and Machine Learning at Walmart Global Tech. With over a decade of experience building large-scale pricing and forecasting systems, Jayadeep shares expert insights on how retailers can implement AI-powered pricing strategies that are dynamic, transparent, and aligned with real business goals.

We cover:

• The shift from static to dynamic pricing algorithms
• A practical 4-step framework for AI pricing implementation
• How demand forecasting and pricing optimization work hand-in-hand
• Strategies for building trust in AI pricing systems
• How to use AI to respond to tariffs, economic shifts, and supply chain disruptions
• What’s next in retail AI—from real-time optimization to decision intelligence

Whether you're a pricing analyst, retail data scientist, or commercial leader, this episode offers actionable advice on how to future-proof your pricing strategy with AI. Subscribe to Pricing Heroes — the go-to podcast for pricing professionals driving innovation in retail.

Connect with Jayadeep Shitole on LinkedIn.

Get in touch with us

----------

Get your free copy of Get Ready for the Future Of Pricing with our A-Z Guide.

For more information about AI pricing solutions, check out our Corporate sponsor Competera.ai.

In this episode of Pricing Heroes, we speak with Seth Nieman, former Vice President of Pricing Strategy & Transformation at Rite Aid, and former pricing and merchandising leader at Wakefern Food Corp and Lidl US. Seth shares his journey from helping launch Lidl’s U.S. pricing strategy to leading Rite Aid’s pricing transformation during its emergence from bankruptcy. He explains how pricing can serve as the conscience of the organization, and what it takes to build scalable architecture, align cross-functional teams, and drive pricing decisions under pressure.

Key Topics:

• Developing Lidl’s U.S. assortment and pricing from the ground up
• Launching Bowl & Basket and Paperbird at Wakefern, and using pricing to scale private-label growth
• Designing a KVI- and promotional role–based pricing architecture to improve CPI and RPI scores
• Implementing localized pricing zones across 60+ ShopRite stores, accounting for customer, competitor, and ownership differences
• Leading Rite Aid’s pricing reset post-bankruptcy: reassessing optimization logic, category roles, and competitive intelligence
• Why pricing must balance art and science—and how to communicate pricing decisions across functions
• Trends in ESLs, dynamic pricing, and why personalization should come with transparency and trust

Recommended Resources:

• Trade journals: Drug Store News, Progressive Grocer, Supermarket News
• NRF Big Show
• Business journals: The Wall Street Journal

Connect with Seth Nieman on LinkedIn.

Get in touch with us

----------

Get your free copy of Get Ready for the Future Of Pricing with our A-Z Guide.

For more information about AI pricing solutions, check out our Corporate sponsor Competera.ai.

In this episode of Pricing Heroes, we speak with Corina Manea, Vice President of Commercial at flaconi, Germany’s leading online beauty retailer. Corina shares her journey from Team Lead of Pricing to VP, and how she helped flaconi evolve from manual pricing processes to AI-powered optimization. She explains what makes pricing in luxury beauty so complex, how flaconi balances speed with strategic control, and why pricing teams are uniquely positioned to drive commercial transformation.

Key Topics:

• Career development across pricing and commercial functions
• Building pricing maturity — from spreadsheets to scalable systems
• Balancing pricing agility with brand integrity in beauty retail
• Experimentation, cross-functional collaboration, and internal advocacy
• How WeCommerce culture fuels pricing and team growth

Recommended Resources:

• Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Connect with Corina Manea:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corina-manea-831b9493/

Get in touch with us

----------

Get your free copy of Get Ready for the Future Of Pricing with our A-Z Guide.

For more information about AI pricing solutions, check out our Corporate sponsor Competera.ai.

In this episode of Pricing Heroes, we speak with Per Sjöfors — also known as The Price Whisperer — and the founder and CEO of Sjöfors & Partners. With over 35 years of executive experience and more than 750 companies advised, Per shares his unique approach to pricing, grounded in behavioral economics, AI-driven insights, and deep market research.

We discuss the true impact of tariffs on pricing strategies, the psychological thresholds that influence customer behavior, and why most companies dramatically underestimate how their market perceives value. Per also explains how to avoid the common mistake of adding “tariff surcharges,” how to communicate price increases transparently, and how pricing teams can build resilience in times of uncertainty.

Key Topics:

• Why tariffs don’t affect willingness to pay — and what companies must do instead
• Identifying psychological “price walls” to avoid costly volume loss
• Communicating price increases with transparency and value framing
• The risks of gut-feel pricing and the ethical dilemma of margin padding
• Using behavioral economics to guide modern, data-informed pricing decisions

Recommended Resources:

• The Price Whisperer: A Holistic Approach to Pricing Power by Per Sjöfors
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• Misbehaving by Richard Thaler
• Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein
• Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Connect with Per Sjöfors:

•  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/persjofors/
•  Website: https://sjofors.com/

Get in touch with us

----------

Get your free copy of Get Ready for the Future Of Pricing with our A-Z Guide.

For more information about AI pricing solutions, check out our Corporate sponsor Competera.ai.

In this episode of Pricing Heroes, we speak with Josh Pollack, President and Principal Consultant at Pollack Retail Solutions. Josh shares insights from his 25+ years of experience in retail strategy, including stints at Sam’s Club, Circuit City, ALDI, PetSmart, FullBeauty Brands, and Cabela’s. He delves into why merchandising and pricing teams must work in tandem, how to balance short-term margin gains with long-term brand health, and where AI-driven dynamic pricing can either strengthen or undermine customer trust.

Key Topics:

• Blending creativity and data to drive merchandising success
• The intersection of pricing, forecasting, and inventory management
• Why tightly integrated merchandising and pricing functions matter
• Navigating price changes in volatile markets without alienating customers
• Using AI responsibly to optimize prices and maintain brand integrity

Recommended Resources:

• The Indicator by Planet Money
• Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans by Melanie Mitchell

Connect with Josh Pollack:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-pollack-81980a1/

Get in touch with us

----------

Get your free copy of Get Ready for the Future Of Pricing with our A-Z Guide.

For more information about AI pricing solutions, check out our Corporate sponsor Competera.ai.