Pricing Heroes: The Retail Pricing Podcast for Practitioners & Executives

In this episode of Pricing Heroes, we speak with Andreas Stauber, Founder and Managing Director of Resilient Value, a pricing consultancy focused on value-based pricing strategy and implementation. Andreas shares how his background at the intersection of business and IT shaped his approach to pricing, and explains why effective pricing depends not only on strategy and systems, but also on governance, data quality, change management, and execution discipline.

Key Topics:

• Why pricing remains one of the most underestimated profit levers in business 
• How pricing complexity builds through exceptions, special cases, and unmanaged discounting 
• Building pricing strategies that reflect company values while reducing unnecessary complexity 
• Why pricing initiatives often break down after the design phase 
• How to build centralized pricing capabilities through diagnosis, executive alignment, and early prototypes 
• What value-based pricing requires beyond PowerPoint frameworks and theoretical value maps 
• Where AI pricing delivers value today, and why human oversight remains essential 

Recommended Resources:

• Books by Hermann Simon 
• Impact Pricing by Mark Stiving 
• Professional Pricing Society 
• European Pricing Platform 
• Pricing clubs and peer communities for pricing professionals 

Connect with Andreas Stauber on LinkedIn.

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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 Danilo Zatta, one of the world's leading pricing minds — as described by the Financial Times — and a LinkedIn top five pricing thought leader. Danilo is a global pricing and top-line growth advisor to blue-chip companies and private equity investors, and the author of more than 20 books. He joins us to discuss his latest, Revenue Growth Management: How to Capture Hidden Value in FMCG and Retail, a practical playbook for commercial teams navigating price, promotions, mix, and trade terms in an increasingly complex retail landscape.

Key Topics:

• Why pricing alone is no longer sufficient, and how the shift to revenue growth management changes the way commercial teams operate
• The five core RGM levers — pricing, promotions, mix, trade terms, and innovation — and how to manage them as a coordinated system
• How the most successful retailers are building cross-functional RGM teams that span finance, category, sales, and marketing
• The gap between data-driven ambition and month-end firefighting, and what it takes to close it
• AI as a force multiplier in RGM: where it works, where it's being misapplied, and how to identify the highest-value use cases
• The Novus case study: how Ukraine's leading retailer used Competera's AI pricing platform to achieve a 6.7% profit uplift amid wartime volatility
• A preview of Danilo's upcoming book on AI pricing, including build vs. buy decisions and change management for pricing software rollouts

Recommended Resources:

• Ten Rules of Highly Effective Pricing by Danilo Zatta
• The Pricing Model Revolution by Danilo Zatta
• Pricing Decoded by Danilo Zatta
• Impact Pricing podcast by Mark Stiving
• The Price Point newsletter (via Danilo's LinkedIn)

Connect with Danilo Zatta on LinkedIn.

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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 Alex Halkin, Founder and CEO of Competera, returning to the show two years after his first appearance in 2024. In that conversation, Alex predicted a major shift toward AI-driven, contextual pricing in retail. Today, he revisits those predictions, assesses how the space has evolved, and shares what's coming next — from autonomous pricing decisions to four-dimensional optimisation models and algorithmic trading-style speed.

Key Topics:

• How AI adoption in retail pricing has accelerated since 2024, and why CIOs are now advocating for it rather than resisting it
• Why contextual AI pricing is not for every retailer, and how to assess if it's right for your business
• How advanced AI pricing algorithms use model routing to orchestrate multiple AI models to achieve holistic pricing outcomes
• Whether AI is necessary for velocity ratio index (VRI) and lifecycle sell-through rate optimisation for seasonal inventory
• Why some overstock problems are demand problems, not pricing problems
• How macroeconomic volatility is making pricing resemble algorithmic trading

Connect with Alex Halkin on LinkedIn.

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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 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

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.