The Tale of Samsung, AI, and the Wild West of Dynamic Pricing

Imagine you’re in a spaceship. Your mission: Navigate through the cosmos of European e-commerce pricing. You need to dodge asteroids (market fluctuations), fight space pirates (competitors like Competera), and make sure your ship’s thrusters (Samsung Wallet) are working perfectly. The ultimate goal? Keep those engines humming and stay one step ahead of everyone else—preferably while looking cool in the process.

This is basically what Samsung has been trying to do in Europe, except that their spaceship is full of gadgets, like Quicklizard, Competera, and an AI assistant that is (sometimes) just trying its best not to crash into the asteroid belt of data overload. So, let’s dive into how Samsung wrangles AI-driven dynamic pricing, the pros and cons of partnering with different vendors, and what it means to live in the future of real-time, data-driven pricing.

From the Age of Paper (Nielsen) to the Age of Quicklizard

Once upon a time, Samsung's pricing strategy was basically run by folks in suits from Nielsen visiting every week and scribbling notes about "ideal price adjustments" for dishwashers. It was about as efficient as using a paper map to explore the Milky Way.

Sure, Nielsen had some good insights, but the whole thing was a manual process. If a competitor changed their price overnight, Samsung could only react when the Nielsen folks came back with their red pen and PowerPoint. By the time Samsung changed the price, the competitor might already be laughing in the rearview mirror.

Enter Quicklizard: the shiny new AI-driven kid on the block. Quicklizard makes pricing adjustments faster than you can say, "Is it on sale?" Thanks to its real-time pricing recommendation capabilities, Samsung could suddenly move at the speed of light (or at least at the speed of data packets).

The AI Showdown: Quicklizard vs. Competera

Imagine you’re picking a sidekick for an intergalactic pricing battle. Quicklizard and Competera are like two different flavors of artificial intelligence—one is a snappy gunslinger in the Wild West of dynamic pricing, while the other is the methodical sharpshooter with an analytical eye. Samsung decided it was smarter to bring both along, at least for a while.

Quicklizard: Agile, hyper-focused on real-time, and absolutely obsessed with keeping you competitive. It can literally adjust prices as a competitor’s sale goes live. Quicklizard is like a caffeine-fueled AI, pushing Samsung to dance in the fast-paced pricing ring.

Competera: They are a bit more laid-back. Think data-driven insights that go deep—really deep. Competera’s strength lies in granular market analysis and large-scale operations. The downside? It’s a slower learner, and onboarding was… let’s just say "not quick." Samsung's teams had to go back to AI school to understand how to work with it.

Samsung figured that playing the two against each other might be a good idea—at least until they knew which one was the best fit for each market. Quicklizard handles 15 countries in Europe, Competera gets Germany and Italy. Is it working? Well, mostly, but it’s also a lot like watching two AI siblings bicker for attention—both have strengths, but neither is perfect.

Dynamic Pricing Challenges: When You’re Flying Blind

Alright, so you’ve got Quicklizard tweaking prices at warp speed, and Competera giving you deep analytics on the side. But what’s the biggest problem Samsung faces now? The gap between online and offline.

Imagine you’re looking to buy a TV online—you see it priced at £2,500. You’re excited, so you run to your nearest store only to find the same TV priced at £3,000. Confusing, right? Samsung wants to fix this—they asked Quicklizard for a magic wand that would align prices across e-commerce and retail in real time. It’s a bit like trying to teach your dog and your cat to sit at the same time—it’s challenging, but not impossible. And that’s why Quicklizard is working on a new algorithm to tackle this challenge head-on.

Another challenge? Privacy regulations. Samsung’s CRM system is basically split into silos—when someone buys a dishwasher, they can’t track whether that same person is also eyeing a Samsung smartwatch. This means Samsung is missing out on the sweet opportunities of personalized pricing across products. The European privacy gods have made sure everything is securely locked away, meaning AI can only peek through a tiny crack in the door.

AI in Pricing: The Path to Hyper-Personalization

The dream is simple: A customer walks into a Samsung store, and the system knows their preferences and recommends prices specifically tailored to them—like a futuristic version of getting a handshake discount from the shopkeeper. Samsung's pricing strategy with Quicklizard and Competera is a first step in that direction.

Quicklizard is already helping Samsung implement some level of personalized pricing—for example, repeat visitors get special discounts. But Samsung wants to go further, looking at all interactions across the entire customer journey. They want to know if Giuseppe bought a phone, if he’s also buying a TV, and if he might want a smartwatch next month. To get there, they need better integration across their CRM, e-commerce, and retail channels.

The end goal? AI-driven, autonomous pricing that moves beyond mere price suggestions to full-on, “set-it-and-forget-it” automation. Samsung wants to shrink its pricing teams from 50 people to maybe three—with AI calling most of the shots, and a couple of folks on standby to double-check its work. It’s like trying to turn the crew of a spaceship into a minimalist, AI-driven autopilot system.

The Future: Becoming Your Own Vendor?

Finally, let’s talk about what Samsung might want in the future—besides perfectly synced online/offline pricing and CRM magic. What if Samsung didn’t even need Quicklizard or Competera anymore? What if their internal AI was as smart as these vendors? Samsung is already mulling over this possibility, and frankly, it's not as sci-fi as it sounds.

They envision a time when their own AI could do everything the current vendors do—even more. It could learn from competitor behaviors, adjust based on regional preferences, and give Samsung the edge. But that future depends on developing some serious in-house capabilities—or maybe teaming up with Google to make it happen.

So there you have it—Samsung’s cosmic adventure through dynamic pricing, the battle of AI buddies, and a future where they might just become the master of their own AI destiny. It’s a story of adaptation, ambition, and maybe, just maybe, finding the perfect algorithm to keep that spaceship gliding smoothly.