Consumers Buy On Value Perception And Not Just Low Price: McKinsey & Co

From McKinsey Quarterly, "The value proposition in multichannel retailing: Consumers love low prices, but retailers shouldn’t overlook the way shoppers perceive value online and in stores." by Jeffrey Helbling, Josh Leibowitz, and Aaron Rettaliata:

Yet while price competition is tough, our [McKinsey's] consumer research and client experience show that perceptions of value still matter in the ever-more-complex multichannel-retailing environment. Retailers can employ proven tactics to shape perceptions and take advantage of the fact that consumers care about more than just the price tag when they buy.***Consider, for example, how consumers view leading sellers of women’s apparel in the United States.... While actual average prices at Kohl’s and JCPenney are similar..., consumers clearly perceive Kohl’s as offering lower prices.... Amazon.com—which typically has among the lowest prices in categories such as consumer electronics—charges more for similar types of apparel than Kohl’s and JCPenney do, yet retains a “halo” of value among the consumers we surveyed.

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