Effective Pricing

For each Category in Women's and Men's, you will collect the effective price. The effective price is the Min, Mode, and Max price for each category. 

The Effective Price

The effective price includes any and all associated discounts from standard sales and/or Clearance occurring at the time of purchase. Basically, what we want to know the "walk out the door" price of each category. 

This means that if something is regularly $35, and it is discounted by 10%, the price you would report is $31.50.

Collecting Min, Max, Mode

You will collect the Min, Max, and Mode by category.

Min $: Minimum selling price within a category ​(including any associated promotions)

*Tip* - this will almost always be a sales or Clearance item!

Max $: Maximum selling price within a category ​(including any associated promotions)

*Tip* - seek out the nicest/most expensive-looking items to get a quick idea of your Max price. You can also hop on the H&M website ahead of your visit, sort by high price, and get a solid idea of what you'll be looking for in the store. 

Mode $: Most common selling price within a category​​ (including any associated promotions). An important note here is the MODE is NOT an average, it's the price you see the most often. 

*Tip* - look for the most common style or type of item in a given category, this will likely be your Mode price. We do not expect you to calculate this by writing down all prices in a given section, but we do expect you to look at lots of price tags for you to find the price you see the most often.

Example 1: 

• About 4 tables of Women's Tops were $20
• 1 rack of Tops was $55
• About 5 individual Tops were $35

The effective pricing for Women's Tops would be:

Min = $20
Max = $55
Mode = $20 (because of the 4 tables of product) 

Example 2: 

• About 60% of the racks for Men's Bottoms were $20
• 1 table of Bottoms were $55
• Two shelves with about 20 Bottoms each were at $35
• One display of Bottoms was marked down to $10 in the Clearance Section

The effective pricing for Men's Bottoms would be:

Min = $10
Max = $55
Mode =$20

***NOTE: If you feel that there is an equal number of items for two prices, these would both be the most frequent (mode). At that point, you'd take the average of just those two prices to get the MODE. This is the only time where you will average numbers.

Tips for Collecting Prices 

The best way to collect data is to record the prices as you walk through the store and update prices as you go. 

For example, in the front of the store, you see a few tables of Men's Tops. You see that about 1/2 of the section had Tops that were $20 and mixed in were tops for $10 and $30. Then, you should record the following pricing details for the category Men's 'Tops:'

• Min - $10
• Max - $30
• Mode - $20

Then, while walking through the rest of the store you notice more Men's Tops. You look at the tag and the prices on these tops are $20. More $20 Tops, which you already have listed as your mode! Move on you don't need any more details. You also see a small table of Tops that are $25. Don't write that price down, you don't need it. The small table is not your Mode and that price is lower than your Max Price.

Remember, you don't need to write down every price to get the Min, Max, Mode. Collecting in the beginning and then just updating as you walk throughout the store will be the most efficient and accurate method!

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