Price Skimming

Price Skimming

A product pricing strategy by which a firm charges the highest initial price that customers will pay. As the demand of the first customers is satisfied, the firm lowers the price to attract another, more price-sensitive segment.

Therefore, the skimming strategy gets its name from skimming successive layers of "cream," or customer segments, as prices are lowered over time.

Notes:

Firms often use this technique to recover the cost of development.

Skimming is a useful strategy when:
-There are enough prospective customers willing to buy the product at the high price.
-The high price does not attract competitors.
-Lowering the price would have only a minor effect on increasing sales volume and reducing unit costs.
-The high price is interpreted as a sign of high quality.

See also: Price Fixing