Gillette is cutting the price of its razors by up to 20%

pulse

February 23, 2017 8:47 PM

Gillette's parent company announced that the price tag of some offerings of razor refill cartridges could fall up to 20%.

Gillette is feeling the razor burn.

In the face of increasingly stiff competition, Procter & Gamble will reduce the price of some of its Gillette shave products.

The average reduction will hover in the double-digit range, but some products will be reduced a full 20%. Other products' prices will remain completely unchanged.

P&G CFO Jon Moeller relayed the news in a conference presentation to financial analysts on February 23 in Florida, Fortune reported. According to Moeller, there's a gap in prices between P&G's higher-end razors and lower-end razors that will be filled by this reduction in price. The new prices take effect March 20.

"We'll soon be making pricing interventions to better position our brands at all levels of the pricing ladder," Moeller said in his presentation. "We are making smart adjustments across the line-up to restore a historical model and proven strategy."

Gillette once claimed a 71% market share in North America, but it now only maintains 59% as of last year, according to Fortune. Startups like Harry's and Dollar Shave Club — which was acquired last year by Unilever for $1 billion — have steadily chipped away at that dominance with similar razor cartridges at a lower price.

The startups leapfrogged Gillette in the online razor market, with Gillette maintaining a relatively small proportion of online sales as of 2015. Gillette had previously responded with initiatives like the Gillette Shave Club in 2014, which offered periodic razors in a concept similar to its new competitors.

It's not yet clear which products will undergo price cuts, and if the cuts extend to Gillette's Venus women's razor line.

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