SUV tyre prices in the corona context: Channel makes more difference than brand

4×4 tyre sales may have fallen due to the effects of coronavirus and lockdown, but prices in certain key sizes are actually higher than they were before those challenges presented themselves at the start of the year. Tyres & Accessories spoke to tyre market and pricing data experts Encircle Marketing in order to find out more.

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2020 has been a tough year for the passenger car tyre retail business, so getting an insight into the latest trends can really help businesses tackle what’s in front of them. That’s why Encircle Marketing makes 4,000 market representative mystery shopping-based phone calls every month. And from here, the company is able to identify key pricing and selling-way trends across the market. For the purposes of this report, the data predominately based on the top 4 4×4/ SUV sizes. The lockdown-initiated hiatus is marked on the charts along with the reopening of the market roughly three months later.

The short story is that channel makes more difference than brand when it comes to SUV tyre prices in the post-lockdown corona context. Or, another way to look at it, the leading retail chains’ pricing and positioning work represent some of the best practice for attaining optimal price positioning. At the same time, after the downward pressures of the Covid-19-induced lockdown, 18 and 19-inch 4×4 tyres sizes are experiencing a degree of price recovery.

This article will appear in full in the September edition of Tyres & Accessories.