Strategy

Key Value Items: where to be sharp and where to recover margin

Customers judge whether you are cheap on a handful of products. Identify them, keep them sharp, and recover margin on the long tail.

Marcus FeldPricing Strategist · May 13, 2026 · 6 MIN READ
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ARTICLE HERO · 16:9

Not every SKU deserves the same attention. A small set of traffic-driving items shapes the entire price perception of your catalog.

We call them Key Value Items. Keep them sharp, and shoppers trust the rest of your prices without comparing them line by line.

The art is identifying which items actually drive perception — and Elastly surfaces them from your own basket and search data.

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