When a company’s sales aren’t quite as high as originally projected, there are a few routes that company can take to boost profits. Unilateral price fixing is one such route. While this type of price fixing isn’t unheard of, it’s risky nonetheless. Recently, Sony announced that the company would be fixing prices across the board, and it looks like Sony has already put this plan into action.

What is unilateral price fixing? Essentially, a company (in this case, that company is Sony) lets all retailers know that products manufactured by the company can’t be priced lower than a set minimum. According to reports from The Verge, the pricing on Sony products on Amazon and other large retail sites has jumped largely overnight. In short, the days of getting a Sony TV or other product on the cheap through an online retail site might be long gone.

Additional Notes From Sony

Not only is Sony cracking down on pricing, but the company has also set out to make sure that retail employees know all about the Sony products that they sell. Apple has had a large amount of success with its Apple stores thanks to employees who know Apple products inside and out (this might change with the upcoming Target Apple displays, but that remains to be seen). Sony will be training all retail employees in order to make sure that these people know how Sony devices operate.

Further, Sony has told retailers that all Sony devices should be operating smoothly and entirely functional when shoppers visit any store selling Sony devices. Perhaps these assurances will help consumers swallow the higher Sony device price tags, but, then again, Sony has to start putting out better products if the company truly hopes for a sales gain. It’s no secret that last year was tough for Sony and this year might prove to be even tougher if retailers aren’t able to unload higher-priced Sony devices.

A Very Risky Move

Most consumers love the idea of a bargain. Shopping on the Internet provides consumers with the ability to snag better deals on all kinds of devices. That’s why sites like Amazon do so well. Well, Sony’s new unilateral price fixing strategy might put an end to the deals that consumer can find online, and this might not be the best thing for the company to do. Unless Sony is putting out a device that consumers just can’t live without, people are likely to be frustrated with the fact that Sony devices can no longer be purchased at a bargain price.

There’s no doubt that Sony devices will go one sale during certain seasons, but even sale items will be priced fixed – meaning, you won’t find one Sony sale that’s better than another. Unless Sony’s new pricing strategy is received well by consumers, the company is making a very risky move – one that might hurt sales more than help. What do you think about Sony’s new price fixing idea? Is this one notion that’s bound to hurt Sony’s brand forever?