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IDC ProductScape: Worldwide Retail Price Optimization and Management Solutions, 2025–2026

Ananda Chakravarty — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The IDC ProductScape offers a comprehensive guide on the key functionalities of worldwide retail price optimization and management solutions, featuring products from Blue Yonder, Centric Software, Clear Demand, Competera, Daisy Intelligence, DemandTec, dunnhumby, Engage3, First Insight, Impact Analytics, Intelligence Node, McKinsey, Mi9 Retail, o9 Solutions, Oracle, RELEX, Revionics, SymphonyAI Retail, TCS, and Zebra. The status of each functionality is categorized as fully supported, partially supported, partner provided, road map, or not supported, aiding technology purchasers in quickly identifying which vendors align with their changing requirements. The document serves as a tandem document to IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Retail Price Optimization Solutions 2025–2026 Vendor Assessment (IDC #US52989825, December 2025).

Salesforce Acquires m3ter, Adding Native Consumption Metering to Agentforce Revenue Management

Heather Hershey, Tiffany McCormick — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

On June 8, 2026, Salesforce announced signing a definitive agreement to acquire m3ter, a metering and rating platform purpose built for consumption-based monetization. m3ter will be integrated natively into Agentforce Revenue Management (ARM).

This acquisition will bring the following capabilities directly into Salesforce ARM's quote-to-cash stack:

High-volume usage mediation
Usage metering and rating

The acquisition gives Agentforce Revenue Management the ability to ingest product usage data in near real time, configure consumption-based and outcome-based billing scenarios dynamically, and automate monetization dataflows across CRM, ERP, and quote-to-cash systems without requiring third-party metering infrastructure.

The acquisition is timely: AI APIs are arguably the defining new use case driving the current wave of interest in usage-based pricing infrastructure, which is precisely why m3ter is a strategically logical acquisition for Salesforce right now. Companies with AI products are monetizing or testing monetization strategies. As vendors refine their models, many are moving toward usage-based billing where costs scale based on real-time demand rather than fixed rates. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of Salesforce's FY27, and the acquisition price was not disclosed.

commercetools Sharpens API and AI Commerce Discourse with a Proposed Split Between Autonomous and Agentic Models

Heather Hershey — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

At Shoptalk Europe in Barcelona, on June 9, 2026, commercetools announced its entry into a new market category called "Autonomous Commerce" and unveiled commercetools Sphere, its unified enterprise commerce platform for the AI era. While commercetools is far from the only company to go to market with a stake in autonomous commerce, its method is built on the foundation of its industry-renowned APIs, the key to headless, agentic, and now autonomous commerce.

AI Pricing Complexity Demands a New Monetization Stack: Zuora's AI Monetization Suite Announcement

Heather Hershey — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

On June 4, 2026, Zuora announced an expansion of its AI Monetization Suite. Zuora's expanded AI Monetization Suite is a meaningful step toward closing the gap between how AI products are priced and how the underlying commercial infrastructure operationalizes that pricing. For CROs and CFOs, the announcement signals that the quote-to-cash category is beginning to catch up to the realities of AI monetization.

It Is Happening: Smartphone Prices Rising Due to Memory Shortage

Ramon T. Llamas — Fri, 22 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective analyzes the current and future situation of rising smartphone prices amid memory shortages and new smartphone launches. It also includes guidance for smartphone vendors as they face a downturn in demand due to higher prices.

"Recent smartphone releases by some of the leading vendors have confirmed what IDC has been expecting: scarcity of memory will drive prices higher in 2026," says Ramon T. Llamas, research director, Mobile Phones Research Team, IDC. "In addition, Apple has signaled that it expects to use up its stockpiled inventory by June, and higher costs could be expected. Other companies can expect the same. What bears close observation is how smartphone vendors will manage customer relationships throughout the process. An increase in prices should not come as a surprise, so providing customers with options can help. This can range from supply stability and pricing transparency to offering flexible finance/service models and refurbished devices."

AI's Impact on Pricing Models for Business Consulting Services Buyers — Detailed Perspective Version

Bill Latshaw — Thu, 21 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective examines the commercial dynamics shaping how buyers of business consulting services evaluate, price, and contract for AI-enabled engagements. Drawing on IDC's November 2025 AI-Powered Services Pricing Model Survey (n = 178, North American buyers), it finds that buyers are willing to pay a meaningful premium for AI-enabled consulting when AI can be shown to improve analysis, strengthen recommendations, and support better business decisions. Discount pressure rises when AI is perceived primarily as a delivery efficiency tool. The document explores premium and discount dynamics, packaging preferences, value measurement practices, and the role of trust and governance in AI adoption decisions, with practical guidance for technology buyers on how to structure commercial relationships that deliver measurable AI value over time.

"The pricing data from this survey tells a story providers need to hear: buyers are not asking whether AI belongs in consulting but asking whether providers understand what they are actually buying when they invest in AI-enabled advice. The answer to that question is what separates the firms that will define the next generation of consulting from those that will simply describe it." — Bill Latshaw, research director, Business Consulting Services

Pricing AI in Procurement Applications: Navigating the Monetization Maze

Patrick Reymann, Tiffany McCormick — Wed, 20 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Perspective examines the pricing strategies available to procurement application providers as they integrate generative AI and agentic AI into their platforms. Drawing on IDC’s 2025 Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending (FERS) Survey data, it analyzes buyer expectations around cost predictability; evaluates the merits and risks of subscription, consumption, outcome-based, and hybrid pricing models; and offers practical guidance for structuring AI monetization frameworks. The central finding is that procurement buyers demand pricing architectures that balance innovation with cost certainty, and that hybrid models combining predictable subscription bases with bounded variable elements represent the most viable path forward. This document provides a pricing design checklist, messaging recommendations, and data-backed guardrails for providers seeking to optimize AI revenue without alienating risk-averse enterprise buyers.

“AI is no longer the hard part; pricing it is. In procurement, the providers that turn AI from an experimental surcharge into a predictable, value-grounded line item will drive the next phase of adoption,” said Patrick Reymann, research director, Procurement Applications and Agents at IDC.

AI-Augmented IT Vendor Scorecards: From Historical Reporting to Predictive Intelligence

Dr. Ron Babin — Thu, 07 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective discusses the importance of AI-augmented IT vendor scorecards. AI is transforming IT vendor management by shifting organizations from manual, retrospective scorecards to real-time, predictive vendor performance dashboards. Traditional approaches — reliant on periodic data collection and fragmented KPIs — often introduce delays and inconsistencies, limiting a CIO’s ability to respond before issues impact users. AI, particularly agentic AI, enables continuous data ingestion, automated normalization, and predictive analytics across operational, security, financial, and contractual signals. This creates a unified, dynamic view of vendor performance that can identify risks early, support proactive interventions, and align governance with broader enterprise objectives such as resilience, innovation, and sustainability. By integrating live operational data with contract intelligence and expanding performance metrics beyond cost and service levels, organizations can move toward prescriptive, evidence-based decision-making. The result is a more agile and strategic vendor governance model that improves reliability, strengthens accountability, and enhances sourcing and renewal outcomes.

According to Dr. Ron Babin, adjunct research advisor for IDC’s IT Executive Programs, “A two-layer framework generates a composite health index, while data quality, transparency, and human oversight ensure fairness. Pairing internal AI scoring with external market intelligence, such as IDC MarketScape, provides balanced insight.”

IDC Survey: AI's Impact on Pricing Models for Business Consulting Services Buyers – AI-Powered Services Pricing Model Survey, 2025

Bill Latshaw — Wed, 06 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC survey examines how AI is reshaping pricing expectations, commercial models, and value perceptions for AI-powered business consulting services in North America. Based on IDC's 2025 AI-Powered Services Pricing Model Survey, the research focuses on project-oriented business consulting engagements and analyzes how buyers assess premium versus discounted pricing, the importance of pricing in vendor selection, and differences in expectations across AI types. The findings show that pricing has become a critical filter rather than a simple cost conversation, with buyers placing greater emphasis on whether AI improves advisory quality, decision support, and measurable business outcomes rather than merely increasing delivery efficiency.

This IDC presentation shows that commercial models for AI-powered business consulting are shifting toward business-aligned scope, process-based packaging, and flexible pricing structures. Buyers prefer contracting models that align AI to business process coverage, outcomes, and accountability, particularly for agentic AI rather than standalone technical units. Value measurement is becoming more strategic, with clients expecting providers to help operationalize KPIs, dashboards, and outcome tracking from the outset. Trust, governance, and privacy are now table stakes, reinforcing that AI adoption in business consulting will depend as much on credibility and control as on pricing mechanics.

Together, these trends indicate that the strongest pricing outcomes will accrue to providers that integrate AI into higher-value advisory work while clearly demonstrating measurable business impact.

IDC Survey Spotlight: How Are Enterprises Altering IT Resilience Priorities Across Regions in a Period of Elevated Geopolitical and Energy Risks?

Rick Villars — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight explores how sustained uncertainty is influencing the IT architecture and sourcing strategies of 1,009 organizations worldwide, based on IDC’s Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending Survey (FERS Survey) Wave 2, fielded in March 2026, several weeks after initial disruption signals from the war in the Middle East emerged. It examines how decision-makers are reassessing priorities across regions, highlighting differences in how organizations approach cloud resilience, infrastructure, energy access, supply chains, and operational risk based on varying regional conditions and exposures.