Background:

The Buen Fin is a commercial annual event consisting of four days of promotions and sales of products and services during the third week of November in Mexico. The event has gradually increased in relevance since its first edition in 2011. However, there is no formal analysis that assess the effect of the event on prices, mainly because of the lack of relevant information.

Methods:

This article analyzes the pricing policy during the Buen Fin in Mexico for a sample of urban establishments in the country. Using the database “Who’s Who in prices?” of the Federal Consumer Protection Agency, an unbalanced panel of weekly prices for electronic products in 525 establishments during 2010-2015 is built. An event study design is further implemented in order to analyze the effects of the Buen Fin over average and specific prices of products and establishments and over the strategic pricing policies from participating companies.

Results:

The Buen Fin reduces the average prices of electronics items in 7% when compared with the prices observed in September before the event. Only 52% of the products in the sample effectively reduced their prices during the event. Accounting only for discounted products, an average discount of 15% is observed. There is also evidence of a systematic increase in electronic prices weeks before the event, on average, 2%; some establishments have adopted practices to make discounts more salient for consumers.

Conclusions:

The Buen Fin cannot be considered as an event of widespread sales and discounts. The discounts offered by different chains have significant differences. In some cases, several establishments have taken strategic practices to make more evident the deals offered during the event.