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In marketing, a loss leader (also called a key value item in the United Kingdom) is a type of pricing strategy where an item is sold below cost in an effort to stimulate other, profitable sales. It is a kind of sales promotion.

One use of a loss leader is to draw customers into a store where they are likely to buy other goods. The vendor expects that the typical customer will purchase other items at the same time as the loss leader and that the profit made on these items will be such that an overall profit is generated for the vendor.

An example would be a supermarket selling sugar or milk at less than cost to draw customers to that particular supermarket chain.

Marketing academics have shown that retailers should take both the direct and indirect effect of substantial price promotions into account when evaluating their impact on profitability.^[1] To make a very precise analysis one should also include effects over time since deep price promotions may induce stockpiling, which may invalidate the effect of such product associations, typically discovered by association rule analysis.^[2]

When automobile dealerships use this practice, they usually offer at least one vehicle below cost and must disclose all of the features of the vehicle (including the VIN). If the loss leader vehicle has been sold, the salesperson has no choice but to try to sell another vehicle at regular price. If someone is not the first person at the dealership when there is a "1 only at this price" vehicle for sale, it is not likely that he or she would find the car at that price near the end of the day. Loss leader vehicles are typically new vehicles and they are almost always base models that do not bring much profit to the dealership.^{[citation needed]} However, at the end of the month, provided sales have been good, the manufacturer may choose to give the dealership bonus money.^{[citation needed]} If the dealership is a certified dealership, e.g., Ford "Blue Oval Certified," part of their advertising funding will come directly from Ford.^{[citation needed]} This bonus/ad money will often be used to pay for the loss of profits with the loss leader.^{[citation needed]} Loss leaders help generate lots of foot traffic at vehicle dealerships.^{[citation needed]}

Automobile dealerships also are in the practice of selling regular-priced vehicles at a loss following negotiations with the customer while operating as a bank, generating profits from in-house financing.

• A loss leader may be placed at the back of a store, so that purchasers must walk past racks of other displayed goods which have higher profit margins.
• A loss leader item is usually a product that customers purchase frequently—thus they are aware of the usual price and that the offered price is a bargain.
• Items offered as loss leaders are often very limited in number, which discourages stockpiling by customers. A retailer must subscribe to this method of selling on a regular basis in order to compel customers to make repeat visits.
• The retailer will often set limitations on the quantity that one purchaser can make (e.g., "limit 4") and/or require a minimum dollar purchase before the sale price becomes valid (e.g., "limit 1 with $10 purchase").

A variant of this idea is known as the razor and blades business model, referring to the most famous example. Razor handles are sold at a loss, but sales of disposable razor blades are very profitable. American businessman King Gillette famously invented this business model, in which safety razors were sold or even given away as loss leaders so that his company could profit by selling disposable razor blades.

This practice is commonly used with video game console makers that sell their console units at very low margins, or even at a loss, to achieve a higher market share. They rely on profits from software sales where the markups are considerably higher. They also receive profits from third party software companies for licensing fees. Microsoft has used this technique with the Xbox and Xbox 360. Sony has done the same with the PlayStation 3 (PS3) and, to a lesser extent, with the PlayStation 2 and PSP.^{[citation needed]} This also translates to higher prices that are charged for the games and for original console accessories such as game controllers. Furthermore, the price of a game developed for multiple platforms (for example, Xbox 360, PS3, and PC) is typically the same across all of those platforms, even if one or more of the platforms is not actually a loss leader (in this example, the PC; however, Nintendo's Wii is also sold at profit, unlike its console brethren^[3]).

Inkjet printers are also often sold to retail customers below their true value and could also be viewed as loss leaders. Some of the printers, especially the entry-level models, are sold at a loss-leading price which seems apparently affordable to most consumers, but they pay the regular price for ink cartridges and specialty papers supplied by the manufacturer.

Cell phones are offered for free or at a low cost to subscribers in exchange for entering a contract that is typically one or two years. The carriers profit by retaining customers for a longer period of time, and this offsets the approximately $100-200 loss on the cost of the phone itself.

Digitally released albums are increasingly used as loss leaders to attract concert goers.

Dealers who normally use "fruitshop" style trading methods--stocking small quantities of a variety of products, cannot compete with loss leaders by negotiating to buy larger quantities of consumables at a lower price because they would still have to sell at a loss to be competitive.

Loss leaders can be an important part of companies' marketing and sales strategies.

1. ^ Van den Poel Dirk, Jan De Schamphelaere, Geert Wets (2004), "Direct and Indirect Effects of Retail Promotions," Expert Systems with Applications, 27 (1): 53-62.
2. ^ Vindevogel B., Dirk Van den Poel, and Geert Wets (2005), "Why promotion strategies based on market basket analysis do not work?". Expert Systems with Applications, 28 (3): 583-590.
3. ^ http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=11103