It is essential for any business to study its competitors to find a weak spot and capitalize on the same. This applies to pool suppliers as well. The competitive landscape is challenging for the pool supplier’s industry, and like any other business, it is essential to stay ahead of the competition by meeting the buyer expectations. The first step towards creating an edge over competitors is to have a good understanding of the market and competitor prices. It is here that competitor price comparison comes into the picture.
What is Competitor Price Comparison?
Competitive price analysis consists of regular monitoring and comparing the prices for similar products the competitors offer. The information obtained from competitor research and analysis helps a business make informed decisions for its pricing strategies. You can consider the prices the competitors offer and develop your competitive pricing strategy accordingly.
With competitor analysis, a business can identify the areas where it can improve its pricing and gain a competitive edge. For example, suppose you see that a competing pool supplier business is offering a similar product at a lower price. In that case, you can analyze your pricing strategy to see if it needs to be adjusted to stay competitive.
On the other hand, if you see that a pool supplier is offering a similar service or product at a higher price, you can look for ways to differentiate the product, such as providing higher quality, better features, or excellent customer service.
However, it should be noted that competitor price comparison should not be the only factor to be considered while determining your pricing strategy. There are other essential factors to be considered, including the market demand, target customer demographic, and cost of production.
For conducting a thorough comparison, pool suppliers can resort to automatic competitor price comparison tools. There are price tracking software that can offer accurate data regarding competitor prices. Apart from that, you can also use various tools and methods, such as market research and customer surveys. Online portals should not be ignored when comparing the prices of similar products different sellers offer.
How to Price Your Pool Services
1. In-depth research
Pool services are dependent on the temperatures of your cities. You also need to conduct thorough research on your existing market conditions. Pricing any kind of service is very challenging as the range can be different depending upon the offers. So, pool services in a particular location may be additional, and in other places, it might be different also, pool services will be utilized only during summers or, let us say, hot months. So, understanding the demand is significant for your business to thrive. Competitor price tracking tools by PriceIntelGuru can help you get this kind of information for primary research.
2. Deciding on the Services
Now, pool services can be diverse. You need to decide on the type of services you want to cater. For example, in your location, there is no need for indoor pool service, and if one of your core services is the same, then that would not work for your business. Additionally, you would want to identify whether you want to charge per hour or go for a flat rate system. These things matter after you know your audience and how the market reacts to something new being offered. It can be in terms of services or price.
Benefits of Competitor Price Comparison
1. Prevent Lost Profits
It is not possible to position yourself in the market as desired without knowing what the competitors are doing. It is not possible to set yourself as an expensive or better quality product without a benchmark of where your prices stand against the competition. There's always a risk of under-pricing the products and losing profits.
2. Improve Market Share
It is essential to understand your pricing and where it places you against the competition when your aim is to improve the market share and stay ahead of the competitors. With competitor price analysis, you can identify the areas of opportunity where you can reduce the prices for some products and grow the market share. It is all the more critical with retailers. It is also termed a loss leader. The approach works by increasing the overall market share by lowering the costs of low-value items to improve overall sales.
3. Track the Market Position
The prices in the pool supplier market should never be static. The prices must change with market changes. The simple and best way of gaining a better understanding of how to set your prices is to track and analyze the competitor's pricing over time. Keeping pace with major competitors means you can easily maintain your position in the market as compared to them. When the competitor's change their prices, it serves an opportunity to get strategic price advantage over competitors in the short term. It is essential to perform the competitive landscape analysis regularly.
4. Improve Pricing Position
When you conduct a competitive analysis it decreases the chances of losing customers to the competitors as it ensures that your prices remain competitive as compared to the competitors. It also makes sure that your prices are set in a way that they meet your revenue and profit goals.
For example, luxury brands set a higher price to attract wealthy segments. These brands have a long-standing reputation. However, it is essential for them to compare competitors to recognize any price increase. Otherwise, they will end up being identified as a 'cheaper alternative.'
How to Compare Competitor Prices?
1. Identify and Categorize the Competitors
The first towards retail competitive analysis is to identify the competitors. It would be best to find companies that offer similar products and target the same market. After identifying the competitors, you need to categorize them. They can be ordered into primary competitors, secondary competitors, and tertiary competitors. This is a crucial step toward creating a competition-based pricing strategy.
In fact, categorization and competitor price comparison should be an ongoing process based on the type of product and market segment.
2. Gather Price Data
The next step is to gather relevant information for competitor comparison. You must collect data on competitor product availability, additional offers, and price index. The pricing data can be collected from competitors' websites or automated price tracking solutions. This data plays a crucial role in competitor strategy analysis.
3. Analyze Pricing Data
After data collection, the next step is competitive analysis. You must look for patterns and trends in this step as it helps identify pricing strategies your competitors are using. The best competitor analysis example is to see if the competitors are pricing their products at a premium or discount. Are they offering bundle pricing or volume discounts?
4. Decide your Pricing Process
Excellent competitive strategies need you to monitor pricing data on a regular basis. It helps in keeping an eye on the competitor's pricing strategies and adjusting them as required. If the competitors lower the price, you need to reduce your prices and increase them when competitors increase the cost.
5. Use AI-Driven Platform
To get access to accurate data sets, investing in AI- driven tools for price tracking and comparison is crucial. Manual research, comparison, and analysis can be cumbersome, time-consuming, and inefficient. Updating the prices late can cost a business drastically and affect the brand identity.
How can we help you compare Prices with your Competitors?
PriceIntelGuru is one of the top price intelligence companies that help companies grow manifold with our automated solutions. Our latest and AI-driven tools help you with competitive analysis and strategy-making to beat the competition and stay ahead, protecting your profit margins. Consider your cost and output, and you can drive your business toward success. But when you need to have a smooth pool services business and focus only on that, PriceIntelGuru is here for you. What are you waiting for? Contact us today!
