The e-commerce space is growing at a fast pace and in recent years it has witnessed an influx of all types of sellers such as small retailer. Not just that, eCommerce has also seen some great users driving in since the Pandemic. So, competition is getting very tough. Now, as the competition is increasing more sellers coming into the picture. This makes it important for the sellers to optimize their strategy and stay ahead all the time. An essential part of the strategy is to monitor the competitor’s prices along with their products, offers, and other promotions. This can help in coming up with an unbeatable strategy to overcome competition.
It is required to track competitor prices for optimizing the sales strategy, increasing profit margins, and staying ahead of competitors in the e-commerce space. With the help of competitor price monitoring, you can evaluate your e-commerce business and where it stands in the competition. This enables you to make informed strategies.
Today in this blog, we will help you track the competitor prices like pros. We will give you guiding tips to understand the best way that can be done. Tracking competitor prices manually can be tedious, inaccurate and biased. Automated price tracking and Pricing intelligence platforms like PriceIntelGuru are the best in that case. As automated price tracking is helpful to get precise results without any doubt.
So, let us begin.
How Competitor Price Monitoring Is Done?
In order to track competitor prices, you need to create a list of products on offer. Further, a list of competitors needs to be prepared depending on the product mix they offer. These products are then mapped to competitors and the task of price monitoring begins.
Apart from the pricing data of the competitors, other valuable data is also collected such as promotions, offers, discounts, etc. This is done with help of manual and automated competitive price monitoring methods. Price monitoring software is required for automated price monitoring. The insight gained is presented to the retailer in the form of real-time reports so that they can make informed decisions.
Now, it is time to deep dive into the concept. When we say competitor price monitoring, it covers a lot of aspects including the prices. You can also check the market trends. We will tell you why it is important. See, the market fluctuates in varied ways and keeping pace with that becomes imperative. If you have an eCommerce business, then you can’t wait for the trend to happen rather you must have a forecast or a possible prediction, so you can strategize accordingly. With the help of a price tracking platform or tool you can do that easily. For instance, you can get the data on the price drop in the coming black Friday week. So, you can start the promotions right away to get more people engaged during the sale.
Advantages Of Competitor Price Monitoring
1. Sales Growth
When you are well acquainted with your competitor’s prices in real-time, you can reprice your products and offer the products or services at competitive prices. You can also avoid overpricing your products. You can drive more customers to your brand with the help of realistic and competitive pricing. This will reflect in increased sales figures.
The sales graph is what matters in the end. As you want to have good numbers to keep on running the business in a better manner. Competitor price monitoring helps you understand your operational strategies as well, which can help you keep an eye on the aspects that are leading in the wrong way. In that way, you can make smart choices and not drive away from the actual goals that need to be achieved.
2. Increase in Profit Margins
Constant monitoring of the competitor’s product prices will enable you to find out if your products are selling at too high or too low prices in comparison to your competitors. This will again offer an opportunity to reprice your products and service rationally and increase your sales and profit margins.
Profit margins are directly related to the pricing. After all the bottom line is profits. Now, the price drop is not just one aspect of increasing the profit margins. You can also give better after-sales service to the consumers and so that they keep coming back to you. In today’s digital era, building an engaging experience is all that matters.
3. Liquidation Of Stock
No one wishes to keep their capital blocked in excessive old stock of any product and that too in a situation where the prices of the product are falling. If you have an idea of what price the product is selling in the market, you can sell them at a lower price or narrow margin for liquidating the old stock.
4. Competitive Price From Supplier
Your competitor might be selling at a low price and you might be wondering why your cost is too high. It can happen when you source the product at a higher price. With the help of competitor price monitoring data, you can negotiate with the supplier and get products at better prices. In case you are not able to negotiate, you can look for alternatives.
Suppliers in the market can make a lot of difference in the way business is done. With the help of competitor price tracking, you can also get the data of suppliers available in the market or nearby places. This gives you good bargaining power and helps you reduce the cost.
5. Maximize Profit
When you regularly track competitor prices, it can help in maximizing your profit margins as well. You can get the product at the best price from your supplier and then sell it at an increased margin during times when your competitors are running out of stock.
6. Save Time
You can save your precious time and focus on core business activities while the software does its job and offers excellent data and insight. Time is of the essence in this fast-paced world. And saving time means saving money and resources. Automated price tracking can help you save a lot of time and let you lead the way for your team in an efficient manner. Moreover, saving time also helps you build a team that has a good work-life balance and enhance productivity which ultimately leads to better results for the business.
It can prove to be beneficial to track competitor prices when:
1. The competitors are more renowned than you are or when a big competitor has similar prices as you. This puts you in a position to play with the minds of the target audience.
2. It can help when the difference between you and your competitor is identifiable. For luring the prospective customer to choose you and buy from you instead of the competitor, you must show them how your product is better or unique in one or another way.
3. When you make it easy for the buyers to switch. It can be a task for buyers to make the big switch when the products or services are complex. The easy and more painless you make it for them to switch, the better.
4. If the competitor raises their price or has issues with quality or delivery. This will create a sense of urgency and the buyers are likely to switch to you.
5. When you have a highly convincing offer. The advantages of switching to you should be way more fascinating than sticking to a competitor. It might also mean that you lower your price to such an extent that initially, you lose some money. This can be worth it if you get new customers for your brand.
Why You Must Use Competitor Price Tracking Software?
1. To Stay Relevant for the Online Retail Scenario
The present retail environment has become multi-dimensional as new competitors are joining time and again. It can be said that consumers are in the driving seat. Once you begin competitor price tracking, you will witness how prices change and competitors react to the same over the time. It also helps in keeping an eye on what trends are developing. You can apply retail pricing strategies and tactics for setting competitive prices for your products.
2. Get the Real-Time Information
It is imperative to track competitor prices as it enables the retailers to be flexible as well as opportunistic as far as pricing is concerned. In fact, tracking needs to be done daily for gathering real-time information about a competitor. The price tracking software will immediately alert you when the price changes for the products that you have labeled to check as compared to the competitors. You need no extra effort to stay ahead in the game.
Become a Pro and Hire the Experts
With the help of software, you can now track competitor prices in no time. You no more need to spend hours monitoring the competitor products and prices. With the help of pricing software, you can reduce operating costs and increase margins. PriceIntelGuru can be of great help here as it is one of the leading pricing intelligence companies catering to all kinds of pricing needs of distinguished industries. So, contact us today to know more!
