Increase Your Competitive Advantage using Price Monitoring tools

The increasing competitiveness in the e-commerce world makes it necessary, now more than ever, to use price monitoring platforms that provide the necessary data to develop an optimal pricing strategy, not only for pure online e-commerce businesses, but also for omnichannel ones, this is, business with both online and brick-and-mortar stores.

For the customers, online retail means immediate and permanent access to stores. Without a doubt, the possibility of buying anything, at any time and from anywhere is an attractive advantage, independently of the time customers need to wait to receive their order. On the other hand, brick-and-mortar stores offer customers the possibility of seeing the product by themselves, as well as receiving direct and personalized attention by one of the team members in the store. Moreover, in the case of products with specific features, many customers prefer to go to the point of sale in person and decide whether to finally buy the product. In addition, as an additional advantage, consumers can purchase the product instantly, without having to wait for the order to be delivered.

This mixed environment has favoured the emergence of new practices by consumers, which vary according to the nature of the product they want to buy. However, we can observe two major trends.

On the one hand, there are those users who already know what they want to buy: they know the characteristics of the product and they have seen it for themselves in the physical store. This type of user has a clear idea about the item they are going to buy and the only thing they need is to find it at the best price. To achieve this goal, the user will perform an online search to find the seller that offers the best price and conditions of purchase (shipping costs, associated discounts, delivery times, etc.).

On the other hand, there is the type of user who still does not know which is the best product for them. In this case, the customer will start their search online, looking for opinions and ratings of products in the category of interest. Once they get several purchase options, the next step will be to look for the best online offer or, if they still do not have it very clear, they will go to see the physical product in the brick-and-mortar store.

It is at this point that the importance of price monitoring is most evident. In most cases, the price will be the decisive factor of the purchase and that is why it is so necessary to develop techniques that bring competitive advantage to your store, either an omnichannel or a purely online business.

Establishing pricing rules that work for your business, whether online or offline, is no easy task. Many factors must be taken into account, such as the demand for products, especially in the case of top-sellers, as well as other points that are closely linked to the individual situation of each store, such as the cost price and minimum margins.

In any case, not carrying out a complete and daily study of prices and competitiveness status of products belonging to your vertical, implies a loss of vision that can lead to serious consequences for the profitability of your store, since without the necessary data and vision on the state of the market, you lose the necessary capacity to react in such a changing environment, as well as the necessary information to support your pricing decisions.

This is the acquired competitive advantage offered by automated price tracking versus manual.

If you want to know more about the possibilities offered by price monitoring, have a look at our website for other resources that can be useful to improve the performance and conversions of your business.