Price monitoring software has become an indispensable tool for retailers and brands. Why? The reason for the growing interest in such tools is that the level of competitiveness has increased significantly in all sectors. For this reason, all businesses in the current market need to know what is happening with the prices of their most direct competitors, as well as with those of new players.
What is price monitoring software used for?
Price monitoring software is mainly used to control the evolution of prices, stock, promotions and other attributes of interest for pricing analysis in different stores. This type of analysis can be carried out at both retail and brand level.
Price monitoring software for retailers
In the case of retailers or e-commerce, price monitoring software is used mainly to have greater control over the evolution of prices in the market and the impact that price changes, stock and promotions may have on the sales of stores.
Stores in very competitive environments need relevant information about their position with respect to the competition in order to know at what level their products compete and how the actions that their competitors can take on price affect their sales growth.
Therefore any effective price monitoring software will provide the following:
- Product price monitoring.
- Tracking system for changes in stock and promotions.
- Clear price history to see when and who started to lower prices.
- Segmentation through different criteria: brands, type of product, name, custom tags, etc.
- Reports on best-sellers.
- System to suggest further competitors you may like to track.
- Possibility of tracking prices of competitors in Google Shopping.
Price monitoring software for brands
Brands need to know how their products are perceived in the marketplace. Do stores respect the recommended retail prices? Which ones respect the recommended price the most? Which ones are the furthest from that price? In the event of a continuous fall in prices, which store generated this trend? These and other questions are of great importance for brands that have an extensive network of online distributors.
While the above questions refer to price, brands should also cover other areas such as product ratings and reviews. However, can price monitoring software provide data on these points? The answer is yes.
In the previous point we have discussed the necessary features that retail price monitoring software should meet. However, in the case of brands, the needs to be met are somewhat different.
- System of minimum price detection.
- System of alerts and notifications.
- System for monitoring product reviews.
- Checking reviews and ratings over time.
Having this data means a before and after in decision making, both in the field of brands and retail. Why? Simple. Pricing decisions made on the basis of market information are much more solid and respond to the real market panorama, so their impact is much more visible in terms of sales growth and perception of competitiveness.
What are the reasons for using price monitoring software?
The main reason for using price monitoring software is that market information is crucial for analyzing the validity and effectiveness of pricing, marketing and branding strategies.
Pricing not only affects the competitiveness itself, but also has a direct impact on the image of the store that distributes the product or, in the case of brands, the brand image. Similarly, any current marketing strategy that aims to reach consumers heavily influenced by price will also have to take into account the impact that may have any action on prices, promotions and stock.
Price monitoring software can help you get a more complete picture of what’s going on in the market and respond to the following needs:
- Track the prices of retailers who compete directly with your business or that distribute your products in the market.
- Analyze what is the position of your products when compared to competing stores or brands.
- Evaluate whether your business is competitive enough for your sector.
- Spot opportunities to increase your profit margins.
- Make pricing decisions which better adapt to the real state of the market.
- Reduce costs of acquisition.
- See a real improvement/increase in your sales.
- Obtain a comprehensive picture of the markets at a national and international level.
- Improve the image of your brand from a customer perspective.
These are just a few of the reasons why price monitoring software is essential. If you want to know more about the features of these platforms and how they can respond to your company’s needs, you can read more about it on netRivals page and request more information here.
