Competitor Price Monitoring – Why is it required

In this ultra-competitive world of business where there are plenty of competitors, companies are always trying to stay ahead of the competition in one way or the other. This is imperative for the business to stay alive and be relevant. Price is one such area where the competition and rivalry can get real heated. This is because at the end of the day the consumers will look at the price before buying anything. They look for the best quality at the lowest price. There are some cases when companies deliberately reduce the price even if they are barely making a profit in order to attract the consumers. Price-monitoring of the competitors has become an important concept in the business world and has gained a lot of traction recently. This is especially true when it comes to the e-commerce companies. This article is basically about why competitor price monitoring is required.

Why it is required

Understanding the consumer requirements

Monitoring the price of the customers will enable the company to understand where the opportunities are present and where the customers are going and what are they choosing. Based on this the company can set their prices and focus on the products that the consumers are looking for. This will help them to stay in the game and also slowly get ahead of the game.

Increase in sales

Avoid old stock

The company will not want to be stuck with old stock when the prices are falling. This will put them behind the game and they will have to go a long way to empty the existing stock. This will force the company to sell the old stock at rates that will be a loss for the company. Using competitor information intelligently means the company can always price competitively to ensure stock turnover.

The company can react faster

Receiving pertinent, valuable information daily helps the company to do its job better. The company will be to be able to react quickly to changes in the competitors’ catalogs and price monitoring of the competitors allows the company to do just this. Quickly testing the impact of adjusting the margin aspirations will allow the company to price the products to be competitive and to increase the margins.

Negotiate with suppliers

Awareness of the competitors’ prices can help the company to leverage better deals with the suppliers. If the competitors can consistently sell a product cheaper than the cost price, the company can use this information to negotiate a better deal with the current supplier or seek an alternative and more competitive supply.

Conclusion

This concept of monitoring the competitor’s price is a new concept but it is very beneficial for a company to follow this. Having said this it would be better if a company has its own strategies in place rather than making strategies based on the competitors.

How Price Monitoring Can Benefit Your Online Store

Competitor price monitoring can help you react quickly to shifts in pricing and prevent losses. It can help you drive more sales to your online store since you are able to avoid overpricing products. But a few online store owners are taking advantage of price monitoring. What they don’t know is that they may be selling their products too cheaply and getting a narrower margin that their market allows. So if you just set up an online store, the first thing you need to consider is to track competitor prices. Here’s why.

Take advantage of opportunities

Take the right action to maximize margin Some of the most successful online stores are using competitor price monitoring to spot opportunities and take advantage of them to boost sales. When you collect the data and analyze it, you’ll be able to identify certain trends and get points across your market which you didn’t know existed. Tracking competitor prices also allows you to know exactly where your business is positioned and make measures to move a step ahead.

The process of price monitoring gives you data you can rely on to make very important decisions that influence the success of your online store. You can act knowing that you have credible data to support your decisions. In fact, it reduces the risks your business is taking because you are relying on information that is credible to try and maximize margins and expand your offers.

Monitor markets

How else would you know what’s going on in your industry if you don’t monitor your competitors? You need to be alerted on the trends as they happen. Sometimes this information is no longer useful if it is not known immediately. You’ll need a service that can monitor competitor pricing, products and perceptions online round the clock so you don’t miss out on anything.

Spend less time watching your competitors

When you have a system that tracks competitor prices all through, you don’t need to spend time watching their websites manually. It’s impossible to go through hundreds of product pages looking for promotions and discounts offered by your competitors. You can get it done within a few minutes and spend the rest of your time devising a pricing strategy that will work for your business.

Maximize profit margins

Most online stores that fail to reach the desired level of success failed to come up with a suitable pricing strategy. You need tangible information to develop a pricing model that works for your industry and brand. If you go so high, you risk becoming uncommunicative and losing out on customers who simply can’t afford your product or service. On the other hand, if you go too low to the extent that you become unprofitable, your online store can face serious losses that lead to closure. To avoid all these, monitor competitor prices round the clock and always know what’s happening in your industry. Get reports on latest price changes and trends so you know exactly what your competitor is doing and react accordingly.

ITSYS Solutions, has scraped over thousands of websites providing our clients from North America and Europe with data in formats as per their requirement, providing web scraping, business intelligence information, competitive price intelligence, retail business outlet locations, product catalogs, etc.