In today’s vast e-commerce landscape, beating out the competition can be a daunting task. Sellers often use aggressive pricing strategies, commonly undercutting one another in their attempt to garner the best price and stay at the forefront of marketplace search results and buy box priority. Attempting to monitor the competition, and beat it, requires endless research as well as frustrating, monotonous, manual updates.
So how does one turn the chore into an achievement? Three words: automated repricing technology. Here are five reasons you should be using a repricing tool today.
Competitive Advantage
Price, in today’s competitive environment, is the greatest attractor for modern consumers. And that’s because today’s consumer is more intelligent than ever due to constant exposure. With marketing flowing in from all angles, constantly — whether it be via targeted ads on the web, commercials on television, or billboards on the highway — consumers are more informed than ever and thus put more thought into the process of purchasing.
This constant fight for consumer attention has also led to more competition between brands and better-quality products being produced across the board. And with that fading disparity between the quality of goods, customers will most often make their final decision based on price.
In 2016, one study found that “price has been named as the most important factor affecting the online purchasing decision by 60% of all online shoppers worldwide.”
The same study found that in emerging e-commerce markets, that number was even higher.
Automated repricing allows you to quickly and easily stay on top of the competition by constantly monitoring top competitors on the market and working within established parameters (set by you) to best compete with other sellers.
Better Search Placement
Price, as many things are, is a factor in establishing your natural place in search results — it can be the difference between a top-three spot on the first page of results, or second-page purgatory.
This is most important on eBay, where, unlike Amazon and Walmart, no buy box factor is in play. An effective eBay repricer tool utilises Universal Product Code (UPC) data on the front end to match to top competitors on the marketplace — and then vies for the best price that would lead to a boost in search rankings for that item.
Along with keyword-rich data, seller rating and shipping costs (or lack thereof), price is your best means of obtaining better search placement on eBay — especially through utilisation of a repricer.
But while eBay is the best example for this specific benefit of a repricing tool, repricing also has a profound effect on search placement when used on Amazon and Walmart. Repricing can help you rise in the priority order of available sellers for any specific item or increase search placement for listings that have no competition.
Increased Obtainment
Speaking of Amazon and Walmart, these marketplaces, as you may know, work a bit differently than eBay. Generally, these marketplaces will take a UPC or other identifier to match to a previously established listing where the same item is already being sold by a dozen or more other suppliers.
This is where winning a buy box becomes key to your success on Amazon and Walmart.
ChannelAdvisor’s repricing tools were designed to help customers win the Buy Box consistently as doing so is one of the most direct paths to sales and success. As of early 2017, 90% of Amazon sales are found to come directly from the Amazon Buy Box. The remaining 10% of sales come from the oft-unused “Other Sellers on Amazon” section.
This staggering metric from the world’s biggest marketplace clearly represents how critical buy box obtainment is to your success as a business — no matter how small or large.
With ChannelAdvisor smart repricing solutions, you don’t have to constantly track and update pricing. You can begin with a simple (or complex) set of parameters by which repricing will always reference so that your prices never drop below an established minimum or rise above an established maximum.
Freedom of Automation
Utilising repricer tools allows you to set parameters once, kick back, relax and watch the work be done for you. Once you’ve established minimum and maximum pricing parameters for specific SKUs, the software will automatically reprice those products to achieve the goal of maximising profit and winning the buy box.
There are a lot of sellers still out there working in the ChannelAdvisor tool, going SKU by SKU, manually altering prices one by one in an effort to beat out a stubborn competitor for a buy box win. With algorithmic repricing, we put that time back in your hands — you can set it and forget it.
Our repricing tools even monitor the action as it works to your advantage. With the Algorithmic Repricer for Amazon, for example, you’ll be able to pull in-depth reporting detailing current buy box winners, your current standing in the game, and before/after records for your most recent pricing updates.
In fact, enabling the repricer is the only method by which this extensive reporting becomes available.
So, if you’re pennies away from a competitor’s price, repricer reporting via Repricer Activity and Insights presents that opportunity to you in a clean and clear format. With this steady stream of knowledge in your hands, you can alter your minimum price logic to overtake competitors who were previously just out of reach — winning the buy box, and winning the sale!
Price Optimisation
The ChannelAdvisor repricer isn’t your typical one-trick pony. Much of this blog has alluded to dropping your prices as a result of repricing. Well, that actually isn’t always the action that repricing technology will take.
If an opportunity exists within your established min and max targets to reprice to a higher price, a good repricing tool will recognise that and may actually increase the price.
For example, you have a listing with one direct competitor. However, this other seller has a poor seller rating, long lead time and limited quantities. You, on the other hand, enjoy good ratings, have a one-day turnaround on handling and have a vast quantity on-hand. It’s very possible that you can win the buy box from this other seller without undercutting them on price — keeping your margins higher and increasing your profits.
It’s important to remember that several factors are in play when trying to obtain the buy box. Knowing those factors and using a repricer in tandem with such knowledge is a mighty advantage on today’s top marketplaces.
ChannelAdvisor’s repricers come with this critical knowledge built-in, and the technology works logically and to your benefit at all times.
Ready to get started? As a ChannelAdvisor customer, our repricer technology is ready and at your disposal — at no additional charge. Build the surrounding logic, set the eligible products and monitor your results.
For more information on the repricer and how to get started, search keyword ‘Repricer’ or a desired marketplace name plus the keyword ‘repricer’ (e.g., Amazon Repricer) on the ChannelAdvisor Community. Or, contact us today to talk to an e-commerce consultant to see how a repricing tool can bring you peace of mind and, most importantly, that coveted buy box.
