The technological aspect of competition is one of the most important. The more advanced technologies a market player uses, the greater its chances of success. This applies not only to production automation or the release of apps for e-commerce. The use of advanced price analysis software allows businesses to optimize prices for goods/services and helps develop an effective pricing strategy. Perhaps your competitor is already involved in retailer price monitoring and receives sales growth and additional profit thanks to these software tools. Find out the opportunities you can seize with pricing intelligence solutions. These tools will help you launch new business projects based on dynamic pricing capabilities or become more commercially successful with existing ones.
Effective Business Analytics Methodology in Pricing Management
Automation of data collection and analysis optimizes decision-making on setting and adjusting prices for goods and services. Such a software solution is called price intelligence, which combines a reference to intelligence and artificial intelligence at the same time. Thus, the authors of the idea emphasize that price analysis software collects important information that is often not visible on the surface. The decisions you make with the help of such software will have an increased level of efficiency since they are AI-based.
Price intelligence follows a specific algorithm of actions for making decisions about pricing policy:
- Price crawling is used to collect comprehensive information about competitors’ pricing policies. At this stage, the software scans competitors’ web pages to find products or services similar to yours.
- Price parsing is used to collect and structure information about competitors’ prices for these products.
- Competitors’ price analysis.
- Price tracking is used to identify price fluctuations and their analytical assessment.
Benefits of Price Intelligence for Businesses
Price analysis software collects information about your competitors in real-time. This means that if you use a competitor-based pricing strategy, you can adjust your prices instantly. When collecting such information manually, there is always a time lag. And by the time you change your prices following your competitor, it may adjust them back or even change them in the opposite direction. In addition to immediate response to competitors’ actions, you get the following benefits:
- Saving working time for your employees. Collecting and analyzing price information manually is a routine and tedious task. And it never ends since it must be done on an ongoing basis. Using price intelligence solutions will allow you to free employees from this assignment, redirecting their attention to more creative tasks.
- Price comparison. Price analysis software collects and analyzes the information you discover on competitors’ websites. Therefore, you will see which competitors’ prices match yours and which set them at a higher or lower level.
- Effective data visualization. Presenting data in the form of histograms or diagrams makes it easier to perceive information and speeds up decision-making. Moreover, you can notice trends that are not visible when studying long texts overloaded with numbers.
- Easy data transfer. You can integrate price analysis software with your online store website using API. In this case, the program will automatically change prices on the website according to your algorithm.
Stages of Decision-making with the Help of Price Intelligence
- Identification of direct competitors. Form a rating of competitors, starting from the most dangerous for your market share to potential ones.
- Making a list of products or services. Identify the offerings for which you want to conduct price intelligence.
- Collecting price information. Once competitors and products are identified, you can begin collecting information about their prices. Determine the frequency with which price analysis software should perform this task. As a result, you will receive detailed analytics and clarifying data visualization.
- Data analysis. Carefully study detailed reports to understand market trends and see your weaknesses in pricing. Adjust your prices in accordance with your pricing strategy. Also, by analyzing this information, you can identify what pricing strategies your competitors use. If their business demonstrates better performance, this can serve as an incentive to change your strategy.
The Importance of Knowing Competitors’ Prices for Business
Using price analysis software simplifies the task of dynamic pricing. If you work in a highly competitive environment, no price change by your competitor will affect your sales. You can always adjust your prices in accordance with their decisions by determining a special rule for the software. For example, it should set prices for your goods or services at -1% of the competitor’s prices. The software will automatically change prices on the website without involving additional employees.
Moreover, price intelligence allows you to detect violators of the MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) policy. If any retailer is excessively underpricing goods in violation of these rules, you will immediately know about it. In this case, you can call on your vendor partners to intervene and restore the rules of fair competition.
The Bottom Line
Price intelligence is needed not only to adjust your prices in accordance with changes in competitors’ price tags but also to The use of this methodology will help in sales planning and attracting new consumers. Using advanced price analysis software, you will be able to identify trends that are difficult to detect without data analysis. You will also learn the pricing features of your competitors, which will allow you to maneuver in a dynamically changing market effectively.