5 mistakes to avoid in your price monitoring strategy
General, Price-monitoring, eCommerce ·eCommerce is constantly boiling with new product launches, fierce competitors, news, offers, events. Prices are also in that pot, so they must adapt to changes as well.
In order to do it, price monitoring is a necessary strategy. But, that strategy comes with stumbling blocks on the way.
In this article, we’re aiming to point out the most common mistakes in price monitoring and ways you can avoid them.
Price Monitoring Mistake #1: Perform Scraping On Your Own
If you are a careful reader, you know that scraping is the first step in the price monitoring process. The term refers to technologies that extract data from websites that can be used for further steps. As you can probably tell, there are two ways in which scraping can be done. The first option is to create your own scraping programs that will be adapted to your needs. The second option is to buy a software solution that will find the needed information automatically.
Even though we often say that no one knows your needs better than you, in this case, performing your own scraping can be considered as a mistake. Why?
The answer is simple - this is not a one-time thing. Scraping requires a team with programming skills and knowledge. That kind of a team can not be trained over-night. Most importantly, scraping requires a lot of time, therefore, it’s very likely that your team will be occupied with this task all the time. These kinds of technologies require non-stop maintenance which can become overwhelming and dull in the long run.
In comparison, using an already proven and tested external solution is a lot easier and cheaper. Furthermore, self-made scraping solutions can hardly provide you the data quality that you can receive from a system that has a long time experience.
Price Monitoring Mistake #2: Insufficient Number of Competitors
Unlike the previous example, this is something that you need to do on your own. Your investigation should always start with a question - Who is offering which products and by which price? Not everyone who is present on the market is your competitor and worth of price monitoring. Therefore, besides having an insufficient number of competitors, be careful of falling into the trap of defining too many. The criteria must be well defined and then these kinds of problems won’t be happening. Take your time to analyze the marketplaces, products, and competitors that are worth being included in your price monitoring investigation.
Price Monitoring Mistake #3: Inconsistent Frequences
You’re already familiar with the fact that product data can be collected within different intervals. For instance, you know that Amazon makes price changes even a few times a day, while some of your other competitors might change the prices once a week. It would be a fatal mistake to monitor those tow websites in the same manner. That gathered data will be completely misleading and won’t bring you the wanted results.
This is another reason why having a price monitoring software is a smarter option than trying to scrape the data on your own. The whole process will be automized, and you’ll be able to determine different scraping frequencies for different websites.
Price Monitoring Mistake #4: Setting a Pricing Strategy Only Once
We always say that defining the right pricing strategy is the first and foremost step for every business. However, that doesn’t mean that the pricing strategy is set into stone. While being more present on the market, witnessing competitors come and go, offering more or fewer products, you should be flexible and prepared to make a price change along the way. If the market conditions become different, it doesn’t make much sense to continue with the same actions, right?
The same goes for marketing strategy as well. Through continuous competition and market monitoring, new competitors can be timely identified and your strategy can be promptly coordinated.
Price Monitoring Mistake #5: Monitoring Nothing But Price
Price definitely is something that affects the customers purchasing decisions the most. However, it’s not the only factor. Companies should keep an eye on delivery times an inventory of their competitors as well. Customers are attracted by a lower price, but if you score points by providing a better service, it’s most likely that they’ll become long-term customers.
If the competitor, for example, has a longer delivery time or doesn’t even have the item in its inventory, that there is no need for you to be the cheapest on the market. Customers will return to you either way.
Summing It Up: The Price Monitoring Mistakes Are Avoidable
In this article, we wanted to present to you a few most common price monitoring mistakes. Some of them can be solved with the help of a price monitoring tool, while regarding some others you are the one who needs to think through what you want to achieve.
The point is that there is no magic trick to success. You can not completely rely on a price monitoring tool before defining the most important points on your own - competitors, target customers, goals, etc.
On the other hand, you should also investigate which price monitoring tool is the most compatible with your needs. The best way to find that out is by testing the tool. Tools, such as Price2Spy, offer a free 30-day trial period so you’ll have plenty of time to test the features.
What price monitoring mistakes have you done or avoided so far? We’re interested to hear more about it! It would be nice to share it in the comments.