Price tracking has become an invaluable fungible for businesses in the contemporary digital marketplace. Price tracking software allows retailers of all sizes to level the playing field by being able to monitor competitor pricing 24/7, optimize based on real time data, and automate repricing. It gives entrepreneurs the power to make data driven decisions, maximize margins and increase bottom lines.
What is Price Tracking?
Price tracking software automatically monitors and records the prices of specified products across retailer websites and marketplaces. This technology uses web scraping and data feeds to extract pricing information and load it into dashboards for analysis. Key features of price tracking include:
- Competitor price monitoring.
- Historical price tracking.
- Price change alerts.
- Automated repricing.
- Data visualizations.
Leading solutions also provide advanced analytics, machine learning algorithms, and integration with ecommerce platforms.
The Benefits of Price Tracking
Here are some of the main reasons that businesses are turning to price tracking and intelligence solutions:
Optimization Opportunities
Granular pricing data reveals optimal price points for maximizing sales and revenue. The competitive pricing tools run regression analysis to model demand at different values. Key metrics like price elasticity, conversion rate, and sales velocity are calculated. This intelligence takes the guesswork out of pricing.
Higher Margins
For resellers, knowing precise competitor costs and margins is hugely beneficial. If other retailers are achieving 50% margins on a particular product, you can reprice to the same level to capture higher profits. This margin management capability is only possible with accurate supplier + competitor pricing intel.
Automated Repricing
The most advanced price tracking platforms use repricing engines to automatically adjust prices based on configurable rules. This saves retailers enormous amounts of time. Repricing also enables 24/7 monitoring and near instantaneous responses to competitor price changes.
Stock Level Monitoring
By tracking product listings and availability, price tracking tools provide inventory insights too. You can get alerts when a key competitor sells out of a hot product, signaling an opportunity to capture demand. Or learn when supplier prices spike due to shortages. This context is invaluable for purchasing and marketing decisions.
Competitive Pricing Intelligence
The #1 capability provided by price tracking software is real-time visibility into competitor pricing across channels. Retailers can see exactly what top competitors charge for thousands of SKUs. This enables data-based pricing decisions to remain competitive. Unexpected price changes are also automatically flagged to prevent being undercut.
Price Tracking Use Cases
Now that we’ve covered the capabilities and benefits, here are some examples of how different types of businesses leverage price tracking:
Ecommerce Retailers
Online sellers use price tracking to benchmark pricing against competing merchant and marketplace listings. Common use cases include:
- Setting prices to match the lowest market rate.
- Maintaining a configurable markup above or below the competition.
- Automatically repricing catalog to stay competitive.
- Getting alerts for unexpected price changes or stock outs.
Multichannel Retailers
For merchants with both online and offline stores, price tracking provides visibility into pricing gaps between channels. This enables cohesive omnichannel pricing strategies. Brick-and-mortar retailers also gain ecommerce intelligence to inform in-store promotions and sales.
Marketplace Sellers
Sellers on Amazon, eBay, Walmart, etc. rely heavily on repricing software due to intense competition. Being undercut by just a few cents can result in losing the Buy Box. Automatic, algorithmic repricing is an essential tool for profitable marketplace selling at scale.
Distributors & Wholesalers
B2B distributors must track both supplier costs and customer pricing across industries and regions. Price tracking provides the supply/demand transparency needed for planning and negotiations. Cost-plus pricing models also depend on maintaining reasonable margins amidst volatile supply chains.
Service Providers
Business services like contractors, lawyers, consultants, and more also face competition on price. With insight into what competitors charge for projects, service providers can benchmark pricing to land more sales at better rates.
This covers some of the most common scenarios, but virtually any business can benefit from price tracking intelligence. Even within industries, specific use cases abound for manufacturers, hospitality, travel, grocery, healthcare, and more.
Conclusion: Get Started with Price Tracking
Now more than ever, price tracking and intelligence are crucial for competing and optimizing profitability. The data provides unmatched visibility into the digital marketplace to inform smarter pricing. And automation saves hundreds of hours vs. manual tracking while maximizing sales at targeted margins.
For any business that sells products online, multichannel, or through marketplaces, price tracking is a must-have tool. The capabilities transform manual pricing guesswork into an analytical, metrics-based process. And the benefits only compound over time through better decisions and execution.