4 Ways Price Tracking Improves Relationship Among Retailers

Why are distributors recommending price tracking to their retailers?

In the competitive world of eCommerce product price has become the weapon number one to beat the competition. Thus, everyone is putting so much effort into price tracking activities. It’s not unusual for competitors to monitor each other to predict the next move and be a step ahead. 

But, what is surprising is the fact that many distributors have started recommending price-tracking tools to their retailers. The majority of companies try to keep their price-tracking activities low profile, so why would someone openly recommend it?

Let’s try to explain it in more detail.

What is price tracking?

Price tracking is crucial for having a competitive advantage in the market. This activity allows you to track both your and your competitors’ product prices. By doing so, you’re getting a much better understanding of what’s happening on the market and what actions should be taken. 

Collecting and analyzing pricing data can be done manually, but those days are long gone. This process is now done automatically and price monitoring tools have taken it over almost completely. 

According to this, price tracking seems like a one-sided thing. Everyone wants to be a step ahead of the competition and use price tracking to understand competitors’ pricing activities. Nevertheless, some distributors and retailers are recommending price monitoring tools to each other. 

Why would they do that? Wouldn’t that be like helping your competition? 

As surprising as it might look, the answer is no. This is, believe it or not, beneficial for all the parties included. 

4 ways price tracking improves the relationship between distributors and retailers

Price tracking can help improve the relationship between distributors and retailers in more ways than one. 

Prevents price wars

Price is usually one of the main ways in which companies try to stay competitive. Usually, they want to offer the most competitive price, but that often can lead to price wars. Price wars emerge when companies see that their competitors are offering lower prices and then try to respond by lowering their own. Very often this turns into a cat-and-mouse game that is harming all parties involved. 

However, if retailers and distributors communicate about their pricing strategy, price tracking would help them make well-informed pricing decisions and react only in cases of sudden price drops or raises. 

Thus, price tracking can help with setting the minimum advertised price (MAP) and sending alerts whenever the MAP has been violated. By doing so, not only everyone will be aware of the violations, but they will also know who started them. 

Stabilizes the market 

Price tracking also helps with stabilizing the market by avoiding price turbulences.

If everyone on the market knows that their prices are being monitored, there is a lower chance of someone performing an aggressive change in pricing.

One of the ways for stabilizing the market is also by identifying unauthorized sellers. Those sellers are the ones who usually start the price drop, and force other retailers to follow that trend. That further leads to a margin decrease and ends up in a damaged relationship between brands and their distributors and retailers. 

Monitor competitor prices

Staying competitive can be achieved without entering into price wars. Understanding how prices change in the fast-paced eCommerce environment can be done by using price monitoring. Competitor price tracking offers a great understanding of price fluctuations for everyone – brands, distributors, and retailers. Understanding how prices change during product life cycles, whether are competitors using promotional prices and discounts, and whether running out of stock, are just some of the useful insights that price monitoring tools can offer. 

Negotiating margins 

When negotiating and discussing margins, brands, retailers, and distributors need to be prepared. To do so, they need accurate and timely pricing information. By using price tracking, all parties can create a solid pricing strategy and make calculated decisions. If everyone has precise numbers, that creates space for price changes that could be beneficial for all sides. Maybe there’s room for everyone to increase their margins and gain more profit! 

Price tracker

As you can see, there are various ways in which price tracker tools can be beneficial for everyone. Being competitive is necessary, but in some cases, better results are achieved when working together. 

We at Price2Spy have the opportunity to work with brands, retailers, and distributors, thus, we can confirm first-hand that the benefits are mutual. Some of our clients kept quiet about using Price2Spy, but once they understood how they could improve their business, they changed their opinion. 

Do you share the same opinion or do you maybe have a different experience? We would love to discuss it in the comments below, so feel free to share your feedback.