The introduction of various technologies created a boost for online shopping. It is a time when consumers choose their purchases carefully and often appeal to different competitors to get the best price. Luckily, there are instruments like price comparison software that translate data into better pricing decisions.
With the arrival of e-commerce and mobile technologies, it became straightforward for people to shop online. Besides, the recent COVID-19 pandemic created conditions where people started to appeal to online shopping as often as ever. Keeping that in mind, let’s explore the role of price comparison software in companies’ battles to get the most customers.
Price comparison software in its core
In simple terms, price comparison software allows companies to find competitors’ prices and compare or align them with any given product within their portfolio. The software is often presented through three key factors: processing speed, data accuracy, and functionality.
Various price comparison tools are vital for retailers. When firms use market-based pricing or any other competitive pricing strategy, they solely rely on their rivals to present the best prices for their products. The knowledge of competitors allows retailers to always be ahead of the game. Tools like price intelligence use advanced algorithms based on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to find the key differences in pricing among competitors for the selected product portfolio.
Working with price comparison tools
In the right conditions, price intelligence software can be a game-changer. Yet, to get the most out of it, one should understand its flow. To aid competitive or market-based pricing, price comparison software must be delivered in certain stages to benefit from competitive or market-based pricing. Respectively, they correlate with gathering data and matching it across competitors to get some output that can lead to pricing insights.
Usually, the first stage correlates to finding the proper data sources. It means you must understand which competitors influence your pricing and which don’t. The second stage is collecting data on aspects like images, titles, units of measurement, and descriptions. The different phase corresponds to deliverng data to the stage one works with. Finally, the data should be verified and correlated to existing business objectives and pricing models.
Price comparison software works with data graning many valuable insights. It can be proceeded with Machine Learning systems to make sense of what competitors are doing with their prices. You can learn several things from gathered data points, for instance, the following:
- First, you can find out the competitors that directly impact your prices.
- You can establish the recommended prices for your products in a portfolio.
- Finally, you can offer your team insights helping to increase sales margin.
Price comparison software is crucial for retailers, especially with competitive and market-based pricing strategies.
Selecting the tool to bring advantage
As with any given strategy, for instance, dynamic pricing, it is important to know how to choose the selected method to work with it. The same is true for price comparison software. When it comes to choosing the tools, focus on four key areas:
- Data quality. Price comparison software works with loads of data. Therefore, you must ensure that the software you intend to use works with accurate and correct data points. Usually, it can be checked by appealing to the data rate percentage. Everything that comes below 90 percent should be considered as less. Therefore, data quality must be addressed when choosing the right price comparison software.
- Reading the SLA. Before buying the software or collaborating with a company offering it. You can check the quality, delivery, accuracy, and customer support. In addition, fitting the legal service agreement ensures you know all the pros and cons of the selected price comparison software.
- Optimization and user interface. It is hard to use a tool that does not have an intuitive design and is challenging to navigate. One of the critical purposes of price comparison software is to grant you valuable insights when working with massive volumes of data. Without an easy-to-use interface, it is easier to accomplish. Therefore, you need to check how easy a selected price comparison software is to use. If its design and interface are complicated, it should be considered a major red flag.
- Profitability boost. Price comparison software should bring revenues. But, respectively, it can be achieved when the tool seamlessly integrates into your pricing strategy. So, when selecting the price comparison software, check whether it works with your primary pricing strategy.
The abovementioned factors help you choose the right price comparison software. Follow the guidelines, and you will likely have a proper tool.
Why do you need price comparison software at all?
The evidence offered by Statista suggests that in 2020 about 2 billion people will purchase products and services online. In general, e-retail sales surpassed the staggering number of $4.2 trillion in 2020. When referring to the relevant statistics, price comparison software is a direct way for your business to get a chunk of that massive pie.
Simply put, no retailers need the power of price comparison software—considering the rise of online shopping, the importance of the tool has risen as high as ever before. The good news is that retailers are appealing to e-commerce benefits from price comparison software. For instance, they can monitor competitors to understand better the existing demand, the market, and the competitor. As an outcome, the retailer will have strategies to boost customer loyalty and attract new consumers.
The bottom line
Price comparison software is there and should be used for the benefit of your company.. However, remember why you need it and how to select it. In short, data quality is vital for any price comparison software. It means that with wrong data, you might get wrong results that will harm your company instead of aiding it. Keeping all the aspects in mind, align your business objectives and pricing strategy, and it will offer you valuable insights into competitors and ensure revenue growth.
