Retailers are managing to gain a lot, especially now with the global pandemic closing most stores and businesses slowly moving online. If you are a retailer that operates on the net, there are many opportunities for you. It is how impressive e-commerce has progressed these last years. So much so that now everyone is talking about it. The internet is full of YouTube videos and text-based guides on how to become a reseller and start your own business.
While this is a good thing for this particular branch in general, it does come with a major drawback. You guessed it right, it’s competition. The more attractive this type of business becomes, the more competition you will face. And that’s exactly what we’ll be talking about in today’s article, Beating Your Competition Using Price Comparison Software.
1. It saves you a lot of time
There is no doubt that automation saves a lot of time. This is crucial in small businesses. If you’re the only person working in your startup, you need to focus on much more important things. Why optimize the prices on your own and risk making a mistake by wasting your time, when all this can be done by sophisticated software?
Think of it as an extra person that you only have to pay once. The perfect employee who is much less likely to make a mistake. And don’t worry if you’re not experienced or tech-savvy. You can learn everything in a few days and it will save you years. Learn more about Intelligence Node’s real-time price comparison software Click here.
2. Software tends to make fewer mistakes than a real person.
Computers are not perfect. AI makes mistakes. But they can also receive updates and improve by self-study. A real human too, yes, but at a much slower pace. And since it’s a job where numbers are very important, it’s a bit robotic and not the best position you can offer a real person.
On top of that, price comparison software does a lot more than its name suggests, which makes it such a worthwhile investment. When collecting data, a real person can’t keep pace, especially if your business continues to grow and you need to track a lot more products every new month.
3. Without constantly comparing prices, you lose customers
Experts say it has never been easier for consumers to analyze and compare prices, which is both a blessing and a curse for retail players. Why is it so? Everyone has a smartphone these days and a reliable internet connection, which allows them to compare your products to those that your competition sells. If they see a better price, they won’t even come back to your website. They click on the “order now” button and just like that you have lost another customer.
If this continues for a while, your competition will take over and you will not be able to come back from the bottom as the business world is quite cruel and ruthless. But, if you have constant and automatic price optimization, you leave no room for error. The only question is how far you are willing to go below the competitor’s price, and that’s exactly what we’ll talk about in the next section.
4. Too much cutting without analyzing the data will do the opposite of success
It’s a great idea to lower the price of your competition, as your customers will obviously choose your product over theirs just because it’s cheaper. However, there comes a point when cutting to win a customer starts to cause a loss in your profits and that is just not optimal. Well, it can be the result of human error, but rarely the error of price optimization software.
Also imagine all the different currency optimizations you have to do for each of your products without having such a useful tool by your side. And, whenever you need to prices or drop them, you will have to manually readjust that for each product one more time. It’s inherently impossible to keep up, and that’s why we need our computers to do it for us.
5. Repricing takes less time because it is automated
Repricing takes less time because it is fully automated and does not depend on a real person to do it. There is no risk of your employee calling sick things or delaying things due to certain events. Get into the customer’s shoes and you will understand how they think and what you need to do to be successful.
Even if you are loyal to a seller for a long time, if they are not price competitive, you will obviously switch to someone with better prices.
6. Price comparison software protects your brand identity
Finally, if you are building a name for yourself in the eyes of your customers, for example “not exactly a premium brand, but slightly more expensive and of better quality than the cheap brands”. You need to maintain your status in this area and you will attract a certain group of customers who will slowly become loyal to your brand unless you make drastic changes.
Conclusion
Technology is making everything around us better, and leading your own business to success is definitely something that can benefit from that. Comparison software is not a big investment, but it can earn you a lot more if you use it correctly.
Fortunately, there are many guides and explanations available to you, even if you are completely inexperienced in this area. And, if you’re still wondering if it’s the right choice for you, the six reasons listed in the article above will help you realize the importance.