How to Differentiate Your Products in a Competitive Market

When you are selling the same product as your competition, there’s more than the pricing factor that needs attention. Here’s how you can optimise your revenue even if your competitors are selling the same product.

The online market is brimming with retailers selling the same items. To stand out, you need a smart strategy. Price monitoring and optimization are crucial first steps.

Unlocking Competitor Pricing Insights

European Article Numbers (EANs) are your secret weapon for accurate price comparisons. Use them on platforms like Amazon, Google Shopping, eBay, and Bol to see how competitors price your shared products. This intel empowers you to set or update your prices strategically.

For an automated approach, consider specialized price monitoring software. These tools leverage EANs to track competitor prices, send price change alerts, analyze trends, and generate reports. Regularly updating this data ensures your pricing strategy stays sharp. Price Monitoring software can even provide continuous, real-time market monitoring.

This revised version condenses the introduction and eliminates unnecessary details about retailers and wholesalers. It focuses on the importance of price monitoring using EANs and software, keeping the word count similar.

In this blog, let’s discuss in detail the steps you can take to stand out when your competition is selling the same products.

Why Should You Monitor Competitor Prices?

Monitoring competitors’ prices and adjusting them helps you gain visibility on online platforms. In these platforms like eBay and Google Shopping, products are ranked price-wise.

Knowing competitors’ prices, helps you adjust the price your products to appear on the first page, boosting clicks and sales. This doesn’t mean you need to be the cheapest.

Pricing 1-2% higher can increase margins without losing customers. This is because it often implies better value and service. Tools like tgndata’s competitor pricing solution make this process easier.

Now, you can couple this with a smart pricing strategy to not only stay competitive but also gain slightly higher profits than the others. Here’s why you need to monitor competitor prices often and how this can help in boosting product revenue.

1. Gaining Visibility on Marketplaces

Why exactly should you monitor competitor prices? The simple answer is visibility. On platforms such as eBay and Google Shopping, products are often sorted and displayed based on price competitiveness. By knowing the price points of your competitors, you can strategically price your products to appear on the first page of search results—a critical factor in driving clicks and ultimately, sales.

Firstly, you would want to rank higher in the product search when customers are looking to buy the item. But, so are the other retailers or brands aiming for. Here, you need to optimise your product description and the pages through clear communication and videos of using the product.

Also, collecting customer reviews becomes crucial as people trust other buyers’ experiences before they confirm their purchase. Likewise, you optimise your presence on the online marketplaces before your audience.

2. Pricing Above the Lowest Offer

Now you may ask how monitoring competitor prices can help you set the right prices. While securing a spot on the first page of marketplace search results is important, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be the cheapest option available. Pricing your products just 1% to 2% higher than the lowest price can significantly increase your margins without upsetting customers.‍

This slight price increase can be the key to enhancing profitability while remaining attractive to shoppers who perceive slightly higher-priced products as potentially offering better value, more authentic, smooth customer service and reliable delivery experience.

3. Using Dynamic Pricing

To maintain the right prices with your direct competitors in the market, it is a smart move to employ an advanced AI-driven repricing engine. This technology allows you to automatically adjust your prices based on real-time market data and competitor pricing strategies.

With a repricing tool, you can ensure that your products are always priced optimally for each sales channel and each country you operate in. This not only helps in maintaining competitive prices but also in maximizing your profitability across different market dynamics.

By monitoring and optimizing your prices with these strategies, you can effectively enhance your visibility, attract more customers, and increase revenue, ensuring that your business remains competitive in a bustling online marketplace. You can easily find the right prices for any product using a smart pricing tool like tgndata.

How to Monitor Prices of Competitors Selling the Same Products?

Effectively monitoring competitor prices is key to maintaining a competitive edge in a crowded market. Here’s how you can keep track of competitor pricing strategies, specifically for products that are identical across different vendors:

1. Use Product Identifiers for Accurate Comparisons

The use of European Article Numbers (EANs) is fundamental in comparing identical products across different vendors accurately. EANs uniquely identify a product, ensuring that the comparisons you make are for the same item, not similar ones.

2. Leverage EAN Search Tools

Use EAN searches on various tools and platforms that aggregate product data. This allows you to pull up precise information about a product’s pricing across different online retailers and marketplaces.

Platforms to Consider for EAN Searches:

  • Amazon: As one of the largest e-commerce platforms, Amazon offers a broad perspective on how products are priced globally. An EAN search here can provide insights into both direct competitors and market trends.
  • Google Shopping: This tool is invaluable for seeing a range of prices for a particular product across multiple retailers at a glance. Google Shopping’s interface allows for quick comparisons and can help identify pricing patterns.
  • eBay and Bol: Especially relevant in European markets, these platforms can give insights into both new and used product pricing, which can be particularly useful for diverse market strategies.

3. Use Specialised Price Monitoring Software

Invest in specialized price monitoring software that can automate the tracking of prices across various platforms using EANs. Such software can:

  • Alert you to change prices: Get real-time updates when competitors change their prices, allowing you to react swiftly. Making timely price changes can help you gain the most advantage in the market.

  • Analyse pricing trends: Understand long-term pricing trends and seasonality, which can aid in strategic planning.

  • Generate comparative reports: Quickly see how your prices stack up against the competition across different regions and platforms.

4. Regularly Update Your Price Monitoring Data

The market is dynamic, with prices changing frequently. To ensure your pricing strategy remains relevant, schedule regular reviews of your price monitoring data. Depending on your industry and the volatility of the market, this could be as frequently as daily or as infrequently as monthly. This process becomes even smoother and automatic in price engine software that continuously monitors price changes in the market in real-time.

5. Integrate Market Insights into Your Pricing Strategy

Use the pricing insights that you gain from monitoring competitor prices to adjust your pricing strategy. If your competitors lower their prices, decide whether to match, undercut, or maintain your prices based on your market position and strategic goals. Similarly, if competitors increase their prices, consider whether there is room to increase yours or if you should exploit the gap to gain market share.

By following these steps, you can ensure that your pricing strategy not only responds effectively to competitor movements but also supports your overall business objectives, maintaining a balance between competitiveness and profitability.

How You Can Gain an Edge in Setting Competitive Pricing Today?

It’s crucial to tap into advanced Artificial Intelligence in pricing rather than old-school spreadsheets that set you ages back. An intelligent strategy executed on time would help your business gain customer satisfaction and a profitable edge in the market.

1. Setting the Right Prices at All Times

It’s not always about being the cheapest option. A smart approach is to price your products slightly higher—perhaps 1% to 2% more than the lowest competitor. This strategy can help you earn a better margin while still being competitive enough to attract customers.

2. Using Advanced Technology like AI for Repricing

Implement a repricing engine to adjust prices dynamically across different sales channels and countries. This technology ensures you always offer the optimal price point based on real-time market conditions and competitor pricing.

How AI-powered Pricing Helps Manage Large-Scale Operations

To manage product/service prices for an enterprise business, a strong pricing process should be in place. As the market becomes more dynamic, responses from the companies in changing prices should become more prompt to stay at par.

The Challenge of Scale

Managing large quantities of products means optimizing the prices of more than a million. Assigning this to even a large pricing team can be inefficient and may reflect errors.

Imagine managing 10,000 products across 30 sales channels in 10 different countries. This results in approximately 3 million daily price adjustments—a monumental task requiring sophisticated tools and strategies.

This is where you would need a smart pricing engine to monitor competitive prices and automate the price changes of millions of products to reflect across various online platforms.

The Importance of Automated Systems

To handle such a vast operation efficiently, automating the repricing and monitoring process is crucial. Automation not only saves time but also reduces the likelihood of errors, ensuring that your pricing strategy remains consistent and effective across all markets.

Effective price monitoring and optimisation are key to staying ahead in a marketplace crowded with competitors selling identical products. By understanding the competitive landscape through tools like EAN searches and leveraging AI-driven repricing technologies, you can ensure that your pricing strategy not only enhances revenue but also attracts more customers to your store. Stay proactive and adaptive in your approach to remain competitive in a global market.

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Table of Contents

Frequently Asked Questions
How to monitor competitor prices?

Here’s how you can monitor competitor pricing so you can set the optimal prices for your products:

  • Utilise EANs: Use European Article Numbers for accurate product comparisons across vendors.
  • Leverage EAN Search Tools: Use platforms like Amazon and Google Shopping for comprehensive price data.
  • Invest in Monitoring Software: Automate price tracking and receive real-time updates and analyses.
  • Regular Updates: Schedule frequent reviews of your price monitoring data to remain competitive.
  • Adjust Pricing Strategy: Use insights from monitoring to fine-tune your pricing based on competitor movements.
  • Optimise product visibility: Rank higher in search results on marketplaces like eBay and Google Shopping by monitoring competitor prices.
  • Setting profitable pricing: Set prices slightly above the lowest competitor to increase margins while remaining attractive to customers.
  • Timely price changes with repricing tools: Employ AI-driven repricing tools to adjust prices in real time, ensuring optimal pricing for profitability and competitiveness.

It means that businesses (often retailers) offer the same items to consumers, typically within the same geographical areas or through the same online platforms. This scenario is prevalent in sectors where products are standardised, like basic consumer goods, electronics with similar specifications, or generic pharmaceuticals. In such competitive markets, businesses often differentiate themselves through pricing, customer service, brand loyalty, and marketing strategies to gain and maintain customer interest.

How to differentiate yourself from competitors selling the same products?

In a market where other retailers are selling the same product, it becomes a bit challenging to set your store apart. But the major pressure falls on:

  • Marketing your store online and offline: You must list your products and your name as the seller in all the major online marketplaces like Amazon, Bol, and Google Shopping. Take advantage of the online front by making your product available everywhere.
  • Optimising your product pages across different marketplaces: The next step is to rank those product pages through clear product descriptions and instructions for usage, customer reviews, video tutorials, etc. The more structured information present, the more confidence the buyer gets to purchase from you. Also, it helps rank your pages well. This means you will appear before most other seller pages.
  • Setting profitable pricing: Now when you appear at the top with well-organised information, you can charge 1% or 2% higher than the rest as they would have more confidence in you. Customers perceive slightly higher prices to be reliable and expect a more authentic delivery and customer experience.
  • Using an advanced pricing tool to take charge: To set your pricing efficiently in the long run, it’s imperative to use a smart pricing tool. As new competition rises and other companies use pricing tools, pricing is becoming a tough challenge for multiple businesses. This is where an advanced pricing tool like tgndata comes into play.

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