Competitor Price History – What It is and Why It’s Important?

Did you know that 94% of customers compare prices online before they make a purchase? So why as a business would you give them scope to consider your competitors’ products by sleeping on the power of tracking their price history? In the e-commerce space where every click has an impact and the preferences of your potential client bases or audience change fast, competitor monitoring is the real deal especially understanding how they price their products.

That’s because keeping a tab of your competitors' price history can help you predict market trends before they unfold, adjust your pricing in real-time to cut through in the competitive markets no matter what industry you're in and supercharge your sales. Research shows you can even boost your profit margins by 10% using this strategy as 79% of customers compare prices online and consider it as one of the most important factors when making purchasing decisions.

Want to know all about competitor price history, what it is, its importance and how can you do competitor price comparison? Read along.

What is Competitor Price History and How Can It Be Helpful?

Competitor price history is simply the name given to systematically tracking and analyzing the changes or fluctuations in your competitors’ product or service pricing over a certain period. As a business, this can help you get insights about how your customers price their offerings, and some trends related to how they increase or decrease their prices, especially around certain times so you can price your offerings competitively and get a thorough idea of the market and consumer behavior.

For example, notice that a certain competitor offers promotional discounts or usually lowers their prices during festive or end-of-season times. In that case, you can adjust your business’ pricing accordingly so you don’t miss out on sales.

Importance of Competitors' Price History

Competitor price comparison or history can help your business in many ways including:

Informed Pricing Decisions

By tracking the historical price data of your competitor businesses, you can set competitive prices that attract your customers while also increasing your profitability. For example, by offering discounts around the same time as your competitor or some time before, you can make great sales even with reduced prices. Let’s say you sell a product for 50 dollars and you keep it the same while your competitor offers the same product for 35 dollars during sales. Now, if you don’t reduce your pricing, your customers might end up buying their product whereas if you adjust promptly and even offer a minimal discount of five dollars your customers will buy your products. That’s how sale psychology works, research shows consumers are more likely to buy your products when they see a sale or document badge.

Market Trend Insights

Tracking price history can help you identify emerging trends before they become noticeable to others. For example, if your price history data reports a steady increase in prices for a specific type of product, this can give away about the rising demand or the reduced supply.

Enhanced Competitive Positioning

Understanding how your competitors price their products can help you position your offerings more effectively. As we discussed, if your competitor raises prices on a popular item, this can let you choose to maintain or slightly decrease your price to seize some market share rather than completely miss out on sales.

Improved Profit Margins

By finding that sweet spot between competitiveness and profitability, you can easily avoid setting prices of your offerings that are too low or way too high. One study found that as much as 67% of consumers hold competitive pricing in high regard when they’re shopping online, which highlights the importance of strategic pricing.

Article Source: https://www.priceintelguru.com/article/competitor-price-history-what-it-is-and-why-its-important