Competitor price monitoring 2022

Development of automatic competitor monitoring systems in 2022. Trend by region.

The global automated price monitoring companies market can be segmented by company, region types, and offerings. All players in the market in question have a significant advantage in 2022, as their price offerings are based on the reported data of all current competitors, which is a very powerful and informative resource!

Automated competitor monitoring systems have developed the most in the regions since the beginning of 2022:

North America (United States, Mexico, and Canada).
Middle East and African countries (United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, South Africa).
Europe (Germany, Ukraine, France, Italy, Russia, and the United Kingdom).
South American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and several others).
Asia and Pacific (Korea, China, Japan, all of South-East Asia, and India).

As for the development of monitoring systems in 2022 in Ukraine, this trend is confirmed not only by the number of retailers and manufacturers who use this software but also by the modernization of the systems in terms of functionality!

An example of parser 2022 is the software that has no limits either to the number of simultaneously tracked competitors, or to the number of projects*, or to the region of monitoring! It is possible to implement almost any functional module, and monitor not only prices but also promotions, content in the form of text or photo-video materials, promotions, discounts, product availability, and a range of other information!

*The term "Project" refers to a separate set of products and categories to be monitored. In 2022 it is possible to work simultaneously with several stores of different profiles and different assortment ranges!

Research purposes of the price monitoring system application

The competitor research report includes all market players by region and describes their market share based on global revenue! The strategic moves of the opponents in terms of pricing and customer relations are studied. As for the key tasks of today's parsers, the emphasis should be on:

Researching and targeting your entire market.
Identifying existing sub-segments of the market to understand its structure.
Identifying, describing, and analyzing the value of the product, its market share, and market competition, and making development projections for the next few years.
Forecasting the size of submarkets in relation to your specific business by key regions/countries.
Performing competitive developments analysis functions. This includes: expanding the product range, establishing new supplier agreements, launching new product lines, launching promotions, etc.
Performing strategic profiling of the main players and analyzing their development strategies.

Data on competitors' pricing strategies are obtained - what next?

Once all the competitors in the market have been identified and after the price analysis procedure has been completed (collection of information on the opponents is complete), the analysis phase of the data obtained comes in. What information is particularly important to consider:

Number of competitors. As the number of competitors selected for monitoring increases, the more you will be able to form a view of the market and adapt your price offer. More players monitored means more reliable statistics.
Range in the cost of goods. The indicators from minimal to maximal values are taken into account.
The "weight" of the competitor. This refers to the share occupied by your competitor in the thematic market.
The average cost of products.

As a result of a detailed analysis of the above information, the optimal price tag for the product in question is selected. It should not have minimal values, however, at the stage of its formation it will be necessary to take into consideration

the duration of the company's work in the market;
fame level of the brand whose products are offered by the store;
availability of similar products in active sale, as well as the value of sold products for the consumer.

If you are a player who is not part of the "top" of the market chain, you should focus on those products that are sold by strong players, because they have earned the trust of the customer. With this approach, it is advisable to set the price tag somewhat lower than the value set by the leaders.

Tasks and possibilities of the multifunctional module Helecos to optimize e-commerce in your area

Helecos software provides you with intelligent algorithms that quickly obtain a summary of competitors' prices, process and organize information from millions of web pages for an easy and productive data analysis.

What can we do?

Price Monitoring. The software allows you to analyze dozens of competitors simultaneously with the systematicity you specify. The necessary number of commodity items can be added to the comparison.
Comparison of your price offer with the competing seller. The whole parsing procedure is conducted online in a fully automatic mode without user participation. The only exception is the initial step - the process of setting up the monitoring system.
Stock monitoring and automatic customizable notifications. Using the platform it is also possible to be informed about the sales volumes of your opponents as well as to monitor your stocks in the warehouses.
Price Violation Notifications. You are informed about dumping at the moment it is detected by your competitor! In this case, depending on your settings, it is possible to automatically adapt prices on your site on the principle of a better offer for the customer.

The wide geography of Helecos allows you to work with companies without reference to a specific region or language version of the sales site!

Informative Helecos technical reports provide you with the possibility to make a right price offer

Knowing your competitor's politics gives you a chance to make a more interesting offer for your customer! The more information you get after the analysis, the better it will be for the development of your business!

The final document with the results of the monitoring by Helecos allows you

Make a detailed analysis of the prices and characteristics of the products sold by your competitor;
Monitor your competitor's promotional offers and special purchase conditions;
Monitor the general situation of prices and purchase conditions in the market;
To check and control individual points of sale of goods similar to your assortment;
Monitor the terms and conditions of dealers and suppliers to improve cooperation;
Check what remains of this or that product in the competitors' warehouses (if this information is available on the competitor's website).

We're talking about a program that takes competition to the next level! Whoever was the first to notice and react to price fluctuations - that's who wins the fight for the client!

The selection of marketing strategy is the next step in the analysis of the report!

The angle of movement, relative to existing competitors can be taken differently. In most cases, however, the marketing strategy may have several orientations:

Attacking. The main objective in choosing this growth strategy is to entice customers with a variety of "plushies" and a loyal pricing policy. This technique is most in demand for competing against weak opponents. The attacking strategy is a good source for business growth in this case.
Defensive. All decisions made in the course of the development of this strategy are aimed at retaining customers. The real technique is to work with competitors from the "top" of the market leaders - large stores, well-known brands and suppliers.

Regular monitoring of competitors will allow you to make timely decisions to stabilize prices without loss in turnover!

Professionally written software for price monitoring and the program made "by hand" - how not to be deceived and choose the quality service?

Today there are dozens of programs to monitor prices with different functional, working on different price lists and dramatically differing in the algorithm of action!

The main differences between professional services for price analysis are:

Geography of work. The availability of multiple language versions of the site, a portfolio of the company's work (completed cases), and the interface - all of these parameters indicate the level of the company providing the service.
Availability of functional plugins for different browsers. It is important that the application can equally successfully collect data from competitor sites on different browsers: Opera, Chrome, Firefox, etc.
Automation of functions. Helekos assumes the manual configuration of the service only when you start working with it. Further data collection is performed autonomously with instant notification of violations.
Ability to work simultaneously with multiple projects. This is one of the key factors that determine the price of the monitoring process. The more competitors and goods chosen for tracking, the higher the cost of parsing. However, services whose functionality does not imply tracking trends in several projects simultaneously, most often provide information of low quality.
Informative reports and delivery methods. When you turn to Helecos, the variability of data uploading looks as follows:
- Excel - the files are presented in "xlsx" format.
- Data unloading into CSV files.
- Exporting parsing results through API.

The professional approach of Helekos is also confirmed by the wide choice of data sources for further monitoring. Work is done with online stores, marketplaces, and price aggregators. Information can also be gathered from Google Shopping ads.

Increasing the company's competitiveness is just one of the reasons to turn to Helecos services

Using Helecos is relevant not only for large supplying companies in order to control MRP, but also for representatives of the retail market on any scale. The implementation of the software functionality in their work structure is especially justified in cases where:

You plan to expand. You open retail outlets in the form of physical branch offices or build up a network of stores to sell online - the growth of competitors is inevitable. It's important to bring the process of monitoring them to maximum automatism.
Expanding your product range. This process inevitably involves launching advertising campaigns and calibrating value propositions. The decisions made will only be effective if you have a complete understanding of your competitors' prices and strategies.
New players entering the market. As a rule, the initial stage of the operation is the most active for new sellers! The main goal is to pull down as many customers as possible with a "sweet" price tag.

Detecting violations of the pricing policy is only the first stage of the struggle! Next, everything depends on the work strategy chosen by the initiator of the monitoring.

How do you know which of your competitors to monitor and whose activities should not interest us?

Studying the prices of all the representatives of the market is not only pointless, but also a waste of money and time for analysis of unnecessary information! You should focus your attention on the following representatives in your segment:

Companies that operate in a similar market in the same price segment as you.
Businesses that are in an industry very similar to yours. For example, if you produce and sell "Dairy" yogurts, your competitors will be all vendors selling yogurts of other firms.
You should also take into account the activities of those organizations that trade in goods that meet similar needs of your customers. If we continue to talk about yogurts, the competing stores will be those that sell milk, sour cream, kefir and other dairy products.

A detailed study of representatives of each of these vendor groups will allow you to identify key competitors specifically for you, whose activities will need to be emphasized as you continue to monitor market trends.

Tools for blocking price-fixing in the market for the retailer

The stimulation of accelerated sales, attracting a new group of clients, sale of "stale" products, the banal repetition of all the changes of competitors with minimized prices - there can be many reasons for dumping, but there always will be! Automated price monitoring systems like Helekos can quickly identify price trespassers, but how do you counteract them?

The most common strategies for a retailer in this matter are:

Complain to the vendor. A price violator can deprive the retailer of bonuses, tighten the terms of service, or refuse to ship products at all.
Moving to a higher price segment. It is about switching the focus of work to products with higher added value.
Making arrangements among competitors for "fair" play. This solution can only work when there are a minimum number of competitors in the market.
Improve your offer. Generate your own unique offer for the customer with gifts, bonuses, guaranteed discounts on the next purchase, etc.

Helecos in the hands of the product manufacturer - program effectiveness and solutions that retailers can take against dumping

The fight against already established dumping can and should be done first and foremost by manufacturers! The control of MRTs is the most effective with the involvement of specialized monitoring systems like Helecos.

Algorithm of effective work of producer with the parsing program (4 steps):

Making a price list specifying MRTs and RRPs for all retailers offering your products.
Launch a price analysis procedure in online stores representing your brand for violations.
Identification of violators, followed by sending warning letters with a request to set prices at or above the recommended level.
Re-monitoring within an agreed timeframe. If the dumping on the sales pages persists, the following measures may be taken:
- If the seller participates in a bonus program, the cancellation of all his privileges takes place.
- An increase in the purchase price of products personally for the offender.
- Complete termination of the cooperation with the retailer.

Helecos - this is the maximum precision of the data provided, an efficient fight against dumping, maintenance of high margins for the products offered, and a permanent increase in clients, thanks to the optimal pricing strategy chosen!

Fast and competent price monitoring is 70% of successful growth for your company!

Yes, monitoring your competitors' pricing policy and quick reaction to market trends is not a guarantee of success! In addition to parsing your competitors' selling sites it is important to pay attention to the following factors:

Increasing thematic traffic in relation to your store.
The usability of the online store. In this regard, we should highlight such parameters as the speed of page loading, the well-constructed, attractive interface of product pages, and the optionality and informativeness of the main page of the site.
The possibility of completing a shopping cart without the need for registration and subscriptions.
The availability of online support services. This can be a connected messenger or feedback form for the client.
The availability of an adaptive version of the site for mobile devices.
The absence of interruptions in the functioning of the site when working with different browsers.
Availability of an advanced product search system.
Availability of a loyalty program for customers.
Plenty of content on the site with high-quality materials (text descriptions of products, illustrations, etc.).
The intuitive structure of the online store.

All this combined with competent price monitoring and detailed analysis of reports will allow you to build the most successful business in any field!