No matter how good your product is, if you don’t set the correct price, no one will buy it. This is one of the reasons that setting the price is the most important aspect of any business. But setting the right price so that people will buy it and finding the lost land of Atlantis seem equally challenging.
Which is why investing in a good Pricing Intelligence Platform makes a huge difference. It lets your team gather, analyze, and act on pricing data in real time, so they can see how their competitors set prices and what the market is doing.
But it can be hard to pick the right pricing intelligence platform because there are so many different options in the market. This makes finding the right tool like finding a needle in a haystack. That’s why we’re going to go into great detail about Pricing Intelligence software and how to choose the best one in this article.
What are Price Intelligence Platforms?
Before you start picking price intelligence platforms, you need to know what they are and how they work. What they do is simple: they get information from the market about the prices of your competitors. But how does that help?
Well, businesses can use this information to change their pricing strategies so they can stay competitive in the market. Price intelligence tools are especially useful for online stores because prices can change quickly, sometimes more than once a day. These platforms let businesses:
- Track prices of your competitors.
- Analyse what trends are influencing the prices
- Set prices accordingly
Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a Price Intelligence Platform
Now that you understand what pricing intelligence platforms are and how they work, it’s time to understand how to pick the right one. The following checklist is mandatory for picking the right tool.
Type of Business and Industry Requirements
If there’s anything you should think about first before picking the right Pricing Intelligence platform, it’s the type of business you’re doing.
If you run an online store, for example, you need e-commerce tools that give you up-to-date prices and information about your competitors. Some fields, like retail, might need tools that can work with point-of-sale systems, while others might put more emphasis on analyzing large amounts of data.
Also, the size of your business is very important. A small business may not need an enterprise-level tool, but a big company may need a strong system that can keep track of thousands of products in different areas.
Data Accuracy and Frequency of Updates
The most important thing about price intelligence is that the pricing data is correct. Bad decisions can come from bad data, which can hurt your bottom line in the end.
So, good pricing intelligence platforms need to be able to fetch information from trustworthy sources and give you updates in real time.
Another important factor is how often the data is updated. Prices can change many times a day in fast-moving fields like electronics or fashion.
It might not be enough to have a tool that only updates its pricing data once a day. On the other hand, a daily update might be enough for industries where prices don’t change very often.
Competitive Intelligence Features
Price intelligence is all about pricing data, but the best pricing software also has features for competitive intelligence.
Competitive intelligence includes more than just prices; it also includes information about stock levels, marketing strategies, and even customer reviews.
You should look for a tool that not only keeps track of prices but also gives you a more complete picture of your competitors. For instance:
- Check out how much stock different competitors have.
- Watch what sales and deals your competitors are having.
- It tells you how your competitors are doing based on current data and market trends.
The more you know about your competitors, the better you can position your business in the market. Comprehensive competitive intelligence tools help businesses make smart choices about more than just prices.
Easy to use and integrate
What is the use of a tool which takes a decade to learn? If the tool is too complicated or hard to use, then forget helping your business grow; it would become a different hassle altogether.
This is why you should make sure the tool you choose has a simple interface so that your team can easily look at the data it gives you and take necessary action based on that.
Also, think about how well the tool works with the systems you already have in place. A good tool should be easy to integrate into your current working systems, making things easier for the team.
Customisation and Flexibility
If every business had the same way of doing things, there’d be no concept of ahead and behind. You need a pricing intelligence tool that lets you change things to fit your needs.
For example, you might want to keep an eye on your competitors in different areas, focus on certain types of products, or use different rules for dynamic pricing based on real-time data about your competitors. The tool should fit your needs, not the other way around.
It’s also important to be able to change the rules about how much things cost. Some tools let you set up automated rules that change your prices based on certain competitor data or market conditions. These are called rule-based pricing systems. These tools cut down on the amount of work you have to do by hand and make sure you stay competitive without having to keep an eye on things all the time.
Conclusion
With the rising competition in the market, setting the right price is important, because otherwise convincing people to buy is super difficult. Too high and no one would buy, and too low means you’re losing money. This is why businesses must invest in Pricing Intelligence platforms.
But simply picking a Pricing Intelligence Platform isn’t enough, you need to make sure it integrates well with your current systems, matches your business type, and is easy to use. Make a smart choice today!
