Competition is fierce in the world of ecommerce. 90% of people trust online peer recommendations over brand messages, so for a business operating in an industry with established competitors who already have the trust of customers, this can seem like a brick wall for new entries into the market.
A trend appears to be emerging wheree ecommerce sites are making use of monitoring software to keep track of their competitor's every move, such as when they change prices, when they introduce new products, or even when a certain item is out of stock. A handful of companies offering this service have cropped up in the last two years, and the battle is on to make people aware of the benefits of using such a service, and then getting them on board.
Such intelligence can allow almost any company to get in on the action. Being alerted of such information immediately allows you to react immediately. Online shoppers rarely purchase without at least some brief price research. If they find a cheap price, and as long as the company does not have any negative association, they will make the purchase.
Without competitor monitoring this would not be possible without manually checking prices in day out, which some companies do. But for a fraction of the cost of the labor time this used to involve, a much more efficient service can be utilized. In no way can manually price monitoring compare to a program that collects the information daily, sorts it into easily interpretable reports and deliveries it straight to your inbox.
The ability to monitor competitors on a daily basis can allow what was once 'small players' to now compete head on with the market leaders. Such competitive intelligence can have knock on effects on all areas of the business; continuing offering the best prices leads to increased sales, word of mouth, and most likely some organic SEO.
Price monitoring has now become an almost essential aspect of ecommerce for those operating in competitive markets. Popular uses of such are services are in sectors such as automotive parts, nutritional supplements, computer accessories and kitchen appliances.
Competitor price monitoring is becoming more and more widespread among ecommerce stores, so at least take the time to look into it.