The modern e-retail ecosystem is in a constant state of flux. Its ever-evolving nature means that businesses must now use advanced methods to reach their audiences and offer better products at better prices, or else they risk falling at the wayside.
Luckily, there are now advanced intelligence (AI) solutions available to eCommerce businesses that can help them stay relevant and competitive in their industry. These tools include pricing intelligence, product assortment and promotional insights, and together can help a business weather the storm that is the unpredictability and trend fluctuations within the online marketplace. Find out what competitive intelligence tools can offer your business, and why they are essential for its success.
Pricing Intelligence
The online retail space is booming, and there is no place where that is more evident than the online fashion world. We are in an age of fast fashion where consumers can browse thousands of products and purchase items in a matter of clicks. They can even receive an order the same day they purchased it. This fast fashion has meant it is near impossible for consumers to stay up-to-date with trends and the offerings of e-retailers, but it’s hard for the e-retailers, too. How can you remain on top of what your competitors are offering and ensure that you, too, are relevant to your consumers?
Price is the determining factor in online retail; consumers are less likely to be loyal to a specific website and will jump to a competitor if they can get what they’re after at a cheaper price. Therefore, in order to stay competitive in terms of your pricing, you need to know what your competitors are pricing their products at, at all times. But how is this possible when retail giants have millions of products and their price points are constantly changing? This is where AI-powered retail intelligence comes in.
AI-powered retail intelligence tools can aggregate big data on an enormous scale. It can continually crawl and analyse the pricing of your competitors’ products, as well as their shipping costs, stock levels, ratings, reviews and promotional offers. This means that you can have real-time insights into the state of their product catalogue so that you can make changes to yours accordingly.
Before you react to price fluctuations in the market, you should consider how low you’re willing to price your own products in order to beat your competitors. That being said, beating their price isn’t necessary, but matching their price is.Ensuring your pricing is competitive at all times is crucial for converting customers, and with the help of pricing intelligence tools, this is now possible.
Product Assortment Intelligence
Shopping for what you want is now easier than ever before. Consumers can simply type in a keyword or phrase into a search engine (for example, “men’s white t-shirt”) and be presented with innumerable product options.This means that whatever you are selling, you can be sure that your competitors are selling something similar – but how can you know for sure?
With the help of AI-enabled product assortment tools, you can monitor your competitors’ stock levels to uncover trends. For example, you may find that a certain product of theirs has gone viral on social media and is consequently selling out fast. Therefore, you can push your own version of the product and promote it on your website and on social media to capture the hype.
Product assortment intelligence can track trend forecasts and highlight the gaps in your product catalogue that could be costing you precious sales. This information is crucial, especially during busy shopping periods like Christmas-time, as online shoppers are impatient and ruthless. If they can’t get something from your website they will bounce to your competitor and buy from them instead. By leveraging AI-enabled product assortment intelligence you can stay abreast of all product trends in your industry. It gives your eCommerce business the chance to be one step ahead at all times, allowing you to adapt your digital strategy instantly.
Conclusion
The online retail space is saturated and fast-paced, and competition has reached fever pitch. It is now beyond human capacity to stay fully informed at any given time, and this is why competitive retail intelligence tools are so beneficial. Leveraging these effectively will yield a measurable impact on the top line and bottom line of your retailer business.
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