Repricing on marketplaces : Implementing a price update strategy

Price is one of the key criteria allowing you to sell more efficiently on marketplaces. The latter represent close to a third of all e-commerce revenue; it is therefore essential to always be up-to-date in terms of pricing. As such, a repricing strategy is necessary. What is its goal?

A repricing strategy consists in updating product prices on marketplaces, on a regular and/or occasional manner to adapt to a specific situation. This kind of strategy needs to be carefully thought-out…

To face competition. Marketplaces are extremely competitive environments, and successful retailers are constantly readjusting their prices. This is a prerequisite to ensure better product referencing in search results, as they appear in increasing order of price.

To win the “Buy Box”. On marketplaces, winning the “Buy Box” means you can add the “Add to basket” button to your product page, and thus encourage buyers to make a purchase. To obtain it, your service quality / low price ratio needs to be good, which requires you to adjust your pricing policy according to what competitors are offering.

To optimise margins. An online retailer’s success on a marketplace is not measured based on the number of products sold, but on the margins they manage to create. A suitable repricing strategy will help you preserve the highest possible margin for each product, whilst ensuring maximum visibility – and win the “Buy Box” at all possible occasions.

Elaborating a repricing strategy on marketplaces means running price intelligence operations to check competitors’ prices. Lots of solutions currently offer this service, such as Market First, Multiply or Priceintelligence. This kind of strategy also implies readjusting prices quickly for all products concerned and throughout all marketplaces – and thus requires an efficient flow management tool such as Lengow.