Being ahead of the curve in business is not just about making more money than others. You also have to stay ahead in terms of pricing. You have to monitor price drops, increases, promotions and discounts. This might seem like a lot of research, but there are price comparison websites that can help your business.
Price comparison is the act of comparing the prices of products or services across different sellers, brands, platforms and merchants. It helps you make informed purchasing decisions.
For small to medium enterprises (SMEs), leveraging a price comparison platform will not only help your pricing strategy or stay ahead of other SMEs, but it can also help you compete with bigger businesses.
In this article, we look at price comparison websites that can help your business and where to find them.
What Is The Purpose Of Price Comparison?
Price comparison is more than just a tool to help you set pricing for your product or service, it can help you with market research and competition analysis. You can use it to look at how your competitors are pricing their products or services, giving you an insight into their marketing strategy. Additionally, it can help you identify any pricing gaps you have and help you make decisions that keep you competitive in the market.
You can make price comparisons by using a website/platform or you can do it manually by going to stores and noting their prices.
Benefits of Price Comparison
Price comparison is as important to businesses as it is to consumers. Your customers know if you have priced something lower or higher than your competitors. It’s important that you understand the benefits of doing price comparison.
Some of the benefits of looking at prices include:
Competition Analysis: Keeping note of your competition’s prices can provide you with insight into the market. This is especially important if you are just starting your business.
Price Optimisation: Price comparison ensures that you have priced your products or services correctly. If your prices are too high people won’t pay you and if they’re too low, you won’t make a profit. Conducting a price comparison can help you strike a good balance between affordability for customers and maintaining a good profit margin.
Business Positioning: Analysing the prices of your competitors can help you position your business as either high-end, mid-range or budget-friendly. Once you have positioned your business pricing accordingly, you can then attract a specific target market.
Customer Retention: Price comparison will help you set the price for your target market accordingly. It will also help you ensure your pricing stays consistent for your market and ultimately help you keep your customers happy. Additionally, you can also attract potential customers with correct pricing.
Finding New Opportunities: Price comparison can help you identify new pricing opportunities. If you have multiple products or services, you can price some as high-end and some as budget friendly. You can also see where you can offer new products or services and price them higher due to demand.
Now that you know the benefits of price comparison for your business, let’s look at some of the price comparison websites/platforms available to you.
Price Comparison Websites For Businesses
Google Shopping
Google Shopping is a price comparison website. It works by displaying product listings while allowing D2C (direct to customers) to hit their audiences based on location, product title, features, descriptions, availability and more.
All the Google Shopping products are displayed in Google Search results and can be integrated into Google Ads.
Connexity
Connexity (previously Shopzilla) allows you to search and compare prices on a variety of products across various categories. The platform also allows you to connect with potential customers who are looking for products.
ShopSavvy
ShopSavvy is a shop comparison platform designed for smartphone use. The website shows product prices for the same or similar products online or at local retailers using a price match tool. Additionally, ShopSavvy can alert you to which stores have the most products in stock.
Yahoo! Shopping
Yahoo! Shopping has a price tracker tool designed for comparing prices. The platform allows you to create your desired products to help you track price history and track pricing over time. The platform can also show you deals and discounts for various products.
These are the best platforms for price comparison. They each have different features that you can utilise for your own business as a pricing comparison tool.
Remember, comparing prices is great for your business outside of being better than your competition. It will help you stay ahead, create a comprehensive product pricing range and help you keep a balance between good pricing for customers and making a profit.
For actionable business help, visit SME Advice to book an appointment with one of our experts.