Competitive Pricing Analysis: Why You Need It

Your shopper, phone in hand, can easily compare your product’s price to the same product’s price in another store. The competition is a click away. Retail pricing is a strategic competitive decision. Competitive pricing analysis is a must-have capability for grocery retailers aiming to cultivate unwavering customer loyalty, safeguard price image, and achieve maximum profitability.

What is Competitive Pricing Analysis?

Competitive pricing analysis is the systematic process of gathering, meticulously reviewing, and strategically acting upon a wealth of competitive data.

This data encompasses not only prices but also promotions, product assortment, shipping options, ratings, images, and availability. As a retailer, you require robust market visibility to make informed, data-driven pricing decisions that resonate with your shopper and optimize outcomes.  

The days of occasional price checks or relying on “secret shoppers” for competitive data are long gone. Modern retail demands a sophisticated competitive intelligence platform.

This platform must excel at:

• Comprehensive Online Data Capture: Covering the vast and dynamic landscape of online competitor data.
• Product Matching Precision: Addressing the complexities of product matching, particularly in categories like fresh and private label, where variations and lack of standardized identifiers are common.  
• Real-Time Market Insights: Providing intraday information on market movements and competitor actions.

Retail Competitive Intelligence

ClearDemand’s approach to retail competitive intelligence goes beyond basic price tracking. We provide a holistic solution that empowers grocers to make strategic business decisions based on a deep understanding of the competitive landscape.

At its core, ClearDemand’s retail competitive intelligence involves:

• Granular Data Acquisition: Gathering all data on competitors’ pricing variants, product assortments, promotions, shipping options, and availability.  
• Intelligent Analysis and Interpretation: Bundling and analyzing this information to pinpoint competitive position, price index, price change history, and emerging opportunities within the market.  
• Strategic Action and Execution: Leveraging these insights to develop and execute effective pricing, promotion, and assortment strategies that drive profitable results.

In today’s retail environment, competitive intelligence has become increasingly sophisticated, utilizing data analytics, AI tools, social media, and historic data to gain deeper insights. This intelligence helps retailers optimize assortments, set competitive pricing, improve marketing effectiveness, enhance customer experiences, and ultimately drive growth.

Key Benefits of Competitive Pricing Analysis

Capturing competitive price data can be automated. Competitive intelligence offers a unique advantage where you get access to zip-code level data to account for all consumer preference drivers – from value and experience to availability and quality – and evaluate them against the competition.

Here are some of the top reasons retailers make competitive pricing analysis a cornerstone of their pricing decisions…

Price Image and Brand Loyalty: Shoppers notice and remember price gaps. Pricing something too high or too low can have a negative consequence on your price image. It could push your customers to competitors. Using competitive intelligence to analyze competitive pricing helps you track where you stand on critical products and make more informed adjustments to stay aligned with your strategy.

Enhanced Flexibility and Market Visibility: Since pricing isn’t static, you need adaptable competitive pricing data. With flexible data delivery, you can monitor competitor price moves and know when other grocers put products on promotion so that you can protect your margin and market share.  

Pricing Execution and Differentiation: Competitive price analysis isn’t about blindly matching prices; it’s about gaining a deep understanding of the market dynamics and identifying opportunities to differentiate your pricing strategy for maximum profitability. ClearDemand empowers you to set a unified pricing strategy, using quality data to inform your pricing.

Data-Driven Decision-Making: Make informed decisions based on the market. Replace guesswork with data-backed decisions. By analyzing pricing, promotion, and assortment data, you can identify both opportunities and risks, leading to more effective and profitable outcomes

ClearDemand for Competitive Pricing Analysis

ClearDemand empowers retailers with a robust pricing platform that integrates competitive pricing analysis into every aspect of your pricing strategy. Leverage machine learning and comprehensive data collection for profitable insights. Enhance collaboration between pricing teams, category managers, and merchandisers with a single source of truth. Align pricing and assortment decisions with your business goals. 

Staying competitive demands a proactive, data-driven approach. Competitive pricing analysis, powered by a pricing data and optimization platform like ClearDemand, offers retailers the tools to build a strong price image, foster customer loyalty, and maximize profitability.