Price Sensing
HOW DO I GENERATE INSIGHTS INTO END USER PRICES?
You are not alone with this question! Particularly in times of rising prices, inflation, supply bottlenecks, and dampened consumer spending, many of our brand owners want more price transparency. Our answer: Price Sensing.
Our Smart Price Sensing solution consists of two parts:
First, as part of our long-term service, we scan all consumer prices available online – both from pdf formats that brick-and-mortar stores use to announce their offers, as well as from online stores and more.
On the other hand, our team integrates the end consumer prices into the backend systems of the consumer goods manufacturers via a single interface and sets up an automated process for management using Robotic Process Automation (RPA). As a result, the data is available exactly when it is published in the stores.
Want to see the look and feel? Take a look at our video!
COMPLEX BACKEND MANAGEMENT
Specialized service providers offer this information, but with significant drawbacks. As a rule, the offer is limited to a few countries and traders. Therefore, several third-party providers are usually needed at the same time to cover all desired markets and traders. In addition, the data is stored in the providers’ own databases as siloed solutions. This means that manufacturing companies have to work in the vendors’ databases and do not have an overall view of the action of a brand or product.
If the vendor provides its data in the form of a file, integration into back-end systems such as Trade Promotion Management (TPM), Demand Planning in Supply Chain Management (SCM) or Perfect Store Score analysis systems often fails due to the effort required for mapping with the vendor’s own master data. The licenses are also expensive and for this reason often limited to a few employees.
LONG-TERM INSIGHTS, ALSO FOR END CUSTOMERS
Part of the RPA process implemented in this way is the creation of a history in which the actions of the product manufacturer and those of the competition are documented. This can provide insights for further optimization of the company’s own promotional offers.
In the long term, price elasticities can be derived from sales and end consumer prices. This enables price recommendations to be made to retailers for future advertising measures and investments in promotions to be better balanced.
If there is also an app for end consumers, we also link this to the smart price solution. In this way, product manufacturers can also provide their users with up-to-date information on promotions at retailers, for example via Messenger.
ADDITIONAL BENEFIT: DEMAND SENSING
Through direct integration into the backend, price sensing provides an additional benefit as a demand-sensing method for the supply chain.
Since promotional sales prices have a significant influence on the sale of a product at retail, as do parallel activities by the competition, sales planners can use the real-time information to better estimate short-term demand and thus better optimize inventories and production processes. This optimizes inventory levels and procurement costs.
Field sales staff can also strategically plan their visits during a promotion, as promotion prices can be integrated into tour planning systems. In addition, prices are available from outlets that the sales force does not visit.
ADVANTAGES AT A GLANCE
- Up-to-dateness: The information is available as soon as it is published by the retailer
- Process optimization: In the backend, an interface provides all digitally available information from all countries and stores; RPA processes automate the workflows
- Transparency: The action events are visible to all business units in the company; the information comes from all outlets – even those not visited by the sales force
- Documentation: The price information is updated in a history over the long term. This can provide insights for further optimization of the company’s own promotional offers
- Demand sensing: Supply chain managers can estimate demand, plan better and optimize costs thanks to the comprehensive transparency
- Customer engagement: Apps for end consumers can be integrated into the information chain and customers can thus be actively informed about promotional prices in the retail sector