You already know repricing is powerful stuff. Done right, it wins sales, boosts visibility, and can turn even modest sellers into marketplace heavyweights. But when repricing gone wrong, you’re essentially giving away money – or worse, you’re losing it without even realising!
To help you steer clear of costly errors, we’ve rounded up the top five repricing mistakes sellers make and – even more importantly – how you can dodge them.
Mistake 1: Over-repricing leading to a race to the bottom
We get it, competition is fierce, and the thrill of winning the Buy Box is nigh on irresistible. But hear us out: constantly lowering your prices in a knee-jerk reaction to your rivals’ moves means you’ll find yourself stuck in a downward spiral, cutting deeper and deeper into your profits.
‘Over-repricing’ might temporarily boost your visibility or sales volume, but this triumph is short-lived. When your strategy revolves around price alone, your customers come to expect perpetual discounts, so you’ll find it very difficult to return to healthier margins later. It’s not just you who suffers either, because when sellers race to the bottom, entire categories lose profitability, and market stability goes out the window.
Mistake 2: Ignoring minimum price thresholds and fees
Imagine waking up to find you sold your most valuable inventory for pennies because you forgot to set a minimum price. This total nightmare sounds extreme, but this scenario’s more common than you think.
You see, when you ignore or underestimate marketplace fees, shipping costs, storage charges, or hidden expenses, your profit margins suffer. If you don’t clearly define these thresholds, your repricing strategy can quickly eat into profitability.
Forgetting minimum price thresholds can turn your marketplace business into an unintended charity. Constantly selling at break-even (or worse, at a loss) means you’re trading hours of hard work for zero reward. This is how even the hardest-working, best-intentioned sellers can find themselves driven out of the market altogether.
Mistake 3: Failing to monitor competitors effectively
Flying blind is never a winning strategy, and that’s never so true as in the lightning-paced world of online selling. Without properly tracking your competitors, you’re effectively guessing prices rather than strategically setting them. Competitor activity shifts rapidly, and if you’re unaware of these changes, you’ll be left in the dust at critical moments.
Effective competitor monitoring involves a lot more than just glancing at prices from time to time. You need insight into pricing patterns, stock availability, promotional strategies, and market positioning. Why? Because without this deeper understanding, you risk reacting too late to shifts that could cost you sales or profit margins.
Mistake 4: Using outdated or slow tools
Slow and outdated repricing tools simply can’t keep up with eCommerce’s fast twists and turns. If your repricer only occasionally updates prices, you’re leaving money on the table. Prices on marketplaces like Amazon can change multiple times per hour, and being even slightly behind means losing potential sales.
This is why it’s simply not true that any tool is better than no tool. Repricers that run at snail’s pace can actively harm your marketplace performance. Competitors will continually beat you to price changes, snagging the Buy Box and scooping up sales that should have been yours.
Another problem with outdated repricing solutions is their inability to factor in real-time market shifts, competitor stock availability, and evolving customer behaviour. This means they leave you flying blind, unable to respond rapidly to opportunities or threats, ultimately hindering your growth potential.
Mistake 5: Not aligning repricing with long-term goals
Getting the Buy Box is key, of course, but repricing is about so much more than that – and if your repricing strategy isn’t aligned with your broader business goals, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Without clear long-term objectives, repricing becomes a series of reactive decisions rather than a thoughtful strategy.
For example, aggressively cutting prices might give you a temporary spike in sales…but at what cost? If your long-term goal is building brand value and customer loyalty, a stream of rock-bottom discounts can undermine that objective – just as sticking to consistently high prices might preserve margins but will sacrifice market share and growth.
How to dodge the mistakes and reprice like a pro
Repricing can propel your online business to the next level – but only if you avoid common pitfalls.
To recap, always remember these five simple steps to steer clear of repricing mistakes:
- Swerve the race to the bottom. Set strategic repricing rules that protect your minimum price, avoiding a perpetual price war and safeguarding your profits.
- Factor in all costs and fees. Always factor in total costs when setting your minimum prices, so you’re never selling at a loss.
- Monitor competitors closely. Opt for automated tools that track competitor prices and stock levels, enabling informed and proactive repricing decisions.
- Use real-time repricing tools. Choose a repricing solution that updates prices in real-time, ensuring you never miss a market shift or sales opportunity.
- Align with your long-term goals. Set repricing rules aligned with your long-term business objectives, where each price adjustment supports your overall strategy.
Ready to leave costly errors behind?
Repricer delivers real-time price adjustments, smart competitor analysis, automated stock-level tracking, and intuitive rules that align perfectly with your business strategy – keeping you ahead without breaking a sweat.
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