An interesting article from the December 2011 issues of European Supermarket Magazine on competitor price monitoring systems for the FMCG retail sector caught our eye this week. It looked at the way in which retail buyers can use such price monitoring tools like ours to increase sales and profit margins. From a retailers perspective using them to renegotiate prices with suppliers also.

To share some of the very valid points from the article:

"As retailers across Europe struggle through the economic downturn, the supermarkets that are faring the best have a strong online presence. 

A well-designed eCommerce site eases the online shopping experience for customers, offering lots of products, images, a speedy ordering process and a speedy checkout. Of course, attached to having a reliable up-to- date product-intensive online store is the ability to monitor products against those of competitors.

While many purchasing managers still manually check off prices against the competitors, this labour-intensive task can take up to half the working day of a buyer. Enlisting the services of an online price monitoring supplier can reduce such manual tasks by up to four hours a day, freeing up vital time that can be used to negotiate better prices with suppliers, source additional lines, etc.

Armed with the valuable knowledge that a competitor is offering produce or a household product at half the price of what you are quoting online, retailers can go back to their suppliers to work on renegotiating a better price for their products. Where in the past, it may have been nearly impossible for a pricing manager to have all his competitors’ pricing to hand when sitting at his desk, the competitor price monitoring tool empowers these managers like never before.

As European grocers and manufacturers re- evaluate every area of their business to get through one of the toughest economic downturns in decades, even the most intensive technology-haters are realising that one area of retail that cannot be ignored is the world wide web. Having an attractive online store to convince browsers to buy your products is now an essential part of a retailers’ selling strategy. The ability to monitor your products against those of your online competitors makes perfect sense, and having an adequate system to do this is essential to reacting quickly to price rises or price reductions of your competitors. With the downturn expected to last at least another three years, the need to better negotiate prices with suppliers is critical to a supermarket’s budget. Enlisting the services of an online price monitoring provider will go a long way in helping retailers to grow sales and profit margins in the next few years."

We couldn't have put it better ourselves! Accounting for manual price and promotional monitoring really should be a thing of the past. That time can be much better allocated elsewhere in the business like being proactive with the results for example.

We offer multiple services within the monitoring remit from full database access to category reports covering a wide range of industries. 

Book a demonstration to find out more about the HiperCom Monitor service, specialising in retailer and FMCG promotional leaflet monitoring.