Why Repricing Software is a must for Amazon Sellers
Guest blog by Chris Dunne from RepricerExpress, an Amazon repricing software
What is repricing software?
Repricing software essentially allows Amazon sellers to automatically compare their product prices to those of competitors’ and adjust them accordingly.
Price is so intrinsically linked to your sales volume and product visibility on Amazon that sellers need to continually ensure their products are priced competitively. Doing this manually becomes almost impossible when you have hundreds or thousands of products—and so, repricing software steps in to automatically manage the prices of the seller’s products, adjusting them regularly to ensure they are well ranked and visible.
Sellers have to set their minimum and maximum sell prices for their products which the software never goes below or above. Within the price bracket, the repricing software automatically manages the prices and adjusts them every 15 minutes, with the overall intention of gaining a spot in the Buy Box or ranking highly in search results
What’s the Buy Box?
On the Amazon marketplace, both Amazon and third-party sellers are responsible for selling products, so for any given product, there are often tens of sellers trying to compete for the sale.
When a customer reaches the product page displaying product information, Amazon places one seller’s details and price in the Buy Box (they are known as the Buy Box Winner) which is the white box on the right hand side of the page. If the customer then clicks on the ‘Add to cart’ button, the sale goes to the seller in this box.
Because the Buy Box is so prominent and tied to the main ‘Add to cart’ button, any seller with placement in it, will enjoy many more sales of that product than sellers who do not have Buy Box placement.
In search terms, the Buy Box is effectively the first result of a customer’s search for a specific product, and the one that they are likely to click most to complete a purchase.
When you say, that a Buy Box Winner gets more sales, can you quantify that?
Yeah, sure. Amazon’s revenue last year was close to $80 billion and of that, more than $60 billion was directed through the Buy Box—and half of that was third-party Amazon sellers. With those figures, it’s clear to see why selling on Amazon and getting your share of Buy Box placement is so important for many online sellers.
How has repricing changed over the last few years?
With more and more sellers using repricing software it is very much becoming an essential part of your ecommerce business rather than a nice tool to have. Amazon’s new Subscriptions API means that sellers are able to filter their competitors with much greater control and only compete against similar sellers instead of reducing their prices against non-featured merchants and those who aren’t eligible for Buy Box placement.
As an example, you can choose to beat Amazon differently than FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) sellers and MFN (Merchant Fulfilled Network) sellers—you may need to be more aggressive on price competing against Amazon but actually price above MFN competition because your seller history and performance is much better. A question a lot of sellers are asking themselves now is, can they afford not to use repricing and survive in the increasingly competitive marketplaces out there.
How can l win the Buy Box on Amazon?
Your eligibility to win the Buy Box is tied to your performance as a seller and when you exceed Amazon’s standards you’ll obtain the Featured Merchant status—a prerequisite to Buy Box eligibility. When that’s in place, your placement within the Buy Box can be largely governed by price, which is why anyone seriously selling on Amazon needs to put repricing strategies in place to consistently maintain healthy sales.
What are the biggest fears of customers using repricing software?
The number one fear of sellers is that repricers can lower prices to as low as a cent or penny, but the truth is that sellers need to input their minimum and maximum sell prices before repricing begins—so if you set a minimum sell price for your baseball bat at $6 your price will NEVER get pushed below that, regardless of the competition. With repricing tools, you remain in control at all times of your prices.
In fact, a modern repricing solution will increase your prices where possible. Say your min and max prices for the baseball bat are $6 and $19 respectively and your current price is at its lowest because of your competition. Now if your competitor sells out of stock your repricer would push your price up to maximise your profits on any new sales—instead of continually selling at $6 it will jump to $19 so you’ll still get the sale (as your competitor cannot sell an out-of-stock item) but with an additional $13 profit.
There are so many myths about repricing software but the truth is, the practice has been going on in retail for decades, albeit in a different way. In any competitive market, you’re going to have to compete on price in some regard, particularly on a marketplace that is renowned for its competitive pricing, however, with a repricing solution, you get to compete on your terms where you can win.
Have you any advice on executing a repricing strategy?
Sellers should use a pricing strategy in line with their overall business strategy. It is important your repricing software allows you to decide who you want to compete with and also who you don’t want to compete with. There isn’t one quick fix for all sellers since everyone is different, but what you do get with a modern repricing solution is the ability to match your repricing rules to your own business, so you’re competing only where you can win a sale.
What features does RepricerExpress offer?
With RepricerExpress you get a super-fast repricing solution that:
- is really easy to set up,
- offers continuous and blazingly fast repricing,
- offers multiple ways to increase sales,
- allows you to compete with different sellers in different ways,
- can include or exclude specific sellers
- offers infinite customisation of your repricing strategies,
- can filter competition based on seller rating, feedback, shipping country and dispatch times,
- auto-enables price increases under common scenarios
- can run in Safe Mode (whereby you can try repricing without affecting your live marketplace listings),
- works across eight Amazon marketplaces, eBay UK and eBay.com.
- comes with a 15-day free trial.
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