How mid-season sales affect ecommerce?

15/11/2018

Angela de la Vieja

For those who haven’t noticed, the price war in which eCommerce is submerged does not stop. Price monitoring by all involved is inevitably necessary and finding the link between an attractive price to the customer, the benefits of the brand, and the competitiveness of the market is like looking for the holy grail. However, the path is becoming well-beaten and successful formulas that work, maybe just for some, are tested, fine-tuned, and perfected for others while also being adapted to their specific business needs.

However, there is one more factor that affects this task: the mid-season sales. Beyond the battle to continually offer the lowest price, the most attractive price, the one that generates more sales or better brand imagery, the continuous offers make a dent in the pricing strategies of online stores as well as in market perceptions by the users themselves. But let's look at this in more detail.

First, let's define what the mid-season sales actually are. These offers correspond to a period of discounts and promotions that take place during the season. These, a priori, do not respond to any criterion of tradition or to an outstanding date within the commercial scope. In fact, they emerge as an opportunity for dealers to get rid of the genre that will soon expire and from which they probably can get improved benefits now, rather than wait until the end of season. This is a phenomenon that is replicated, especially in consumer goods like fashion, jewellery and cosmetics. All products that are subject to trends.

This new season of 'imposed' discounts, by product evolution, makes markdowns practically merge with each other and is clearly noticeable in any autumn campaign. After the summer (with their unbeatable sales), new products reach the catalogues. Taking advantage of the month of September, discounts for the return to school encourage purchases. Later on, in October, the first mid-season sales appear. Subsequently, on November 11th, bachelor's day, the great Chinese shopping festival that in recent times has devastated the online market. And then what? Black Friday, which is now typically followed up by Cyber Monday. Then, right after, we’re into Christmas shopping, in which promotions are key to encourage the purchase of just one more gift. Of course, once finished, the rebates return, and the cycle begins again with the January sales, spring discounts, and then back to the summer sales where we started.

At this pace, eCommerce has practically no time to establish fixed prices for its products. Although the real price of each product must be engraved with fire in the mind of the seller (and in his pricing strategy), which sometimes makes it a very complicated process to transmit its true value to the user.

Any user who is accustomed to buy everything at a discount, practically never acquires a product for its real value in accordance with its costs of production, distribution and sale. In the same way, moving away from the perception of the true value of the product, it is the user himself who considers whether a product really is worth its cost. Could it be that its value is not what the brand indicates?

Establishing a price calendar, within your strategy, is vital for the eCommerce to be placed within the market dynamics. However, you should not lose the focus that which places you in front of your potential client, and while purchases are more and more social, it is important to feel close to the brand, promoting their safety and confidence to the seller.

According to many experts, the moral that eCommerce can extract from this imperious struggle for prices and discounts is that not that everything is worth sacrificing the brand. The pricing strategy of each online store must reflect its identity, its role in the market and its relationship with the user.

11/11/2022

Consumer behavior: How can behavior tracking be effective for setting the right pricing strategies?

Behavior tracking is becoming massively popular today. As a result, pricing strategies born from studying consumer behavior are a merchant's dream come true. If done right, it can conquer every market for the business quickly. With abundant data available, the strategic makeover of the pricing models is becoming easy for companies.

What is behavioral tracking, and how is the data beneficial in pricing?

For a quick understanding, behavioral tracking refers to gaining in-depth knowledge and insights into consumers through their web data. Their browsing habits, spontaneous decisions, shopping interests, and preferences come under behavioral tracking.

How can enterprises use customer behavior data?

Companies can use customer behavior data as a tool to strengthen their hold on the market. A customer’s preferences, values, and tendencies allow businesses to work in sync with them through the collected data. Apart from this, customer behavior can also aid in:

Tailoring customer needs for customer retention

Personalization is becoming the heart of a company’s growth. No matter in which area an enterprise is functioning, tailoring the services, products, and solutions is becoming increasingly crucial. Uniqueness and personalization attract the crowd like no other.

Increasing the overall value

One of the best ways customer behavior data affects a business is by upgrading the value of customers for the business. The customer’s characteristics allow the company to target the people that match the business prospects well.

Optimizing every type of content

Everything that is up for digital display requires content. You must have seen companies unveiling their products or services through advertisements and making the initial public appearance. Two essential sales strategies – upselling and cross-selling comes through content optimization.

Pricing Strategy

Last but certainly not least is the influence of customer behavior data on the pricing strategy. The pricing strategy essentially constitutes content derived from data analysis. Companies need to have a dynamic approach to the pricing system to attract the right customers.

17/02/2015

Saint Valentine’s Day, always a good opportunity

V-Day is looming, a long-awaited date for all and also a good occasion for the eCommerce. According the study conducted by Prosper Insights and Analytics, it is forecasted the average consumer expense that day will be the highest in last years. Furthermore, 25% of them will buy online, which means an increase of 4% regarding 2014 (The US department of Commerce). This is, therefore, a key date where market competitiveness increase and which could be assumed as a big opportunity for our business or, a big fail if we do not adopt the correct strategies.

How to turn this event into an opportunity? To achieve this goal, we need to adapt our prices to this hostile environment, i.e. we need to develop an appropriate Dynamic Pricing strategy that allows us to adapt our prices to the variations produced in supply and demand and to position us ahead of our competitors. In V-Day, the frequency in changes will be higher, carrying it out each hour or even each minute. It is estimated that 65% of leader retailers have the ability to respond quickly at these variations, such Amazon. For this reason, it acquires great importance the correct use of a software specialised in price motorisation of competitors. Do not miss the time and adapt your business to new adversities.

28/12/2022

Which are the best footwear marketplaces to sell on?

Footwear marketplaces are booming. The last decade has seen the launch of new specialized marketplaces with millions of different users. Among them are Spartoo, Sarenza and Farfetch, portals with international reach. Their main value is that they unite hundreds of footwear brands, as well as offering clothes and accessories. Although each has its own characteristics, they are all vertical marketplaces, i.e., they focus on a specific area, and their sales categories are interrelated. For sellers, these portals provide an opportunity to expand sales channels and drive the globalization of their e-commerce business. We explain how to sell on these footwear marketplaces so that you can assess whether they align with your plans for the future and then start defining a possible pricing strategy.