PriceSpider e-Commerce Connected

What is an ASIN on Amazon?  What is a Rogue ASIN on Amazon?  Are Rogue ASINs harming your brand?  What are they doing to your AMS spend?  What are Rogue ASINs doing to your digital footprint?  In today's eCommerce Connected Episode we discuss what Rogue ASINs are and what to do about them. Email us at mapminute@pricespider.com with questions or comments.  Please book time for a deeper dive 1:1 discussion here: https://go.pricespider.com/map-minute-monday

In this episode of PriceSpider Ecommerce Connected we’ll talk about the Big news from Amazon and how your brand will be affected and benefit from it as they make all third party sellers on their marketplace public. There are three challenges outlined below…listen to the Podcast as we explore these challenges and discuss key strategies […] The post How Brands Can Win as Amazon’s Third Party Seller Database Goes Public appeared first on .

Relationships between retailers and manufacturers can often become tense. As they each try to protect their margins and do what’s best for their customers, they can start to feel more like competitors than partners. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In this episode of Ecommerce Connected, host Anthony Capozzoli talks with Sean Dawes, co-founder of Modded Euros, an online retailer for aftermarket European automotive parts. Sean and his team have made some innovative choices about how they partner with brands, and it’s allowed Modded Euros and their brand partners to thrive. They share unique data and insights with partners to help direct research and development. They fight for their brands. Here’s why. If manufacturers lose their margins, retailers lose, too One of the big challenges of ecommerce today is that small, bootstrapped sellers can dropship products from established brands with little or no operating costs. They aren’t interested in the brand’s integrity or even their own scalability or long-term profitability. So they slash prices deep into their own margins, and they have no problem violating pricing policies. Sean says, “You have these people that are trying to make a quick buck, so to speak, and it causes market devaluation of that brand.” As retailers try to compete with these sellers, they’ll often put the onus on the manufacturer and demand better margins, which hamstrings the brand’s ability to invest in research and development, or to improve their price. “At the end of the day, if manufacturers don’t have any margins and retailers don’t have any profit, the businesses are ultimately going to die,” Sean says. “So for us, by protecting margins and protecting our profit and our partners’ profit, in this case being the manufacturers, we’re ensuring a long-term business relationship. A long-term healthy business relationship means we can grow, we can provide and invest into areas that improve our customer experience.” So instead of strong-arming potential brand partners, Modded Euros takes initiative and actively hunts down these bootstrapped sellers in Facebook groups, Instagram, and other social media channels where they can often be found arranging private deals and violating pricing policies undetected. The brand can then choose to clean up their channels and enforce their policies, or Sean and his team are comfortable passing on the partnership. It takes work, but as a major ecommerce retailer, Modded Euros has a lot more resources to throw at the problem than most manufacturers, and it ultimately benefits both them and their partners.  Sean says, “You can invest into better customer service, better website experience, maybe better policies, faster shipping rates, all these things that improve the customer experience and the manufacturer can improve not only designing new products, they can spend money into R&D, but they can improve current products. Or maybe if they start doing a little bit more volume, they can improve pricing.” Retailers can identify gaps their brand partners can fill While brands usually don’t get much visibility into how their target market behaves on a retailer’s site, Modded Euros has seen a lot of ways in which being generous with their data empowers them to provide a better customer experience. “We have a lot of traffic, we have a lot of transactions, so there’s a lot of data for us to leverage,” Sean says. “We’re able to see what customers want to buy and we’re also able to see customer feedback on products, whether it be by brand, by type, and this goes back to shape, color, all the different features of each individual category.” This allows Modded Euros to help their brand partners develop new product lines and fill gaps in the customer experience, filling out Modded Euros’ catalog and giving their best manufacturers some easy wins. “If there’s nobody in that exact niche that we needed a product for, [we’ll] go to a brand that’s one of our strong partners and say, ‘Look, I think you need to develop this and this is what you need to do. You need to be at this price point. This is how it needs to be designed and let’s work together to penetrate that little sector of the marketplace for you.’” Learn more on our podcast Anthony Capozzoli lends his ecommerce expertise in our podcast, PriceSpider Ecommerce Connected. This episode features an exclusive interview with Sean Dawes from Modded Euros. Sean and Anthony discuss how Modded Euros advocates for their brands and promotes healthy competition. Check it out! Tune in on Apple Podcasts or subscribe on Android to get the full episodes. The post Why This Retailer Fights for Their Brands appeared first on .

Relationships between retailers and manufacturers can often become tense. As they each try to protect their margins and do what’s best for their customers, they can start to feel more like competitors than partners. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In this episode of Ecommerce Connected, host Anthony Capozzoli talks with Sean Dawes, […] The post Why This Retailer Fights for Their Brands appeared first on .

What does a good pricing policy look like? Unfortunately, many manufacturers simply turn to Google or their competitors’ policies to answer this question, and what they find often creates a new problem, rather than a solution to their pricing issues. Michael Murphy, an attorney from K&L Gates and our latest guest on the Ecommerce Connected podcast, says, “What they usually end up with is an illegal price-fixing agreement that does very little, if anything, in the marketplace.” Pricing policies are complex legal documents. And in order to solve your problems with price erosion or remove your unauthorized resellers, your policy needs to be specific to your brand. In this episode of Ecommerce Connected, our host Anthony Capozzoli sits down with Michael Murphy and draws from his experience with manufacturers around the globe to talk about what makes pricing policies work. Michael explains that there are three pillars of successful pricing policies, and digs into the first one. Create an authorized dealer program In conversations about pricing policies, you’ll often hear people talk about an ADP, or authorized dealer program. Developing one is crucial to creating a successful pricing policy, because it allows you to choose which sellers you’ll allow to sell your products and where and how they can sell them. This ensures you only wind up working with sellers who help your brand, and increases the likelihood that your sellers will actually respect your pricing policy. Michael describes an ADP as a program “where you as a manufacturer are actually getting transparency and control over who’s selling your products and where they’re selling them, especially online. I always say without control, you’re never going to be able to achieve the sustainable and predictable dealer margins in the marketplace that you’re looking for.” It’s basically just a formal process for vetting potential online sellers and considering how they’ll impact your brand before you start doing business together. “So for instance, someone can apply and say, ‘Hey, listen, I sell on Amazon. I sell on eBay, I sell on Jet. I sell on my own independent website and I want to sell all your products there.’ And you have a right as a manufacturer to say, ‘OK, let’s look at these marketplaces.’ I don’t know, maybe you don’t want anyone selling your products on eBay so no one’s allowed to sell on eBay. Maybe you’re okay with it. You let them sell on eBay, but maybe you already have five or ten guys on Amazon and you don’t want any more.” With a little strategic planning, you can create an arrangement that serves both your brand and your retailers better in the long run. But there’s a lot more to it than that. Don’t miss the rest of what Michael has to share on this episode of Ecommerce Connected. Learn more on our podcast Anthony Capozzoli lends his ecommerce expertise in our podcast, PriceSpider Ecommerce Connected. This episode features an exclusive interview with Michael Murphy, an antitrust lawyer with K&L Gates. Michael and Anthony discuss the three pillars of successful pricing policies and focus on why creating an authorized dealer program is so crucial. Check it out! Tune in on Apple Podcasts or subscribe on Android to get the full episodes. The post The First Pillar of a Successful Pricing Policy appeared first on .

What does a good pricing policy look like? Unfortunately, many manufacturers simply turn to Google or their competitors’ policies to answer this question, and what they find often creates a new problem, rather than a solution to their pricing issues. Michael Murphy, an attorney from K&L Gates and our latest guest on the Ecommerce Connected […] The post The First Pillar of a Successful Pricing Policy appeared first on .

A lot of brands see a minimum advertised pricing (MAP) or unilateral pricing (UP) policy as the best way to correct price discrepancies and protect their margins. But creating a pricing policy is only part of the solution. And if you execute it poorly, a pricing policy can actually do more harm than good for your brand—because it puts your integrity under scrutiny. In this episode of Ecommerce Connected, PriceSpider’s host Anthony Capozzoli sits down with Bill Johannesen, founder of Vision Werks and one of the chief architects of Bose’s well-known unilateral pricing policy, to talk about where brands often go wrong with pricing policies and how you can get them right. “Implementing a MAP policy’s either the best thing you ever did for your brand or the worst,” Bill says. “There’s no middle ground on this.” Here’s why. It’s only the playbook If you can follow and enforce your policy, it ensures every customer has the same perception of and experience with your brand, and your retail partners will respect and trust you. But if you expect your policy to take care of itself and you don’t enforce it, it quickly becomes meaningless—and it may cause retailers to distrust everything else you do and say”. Your pricing policy sets expectations, tells your sellers what to do with your products, and defines how you’ll respond to violations. It lays out the plays. But you still have to execute them. If you don’t follow the playbook, your retail partners won’t be able to take you seriously. It may require you to make big changes Right now, you may not have the distribution channels, supply chain, infrastructure, bandwidth, or budget you need to act on your pricing policy. Before you tell your sellers you’re going to hold everyone accountable, you need to be ready to actually do that. One of the most glaring examples of where this often falls apart for brands is the Amazon Marketplace. “Amazon, quite frankly, is a magnifying glass on the holes in your supply chain, on the holes of your distribution strategy, on the holes of your channel strategy,” Anthony says. When you let anyone with a pulse sell your products, you may wind up with sellers who don’t even see your pricing policy before they start selling, numerous product bundles, sellers you can’t contact, and other issues that make it difficult to enforce your policy and stay true to your word. It needs to be someone’s responsibility If no one is in charge of enforcing your pricing policy, it’s simply not going to happen, and your policy becomes a meaningless document. Anthony says, “A lot of brands I talk to are like, ‘Well, we don’t have anyone at all dedicated to helping us solve this problem towards MAP.’ Or, ‘We’ll let the intern do it. They’re here for a couple of months in the summer.’” But this isn’t a “task” someone can do once and then ignore. Price monitoring is an ongoing responsibility. “It’s a process, not a project,” Bill says. If you’re inconsistent, your MAP policy does more harm than good Brands often find themselves in a difficult position: numerous sellers are violating their pricing policy, but they don’t have contact information for many of them. So, they enforce their policy with the brands they can contact. “There’s the retailer sitting there, you’re sending him violations, because he’s just trying to compete,” Bill says. “He’s just trying to look good to his customers that he’s not getting his butt kicked on your product in the visible marketplace out there. So, what’s he supposed to do?” That seller doesn’t have much choice. Their competitors (whom you can’t contact) are going to continue violating your policy and beating them in sales. So they’re going to have a frustrating experience with you and they’re going to keep violating your policy to compete. Inconsistently applying your policy can get you into legal trouble and ruin your credibility with your best sellers. And that means you need to be strategic about who can sell your products and always make sure you have a channel to enforce your policy. Using a robust monitoring tool, you can identify those unknown sellers, which allows you to then determine where they’re getting supply and stop distribution to them. Learn more on our podcast Anthony Capozzoli lends his ecommerce expertise in our podcast, PriceSpider Ecommerce Connected. This episode features an exclusive interview with Bill Johannessen from Vision Werks. Bill and Anthony discuss common misconceptions and challenges surrounding pricing policies, and explore the solutions that have worked for brands like Bose. Check it out!   Tune in on Apple Podcasts or subscribe on Android to get the full episodes. The post Why a Pricing Policy Can Make or Break Your Brand Integrity appeared first on .

A lot of brands see a minimum advertised pricing (MAP) or unilateral pricing (UP) policy as the best way to correct price discrepancies and protect their margins. But creating a pricing policy is only part of the solution. And if you execute it poorly, a pricing policy can actually do more harm than good for […] The post Why a Pricing Policy Can Make or Break Your Brand Integrity appeared first on .

When consumers think of your brand, what kind of experience, quality, and value do they associate with your name? When your store or website is the only point of sale, you have a lot of control over your customers’ experiences. But when you work with retailers, that’s not always the case. Every retailer you work with directly impacts your brand equity–for better or for worse. In this episode of Ecommerce Connected, PriceSpider’s VP of sales Anthony Capozzolli sits down with Bill Johannesen, founder of Vision Werks and one of the chief architects of Bose’s well-known unilateral pricing policy to talk about brand equity. Here are some of the tips they have for brands. Create a specialty product While your brand equity encompasses far more than your product, your product is where it all starts. Having a specialty product that serves your target audience either in unique ways or better than anyone else gives you more power in your relationships with retailers. They want to sell your products because they know their customers want them–and if they don’t carry your products, they’re going to lose sales to their competitors. If retailers feel like you’re getting more out of the relationship than they are, they’re not going to be as cooperative when you start trying to fine-tune how they sell your products. Choose the right retail partners Since every retailer impacts your brand equity, one of the most important things you can do to build and preserve your brand equity is to make sure you only do business with retailers who support your brand. That means both being selective about who you allow to carry your products and requiring your partners to sign a reseller agreement that formally defines how they need to support your brand. Unauthorized sellers don’t care about your brand or your goals. They only care about short-term sales. And your pricing policy isn’t going to change their behavior. If brand equity is important to you, you need to choose retail partners whose go-to-market plan aligns with your own, and who create the same kinds of customer experiences you want people to associate with your brand. Can you trust them to use your assets and messaging when they advertise and display your products? When a seller provides a bad experience putting your products in people’s hands, or creates a different perception of your brand, that hurts your brand equity. Control the message If you want consumers to have a specific perception about your brand and associate you with particular qualities, you need to control how your brand and your products are presented by retailers. You need tools (like Brand Monitor) to see how well retailers are following your brand guidelines, so that consumers have the same experience with and perception of your brand everywhere it appears. Preserve your brand equity Odds are, right now you have some sellers who are generating sales but hurting your brand. A lot of manufacturers are hesitant to get rid of these harmful sellers out of fear that they’ll lose sales. But Anthony and Bill argue that even when there are personal relationships involved, brands need to take the plunge and cut ties with these sellers. Not only are they holding back your brand equity, but they’re often actually decreasing your overall sales as a result. Bill and Anthony have often seen brands quickly regain (and even increase) sales when they cut ties with bad sellers. This typically happens because those sellers were eroding trust in your brand and your credibility as an organization. You were associating your brand with low-quality sellers. When you cut ties with those sellers, you may find that your best retail partners are eager to pick up the slack.  Building and protecting your brand equity isn’t something you should plan to do down the road, or when you reach a particular size. Anthony hears brands say they’re waiting until they grow, and to that, he says: “It’s probably easier to tame the cub than the tiger anyway.” Learn more on our podcast Anthony Capozzoli lends his ecommerce expertise in our podcast, PriceSpider Ecommerce Connected. This episode features the first of many interviews with Bill Johannessen from Vision Werks. Check it out! Tune in on Apple Podcasts or subscribe on Android to get the full episodes. The post Brand Equity in the Digital Age: How to Fight for Your Brand Online appeared first on .

When consumers think of your brand, what kind of experience, quality, and value do they associate with your name? When your store or website is the only point of sale, you have a lot of control over your customers’ experiences. But when you work with retailers, that’s not always the case. Every retailer you work […] The post Brand Equity in the Digital Age: How to Fight for Your Brand Online appeared first on .

Ratings & Reviews are a key source of information that help drive purchase decisions. They are two of the main signals consumers use to determine the quality of a product they see online. Since they can’t physically hold your products or test them out (and returning something they bought online usually isn’t as convenient as going to the store), they want to be confident they’re getting a product that will meet their needs. Branding is obviously an important factor that helps you stand out among the competition. But when it comes to online retailers, being the most well-known brand isn’t the only way to stand out. Established brands constantly get beat by up-and-comers with good reviews. If you want to win in your product category and maximize conversions, here are three things you need to know about ratings and reviews. 1. An average rating under four stars will cost you sales It’s impossible to please everyone. Some consumers give low reviews because of a bad shipping experience, a poor experience with the retailer, or other factors that have nothing to do with you or your products. That can’t be helped. And savvy shoppers learn to mentally filter out these kinds of reviews. But once your overall rating dips below four stars, it sends a signal to your potential customers: a lot of people have not been happy with this product. And if it sinks too close to three stars, that makes purchasing your product feel like a gamble: they’re just as likely to have a poor experience as a good one! A low average rating is a problem you need to proactively address. If the problem is retailer specific—meaning you have lots of great reviews on Amazon, but only a handful of mediocre ones at Walmart, it might mean that you just need to focus on soliciting reviews from Walmart customers, and the problem will resolve itself over time. Depending on the retailer though, low ratings associated with a particular seller could be a sign that they aren’t representing your brand well, and that you should reconsider whether you want them to be a retail partner moving forward. But maybe there’s something that’s consistently coming up in negative reviews. A flaw in the product or a feature people were expecting. That’s something you need to correct if you want to see your reviews improve. This could include updating the product description to make sure there is no confusion to the customer of what they’re buying. (By the way, you can use our Ratings & Reviews tool to see what your negative reviews have in common.) 2. Consumers don’t trust a low number of reviews When a consumer looks at your ratings and reviews, they’re looking at the subjective opinions of random strangers. They have little reason to trust a single review, whether it’s good or bad. A higher review volume brings credibility to the product and the overall brand. Sometimes the context of that review helps build trust—maybe someone mentions they’ve been a roofing contractor for 20 years. Or an electrician. A hair stylist. Or they have some other experience that’s directly relevant to their ability to assess the product in question. But sometimes people don’t say anything about the product. Or their clipped sentences and emotional reactions don’t communicate anything useful to other consumers. Regardless of how reliable the content of your reviews are, a low number of them can make your product seem unestablished, untested, or not reputable. Even a perfect five-star rating is questionable when you only have a handful of reviews. It’s too small of a sample size, and it can lead people to assume your product isn’t a popular choice in your category. A product with a 4.1 star rating and 3,000 reviews looks a lot more reputable and established than a product with a 5.0 rating and four reviews. That difference in consumer trust can easily outweigh price differences as well. People will gladly pay more for a product they’re more confident in. If you have a low number of ratings, there are a few things you can do. You can: Participate in a product sampling program that gives away your product in exchange for reviews Ask your customers to review your product via email and other channels Include a request to review your product in your packaging materials Over time, you should naturally accumulate more reviews, but you can also take steps to accelerate the process. (And if you’re confident in your product, there’s no reason not to!) 3. You can leverage reviews on a retailer’s website Big online retailers like Amazon, Target, and Home Depot tend to accumulate a lot of reviews on their product pages. Many brands, on the other hand, tend to have a low number of reviews on their own website. You simply don’t get the same kind of traffic as major online retailers. If you have a low number of reviews or bad ratings on your website, but a high number of reviews (or good ratings) on a retailer’s site, you definitely want to use those reviews to your advantage and display them on your website. This is an easy win that can help drive purchase decisions and give an immediate boost to your conversion rate—especially if you link directly to your product page on that retailer’s site (just don’t make any of these basic mistakes). It’s also worth noting: whether you do it or not, consumers assume you’re curating the reviews on your own website and hiding anything negative—so they trust reviews on a retailer’s site more. Our Ratings & Reviews tool lets you showcase reviews from retailers’ websites directly on your product pages, so every product can make the best impression. You can also link directly to the relevant product page on each retailer’s site, helping consumers purchase your products in the way that’s most convenient for them. Maximize your conversion “Ratings and reviews” was just one of the areas we covered in the most recent episode of our podcast, PriceSpider Ecommerce Connected. Each episode is packed with ecommerce expertise that manufacturers and retailers alike can leverage to improve their product pages, polish up their brands, and maximize conversions.   Tune in on Apple Podcasts or subscribe on Android to get the full episodes. The post 3 Things Brands Need to Know About Ratings and Reviews appeared first on .

Ratings & Reviews are a key source of information that help drive purchase decisions. They are two of the main signals consumers use to determine the quality of a product they see online. Since they can’t physically hold your products or test them out (and returning something they bought online usually isn’t as convenient as […] The post 3 Things Brands Need to Know About Ratings and Reviews appeared first on .

Where to buy (WTB) solutions highlight popular online and local retailers that sell your products, allowing your customers to choose the retailers they prefer. The whole point of these widgets is to streamline the path to purchase, so your customers can buy in the way that’s most convenient for them. But a lot of brands don’t use them that way. In an effort to keep all online sales on their own websites, some manufacturers list local retailers but don’t show their customers where else they can buy online. They’re conceding that yes, there may be more convenient places for you to buy, or other ways you’d like to buy (like BOPIS), but they don’t want to lose online sales to their online retail partners. In episode seven of our podcast, PriceSpider Ecommerce Connected, PriceSpider’s global sales executive Anthony Capozzoli discusses why this “locals only” approach hurts brands more than it helps. Here’s why your WTB tool shouldn’t stop at displaying local retailers. Customers are customers, wherever they buy The reason some brands hesitate to list online retailers on their website is because you obviously get better margins when people buy directly from you. But while this might give you a greater percentage of each sale, this is a pretty short-sighted approach to online sales. Because the reality is a sale is a sale. And as we’ll discuss in a moment, when you disrupt the path to purchase, you aren’t preventing customers from buying from other retailers, and you’re also risking losing the sale altogether. You might feel like listing local sellers and giving people the option to buy from your site means you’ve got your bases covered. You’ve given people a way to buy in-store, or online. But for people who are used to shopping at specific online retailers, one online option—with a retailer they haven’t used before (that’s you)—isn’t very helpful. “You have to give them the option to convert from their couch or wherever it is that they’re trying to convert from,” Anthony says.  Some consumers will choose online retailers anyways There are a lot of reasons why your customers prefer the convenience of specific online retailers. It could be as simple as the fact that they already have an account, so they can buy with a click (and without walking across the room to grab their wallet). Or maybe they want to take advantage of perks like Amazon Prime’s free two-day shipping, or a rewards program. Or they want to see the reviews before they buy. When you make it harder to take advantage of these incentives, you’ll probably drive some more sales through your own store, because some will see it as more convenient than trying to find your product page at another retailer’s site. But others will simply swim upstream to purchase your products the way they purchase everything else. And when you ask potential customers to do that, you jeopardize the sale. You risk losing the sale If someone is determined to buy from an online retailer they know and love, but you don’t list it on your website, they may assume your product isn’t available there. That can be enough for them to change their mind about buying. They may also not be interested enough to leave your website and search for your product somewhere else. By not listing a more convenient place to buy and making it a click away, you’ve created just enough friction to keep them from buying. But even if they’re willing to work to buy in the way they want, not listing popular online retailers creates other opportunities to lose sales to your competitors. When someone wants to buy your product somewhere else, they’re either going to go to Google or their retailer of choice. Your competitors can advertise on Google for your branded keywords–and the ads display before any other search results. So the first thing your customers may see is an ad for a competing product that also meets their needs. Similarly, some retailers (like Amazon) allow competitors to advertise their products in search results, even when someone searches for a specific brand. They may not give them a prominent spot, but the fact that your competitors are there beside your product is a risk you could’ve avoided by linking directly to the retailer. And of course, if your customer searches for your product category instead of your specific brand or product, now you’re in a free-for-all with all your competitors—when you could’ve just sent your customer straight to your product page. These risks are easy to avoid. But when you make the “locals only” mistake and don’t display online retailers in your WTB widget, you’re going to send some of your customers into the welcoming arms of your competitors. Learn more on our podcast Anthony Capozzoli lends his ecommerce expertise in our podcast, PriceSpider Ecommerce Connected. We’re currently covering common ecommerce mistakes and discussing ways to avoid them. “Locals only” was just one of the five Anthony brought up in our most recent episode. Tune in on Apple Podcasts or subscribe on Android to get the full episodes and check out all five mistakes. The post Are You Making the “Locals Only” Ecommerce Mistake? appeared first on .

Where to buy (WTB) solutions highlight popular online and local retailers that sell your products, allowing your customers to choose the retailers they prefer. The whole point of these widgets is to streamline the path to purchase, so your customers can buy in the way that’s most convenient for them. But a lot of brands […] The post Are You Making the “Locals Only” Ecommerce Mistake? appeared first on .

In the world of ecommerce, you should always strive to create the clearest, most convenient path to your products. Consumers want to shop online at specific retailers, so you sell your products in those stores and include more purchasing options on your website. But any time you send potential customers to an online retailer, there’s a lot that can go wrong along the way if you’re not paying attention to the path you’re sending them on. People can get lost or frustrated, and never complete their purchase. Or they might discover a competitor at a lower price point, and choose them over you. A lot of brands lose sales because of simple ecommerce errors. In episode five of our podcast, PriceSpider Ecommerce Connected, our global sales executive Anthony Capozzoli highlights five of the most common ecommerce mistakes that cause brands to lose sales. 1. Broken links Online retailers are constantly updating their websites. Changing categories. Altering URLs. Moving product pages. But while this is all done in an effort to optimize and improve their site, it can create ripples that cost you sales—if you aren’t paying attention. If a retailer modifies the URL of one of your product pages and you don’t notice, then all of a sudden you’re sending your potential customers to a page that doesn’t exist. Your site tells people they can buy your product at their favorite retailer, they click the link, and they get a 404 error code. This leaves them with a few options: They can give up. They can go back to your website and try another retailer they don’t like as much. (Unlikely.) They can search for your product or product category on the retailer’s site (or worse, Google), which lets competitors get in the mix. Error codes and broken links create barriers on the purchase path and strain a consumer’s loyalty to your brand. It’s a signal that what they thought was an option isn’t actually available—even though you told them it was. It also reveals that your website is outdated, which reflects poorly on your brand. With this one mistake, in an instant, someone can go from wanting your product to actively seeking a competitor. Hopefully, your retail partners create redirects any time they change the URL of your product pages. But if you count on that, you risk losing sales. 2. Not linking to retailers Sometimes brand manufacturers want consumers to know their products are available in major stores without driving their website visitors to those stores. So they put up the logos of those retailers on their product pages, but don’t link to their websites. But here’s what happens when you do that. People click and tap those logos expecting it to take them to their preferred online retailer, where you’ve just told them they can buy your product. And nothing happens. In order to actually do what you’ve just told them they can do, they have to enter that retailer’s URL or Google it, then hunt for your product page. And at every step along the way, there are opportunities for them to either lose momentum or encounter one of your competitors. By including the logos of retailers that sell your product, you’re teasing the idea that a visitor’s preferred path to purchase is an option—and then you’re placing obstacles in that path. It’s a terrible experience. And it costs you sales. If you’re already putting in the work to tell visitors where they can buy your products (and you should be), then there’s really no reason not to go all the way and link directly to the relevant product page on each retailer’s website. 3. Linking to a retailer’s homepage Some brands think it’s good enough to simply link to a retailer’s website, rather than sending potential customers directly to the specific page where they can buy your product. If they’re clicking on a retailer from your product page, you’ve already won the sale, right? They’re obviously going to search the name of your product, get to the right page, and buy, right? Maybe. But maybe not. This is what we call “main paging,” and like many of these other ecommerce errors, it creates an opportunity for your potential customers to stumble onto one of your competitors, and it kills momentum at a crucial moment. They may get to a retailer’s site and assume that because they’re on the home page and not a product page, your product must no longer be available at that retailer. Or, as with a broken link, they may enter your product or category in the retailer’s search bar, where they’ll see your product listed alongside your competitors—which may have lower prices, better reviews, or more appealing design or features. The more clicks and steps you put between a consumer and your product, the more opportunities there are to lose the sale. 4. Only selling directly to consumers When you sell direct-to-consumer, you make more money, and you get new customer accounts you can use for remarketing. But while the margins are better when you close the sale on your own website, brands that only sell directly to consumers risk losing sales. No matter how good your product is, many consumers have stronger incentives to shop with a particular retailer. Consumers aren’t just choosing between you and your competitors. They’re choosing between one shopping experience and another. By only selling direct-to-consumer, you may be forcing an Amazon Prime member, for example, to choose between your product and free two-day shipping. You might have the superior product in your category, but someone who needs a product fast is just going to choose a competitor. Additionally, you’re asking consumers to go through the tedious process of creating a new account with you, when they could buy from a retailer with two clicks. You’ll win over a lot more of those potential customers if you let them take their preferred path to purchase. 5. Linking to a search results page Some retailers tell you to link to a search results page on their website instead of a product page. This can be a way around the broken links challenge, and it’s about one step better than main paging . . . but it’s still not good, and it will only cost you sales in the long run. When you drive consumers to that search results page, they aren’t always just seeing your product. They may be seeing your product next to your competitors. Maybe a competing product is on sale. Or it has better ratings and reviews at this retailer. Or their title mentions an attractive feature your product doesn’t have. This last-minute comparison gives your competitors an excellent opportunity to siphon sales directly from your own website because these potential customers would’ve never seen their product if you hadn’t sent them to the search results page. Optimize the path to purchase If you want to maximize sales, you have to make the path to purchase as simple and direct as possible and eliminate opportunities for your competitors to steal your customers’ attention. That’s why our Where to Buy tool helps you streamline the shopping experience, linking directly to your top retail partners and crawling their product pages daily to ensure you only ever display accurate information and send consumers to the right place.   Contact us today to see how our tools can help you increase sales. And for more ecommerce insights, subscribe to our podcast, PriceSpider Ecommerce Connected—available via Apple Podcasts or Android. The post 5 Common Ecommerce Mistakes appeared first on .

In the world of ecommerce, you should always strive to create the clearest, most convenient path to your products. Consumers want to shop online at specific retailers, so you sell your products in those stores and include more purchasing options on your website. But any time you send potential customers to an online retailer, there’s […] The post 5 Common Ecommerce Mistakes appeared first on .

Pricing Policy: Part Two – Monitoring and Enforcement In the second part of a three-part series of PriceSpider’s podcast, E-Commerce Connected, our global sales executive Anthony Capozzoli discusses pricing policy with Eugene ‘Gene’ Zelek of Taft Law. Gene is a member of the Professional Pricing Society (PPS) and specializes in antitrust and commercial litigation. He provides clients top-level legal counsel in many areas of marketing law including pricing and distribution, intellectual property, supply relationships and new product development. Monitoring and Enforcing Pricing Policy There are many moving parts when it comes to monitoring and enforcing pricing policy. Manufacturers may find that simply having enough staff to monitor pricing can be a time-consuming challenge. Gene recommends starting with larger retailers, such as Amazon, Nordstrom and Walmart, then narrowing down after gathering information and base-level insights. Establish first impressions from there, and then start investigations into the smaller players. You must still include all retailers in your monitoring efforts in order to maintain credibility and garner all necessary information to inform future decisions. Beginning with the major players can streamline the efficiency of your research, and a third-party price monitoring system will help offload the manual efforts of monitoring prices. Once insights are gathered, if any sellers are operating outside the pricing policy, you’ll want to contact them and ask them to rectify any issues. Manufacturers might want to have their sales people responsible for pricing enforcement, whereas Gene suggests delegating this activity to another team member that specializes in pricing policy. Salespeople are there to close deals; they have developed a special relationship with distributors. In order to keep their relationship positive with the opportunity to sell more, it’s more effective to have someone outside of the sales relationship make policy compliance requests. Manufacturers should not ask their wholesalers to enforce pricing policy. It would be reasonable to ask the wholesalers to pass on information with purchases or to even follow a “Sell” or “Do-Not-Sell” list, but they should not be monitoring and enforcing pricing policy on behalf of the manufacturer. An approved “Sell” list would only include those retailers that could purchase the product. If you have too many distributors to monitor, consider telling a wholesaler that everyone is approved until they violate your policy or you determine they are not a good fit for your product, at which point consider adding these specific retailers to a “Do-Not-Sell” list and ask wholesalers not to provide product to those specific outlets. Why A Policy Having a pricing policy — as opposed to a pricing agreement — is the strongest strategy, in Gene’s opinion. Pricing policy is not a negotiation, but rather an announcement of what needs to happen from retailers distributing your product. An agreement allows for each individual retailer to have their own special circumstances — which is incredibly cumbersome — and some agreement terms could actually open the manufacturer up for a lawsuit. Minimum resale price agreements are illegal in five states. If manufacturers want to make a change, they can adjust as they please. Changes shouldn’t be made on a weekly or monthly basis, but if something needs to change even several times in any given year, a new pricing policy notice can be sent. It’s important to understand this is a long-term play — it levels the playing field to allow higher-margin retailers to stay in the game. Work to be Done Gene advises that manufacturers should have a realistic expectation of what the pricing policy will accomplish. Monitoring and enforcement are still necessary, and it also forces manufacturers to look at their distribution channels — even if they have 200 and only need 50. This is an opportunity to investigate wholesalers and distributors, determine if there is overlap and simplify where possible. Starting or reviewing your pricing policy, as well as investigating current pricing and monitoring activity, can provide actionable insights and help manufacturers keep an eye on distributors and revenue. Interested in learning more about PriceSpider? Contact us today to discover how we can help you. The post Monitoring and Enforcing your Pricing Policy appeared first on .

Pricing Policy: Part Two – Monitoring and Enforcement In the second part of a three-part series of PriceSpider’s podcast, E-Commerce Connected, our global sales executive Anthony Capozzoli discusses pricing policy with Eugene ‘Gene’ Zelek of Taft Law. Gene is a member of the Professional Pricing Society (PPS) and specializes in antitrust and commercial litigation. He […] The post Monitoring and Enforcing your Pricing Policy appeared first on .

In this episode of PriceSpider’s podcast, E-Commerce Connected, How Counterfeit, Gray Market and Unauthorized Asian Market Sellers Can Cause Disruption, our Global Sales Executive, Anthony Capozzoli, sat down with David G. Howell to discuss counterfeits, the gray market and unauthorized sellers in the Asian market. (If you haven’t read the blog recap of our Tracking Down Unauthorized Sellers podcast, you may want to do that for background before continuing.) Just as brand manufacturers don’t want unauthorized sellers distributing their products, counterfeits, the gray market or unauthorized and counterfeit sellers in the Asian market are problematic as well. Counterfeit products are just what they sound like. This is a company that will make a “knock-off” version of a product but sells it under the brand name or advertised product name. These products are often lower in quality and don’t have the accompanying warranties and quality assurance that the real brand uses to make sure the product is of the highest quality for customers. Gray markets sell the original product from the brand but are imported into countries without the consent of the brand and to be sold through unauthorized sellers. Gray market sellers can offer products at a lower price because they aren’t paying the brand their share of the profits. However, warranties or replacements, if needed, won’t come easily or at all because the brand isn’t there to back up its products. Asian markets such as the Alibaba group of companies or TaoBao (also owned by Alibaba) will often sell both counterfeit and gray market products. You might wonder, why is that important? Think about how large Amazon is in North America: The Alibaba companies are two to three times as big globally. That means customers worldwide could be receiving counterfeit or gray market products. It’s something brands will want to investigate to protect their trademarks and reputation. How do you know if you have a problem? If a brand has good products, very often someone will try to take advantage of that. Look to social media and see how people are talking about the products. Look at reviews in the marketplaces where authorized dealers are selling and then check out those with no authorized sellers. Brands should take the time to research this and review the social media posts about their products, reviews and Asian marketplace searches and reviews. Look at the brand name and product names. Are there typos? Some companies will make mistakes on purpose to hide. Try large keywords and do a broad keyword search instead of searching by exact brand name or product name. Brands might think that as long as these products don’t enter the U.S. market, they have nothing to worry about. However, they often do enter the U.S. market and once that happens it can become very problematic. Smaller brick and mortar companies might see a good deal online through international sites such as Asian marketplaces and jump at the opportunity to save some money and boost revenue. Whether they know the product is counterfeit or gray market and purchase in bad faith, or don’t realize what they are purchasing, these products are now in the authorized supply chain in the U.S. being sold as legitimate merchandise. Co-mingling is another way for counterfeit products to enter the authorized supply chain. Take Amazon for example, which uses comingling to save space and keep all products in the same spot. What this means is that as sellers send their merchandise to Amazon’s fulfillment centers, it could be stored with other sellers’ merchandise too, if this is the option the seller selected. Amazon keeps track of the number of products sent to its warehouse and the number ordered and distributed through each seller, but all products are pooled together in one spot. Now imagine a seller contributing counterfeit products to this pool. It’s possible that counterfeit merchandise is now being distributed through authorized sellers that legitimately purchased from the brand. This can cause tremendous disruption for both the brand and the seller. What should brands do to protect themselves? Howell says the best way to stay on top of these issues is, “Putting the right foundation in place; active monitoring, research and enforcement” which will protect brands from this type of disruption. Don’t ignore the signs! If a brand finds even one instance of a counterfeit, these instances can multiply exponentially. It doesn’t take much for these products to enter the U.S. marketplace and bleed into co-mingling with Amazon or being distributed by smaller authorized sellers. It can tarnish consumer confidence to have reviews of counterfeit products on brand pages. Take the time to review global sites like the Alibaba group for products. Brands should monitor these or use a service to keep track of online activity. Research reviews in online marketplaces with authorized sellers, like Amazon, and look for signs that customers have received counterfeit products. Reviews that state broken parts, not coming with all necessary parts, missing warranties and other red flags should be investigated. Take action when unauthorized or counterfeit sellers are found. Don’t let them continue to operate because it’s only a few small instances. This could balloon into a larger and more wide-spread problem. Howell also recommends submitting the proper documentation needed to protect the brand. This includes registering trademarks in all global markets where the product is being sold. The trademarks make it possible for brands to then enforce their policies and act against unauthorized and counterfeit sellers. Consider signing up for AliProtect in the Asian market. It can take time and can be challenging to submit all the proper documentation, but it’s necessary for securing the protection needed. This is a winnable battle — brands just need to be vigilant. Interested in learning more about PriceSpider? Contact us today to discover how we can help you. The post Protect Your Brand: How Counterfeit, Gray Market and Unauthorized Asian Market Sellers Can Cause Disruption appeared first on .

In this episode of PriceSpider’s podcast, E-Commerce Connected, How Counterfeit, Gray Market and Unauthorized Asian Market Sellers Can Cause Disruption, our Global Sales Executive, Anthony Capozzoli, sat down with David G. Howell to discuss counterfeits, the gray market and unauthorized sellers in the Asian market. (If you haven’t read the blog recap of our Tracking […] The post Protect Your Brand: How Counterfeit, Gray Market and Unauthorized Asian Market Sellers Can Cause Disruption appeared first on .