Marketplace price monitoring is a regular process of collecting data on prices, service offers, discounts and promotions for competitors’ products on online trading platforms. Marketplace price monitoring allows manufacturers to track the prices of their products from partners and identify the first violators based on the results of monitoring on the Internet.
Price monitoring of price aggregators is the process of tracking prices, availability, discounts and promotions of competitors, on the basis of which sellers can form their own optimal cost. A price aggregator can become a pricing resource for many players in the e-commerce market.
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Marketplaces and price aggregators are dynamically developing due to various economic and social reasons and are becoming the main resources for comparing prices on the Internet.
What is a marketplace
A marketplace is an online trading platform that brings together many different sellers of goods or services in the e-commerce market. Marketplaces can have both a universal specialization, where you can buy consumer goods and services, and a niche one, for example, marketplaces of financial or travel services.
In other words, the marketplace can be compared to a giant hypermarket, where you can purchase any product or service around the clock at an affordable price.
Marketplace sellers use the marketplace to sell their goods for a monthly fee (commission).
In recent years, marketplaces have begun to gain momentum in their development. One of the catalysts for their rapid growth was the pandemic. During the period of quarantine restrictions, entrepreneurs were forced to close physical stores and switch to the Internet. Since the creation and promotion of an online store is a rather long and financially expensive process, many retailers have decided to use the services of marketplaces.
In addition to the coronavirus, the growth of marketplaces is facilitated by the digitalization of business, the improvement of Internet technologies, the development of logistics and sales methods in the e-commerce market, as well as the low entry threshold for sellers on the trading platform.
According to Forrester Research, by the end of 2022, marketplace sales will account for about 70% of total online sales.
A marketplace can be called a trading platform that meets certain requirements:
- All processes are controlled by one organization.
- There are many sellers (merchants) on the site who trade in accordance with the algorithm thought out by the main organization.
- All terms of cooperation with merchants are specified in the contracts: the amount of the commission, the requirements for the posted content and the quality of service.
The difference between a marketplace and an online store
Many marketplaces were originally ordinary online stores, for example, Rozetka, Allo, Epicenter, etc. There are a number of significant differences between a marketplace and an online store.
- Different number of sellers. An online store can feature one or more brands and a limited number of product categories, but the only seller is the online store itself. A marketplace can have hundreds of sellers with different brands and different categories.
- Representation in offline trade. An online store, if it has been operating on the market for a long time, may also have an offline point of sale. Marketplaces do not have physical retail stores, at best, distribution points.
- Number of clients and geography of delivery. Many online stores cannot afford to invest heavily in website promotion and customer acquisition. In addition, the number of regions for delivery is limited. Sometimes, an online store can generally only work for one or two regions.
Marketplaces spend huge resources on advertising, attracting the target audience and expanding logistics. Therefore, marketplaces have significantly higher traffic than online stores, and well-developed logistics make it possible to expand the geography of customers.
Types of marketplaces
In addition to the usual B2C marketplaces (Amazon, Rozetka, Ebay, etc.), where the product is offered directly to the end consumer, there are marketplaces for businesses and industry-specific marketplaces.
- Mutually beneficial cooperation between business owners (All.biz, Bazilla, Alibaba) takes place on B2B marketplaces. For example, on these sites you can find suppliers from different countries, and buy large quantities of goods at wholesale prices..
- Financial marketplace.
On financial marketplaces, it is possible to compare financial products from different banks. (https://treeum.net/). It is also possible to get a loan or a microloan, invest in shares or securities, open a deposit, purchase insurance, etc.
- Insurance marketplace.
The principle of operation of the insurance marketplace is similar to the financial one. There are many insurance companies on the site with which you can conclude an agreement without leaving your home. (https://hotline.finance/ua/, https://polis.ua/uk
- Bulletin boards (OLX, Shafa.ua). Ad services provide their platform for businesses to sell goods and services. Recently, more and more often on OLX you can find satellites of existing online stores. We recommend that you treat the goods of such retailers with caution – you can buy a fake or contraband goods.
How marketplaces work
The main way marketplaces earn money is by selling their own goods plus the commission paid by merchants from the sale of their goods. Most marketplaces themselves invest in promotion, but there are exceptions: for example, promotion within the Prom.ua site is paid for by sellers. If the seller does not advertise his product, he will not be included in the results of the search engine of the site.
By the way, for this reason, the Prom.ua parser does not always give a 100% result when searching for sellers on the site for a given nomenclature or trademark.
In terms of structure, most marketplaces differ little from each other. Typically, the site contains a catalog of goods, a form for registering sellers, forms for feedback and complaints, personal accounts for merchants and customers, on the pages of sellers there are forms of delivery and payment. Sellers also have the opportunity to view sales statistics.
The most popular marketplaces in Ukraine and the world, the specifics of their work
In this section, we will consider the most popular Ukrainian marketplaces and a number of global marketplaces.
Ukrainian marketplaces
Initially, the marketplace was an ordinary online store, but over the course of 14 years it has scaled into a huge trading platform with almost 4 million product items in different categories. Rozetka is visited daily by 2.5 million customers.
The principle of working with Rozetka: you need to prepare an application in electronic form on the site, create a price list of your goods in XML format in accordance with the requirements of Rozetka, and activate the store. Cooperation is regulated by the contract. The contract can only be concluded by a legal or natural person-entrepreneur.
The seller is charged a commission for the goods sold. The size of the commission depends on the category of goods, on average from 5 to 20%. Also, the merchant makes a monthly payment in the amount of 100 UAH for the use of the site.
Creating an online store on Rozetka has one nuance – its name must be unique and in no case should contain the brand name or point to an existing online site.
Rozetka independently promotes the marketplace and partner products through banner, contextual and targeted advertising.
Prom.ua
This trading platform was originally created as a marketplace. In 2021, Prom.ua ranked sixth in the top 25 most popular websites in Ukraine. More than 100 million products are offered by thousands of retailers from different parts of Ukraine. The site has more than 2.5 million daily visitors.
The principle of working with Prom.ua: you need to register on the marketplace, add a list of goods or services to a pre-created feed, develop an online store design and be sure to specify the terms of payment and delivery.
The cost of marketplace services depends on the number of items presented in the online store. The marketplace offers several packages with a fixed price, which includes the cost of internal advertising in the product catalog – ProSale.
Advertising in the product catalog looks like the result of organic search results and is used to increase the number of clicks to the product.
Cooperation with legal entities is carried out under the contract.
Like Rozetka, the current Allo.ua marketplace was created as an online electronics store. In addition, the company has more than 300 offline stores throughout the country. Annual sales of Allo.ua average 11 million items. The daily traffic to the site are 1.5 million users.
The principle of working with Allo.ua: as in previous cases, you need to register on the site, leave a request and wait for the result of the review. The marketplace works only with legal entities, therefore, after the approval of the application, it is necessary to enter all the registration data of the entrepreneur.
After signing the contract, it becomes possible to add goods through the seller’s personal account on the site. Goods can be added in XML format immediately as a price list or manually for one heading.
The marketplace takes an advance payment of 2500 UAH before the product is available for viewing by us ers. A commission is also charged on sales, the amount of which depends on the category of goods.
World`s marketplaces.
Amazon
This is largest online trading platform in the world, the format of which has become a model for younger marketplaces. Sales on Amazon account for more than 50% of the total in the US market. Amazon offers almost 400 million different products from 3 million sellers. Amazon makes up to 4 million deliveries per day. The number of employees in warehouses is almost 300 thousand employees, which makes it possible to deliver goods all over the world.
The principle of working with Amazon: when registering on the site, you must immediately select an individual or professional account. The seller’s capabilities depend on the status of the account. An individual account has limitations: it is charged 99 cents per lot (no commission) and within a month the seller cannot sell more than 40 lots. Sales statistics are also not available to sellers.
A professional account costs $39.99 (no commission), but you can sell an unlimited number of products, you have access to statistics and other marketplace services.
When choosing a product to download, you must ensure that no more than 5-6 sellers have a similar product. Otherwise, Amazon may reject it.
The marketplace began development in 2010. For 12 years, its representation has grown to 230 countries. Attendance is 200 million unique users.
How Aliexpress works: the marketplace charges a low commission – from 5% to 8% of the sale. In order to avoid fraud, sellers and their goods are subject to high requirements.
Ebay is an auction marketplace. There are over 1 billion items listed on Ebay. It is the second most visited site in the world after Amazon. There are 360 million users daily attendance. On this site you can sell almost everything, except for prohibited items. Cooperation with the site is relatively inexpensive and uncomplicated.
Principles of working with Ebay: when registering an account, you must link a bank card with a minimum amount in the account – $ 1.5. To confirm authorization, the marketplace will withdraw $1, but then this money will be returned. There is no charge for the first 50 ads, then you have to pay 50 cents for each ad. Inexperienced sellers are first advised to put up for auction some unnecessary things in order to get used to the site interface, study supply and demand, understand how the price of a product and the marketplace commission are formed.
All the marketplaces described above have one thing in common. Marketplaces mean high competition among sellers, and, accordingly, low, dumping prices.
Price monitoring on marketplaces
Monitoring the prices of competitors on marketplaces is the basis for the formation of their own pricing for entrepreneurs who have decided to enter online trading platforms with their product. Marketplace monitoring is necessary for manufacturers to track partner prices outside their websites, which will allow them to detect unscrupulous sellers and promptly take anti-dumping measures.
A feature of monitoring prices on marketplaces is that the same product is offered by several sellers who are not known in advance.
Monitoring the prices of competitors on the marketplace
The process of monitoring the prices of competitors on marketplaces is practically no different from monitoring the prices of online stores, which we talked about in detail in our blog and can be carried out in several ways: manual monitoring and automated. (here you need to put a link to an article about monitoring)
Manual monitoring is carried out by the company's employees who systematically view the prices of competitors' products on the marketplace and enter data into an Excel spreadsheet or any other spreadsheet editor. Then, based on these data, analytics is carried out. Definitely, this is costly method in terms of financial and time resources. In addition, the relevance of the data is also a big question, since prices from competitors can change within a few minutes.
Automated monitoring is carried out using a specially developed program - a parser.
Marketplace Price Parser is specially developed software to collect data on products and prices of retailers on online trading platforms. The process of collecting data is called parsing. Parsing results make it possible to compare prices of resellers for a range similar to yours.
Competitor price monitoring analysis on marketplaces is the processing of parsing data on competitors’ prices and products on online trading platforms to make a decision on their own pricing strategy, choice of suppliers, formation of costs and forecasting the optimal profit to achieve the company’s goals.
It is important to note that the marketplace price parser requires special settings that are different from those of the online store parser. This is due to the different layout and structure of sites.
Monitoring of competitors' prices is necessary:
- sellers (merchants) on the marketplace;
- owners of existing online stores and those who are just planning to transfer their business online;
- manufacturers and suppliers.
For merchants on the marketplace, competitor monitoring allows them to set competitive prices within the marketplace. Many marketplaces provide their partners with parsing the prices of competitors' products.
For example, it offers a free price parser Rozetka.ua. By the way, Rozetka monitors prices not only within its own platform, but also monitors the prices of its competitors in the e-commerce market every four hours every day. Based on the collected data, Rozetka sets prices for its own product. The company also provides the results of competitors' price monitoring to partners free of charge.
Owners of online stores and newcomers to the market need to monitor the prices of marketplaces in order to understand the pricing policy of competitors, analyze their product offerings, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and, based on this data, build their own business strategy.
Monitoring the prices of competitors on marketplaces will make it possible to assess the competitiveness and attractiveness for the consumer of the established recommended retail prices.
Rozetka.ua and Prom.ua are the most popular resources for price monitoring
To monitor the prices of competitors on marketplaces, most entrepreneurs choose the most popular sites with a wide range and a significant number of sellers. First of all, such platforms are Rozetka.ua and Prom.ua.
Tens of thousands of sellers of millions of items from all over the country are represented on these marketplaces, so their prices are an indicator of the market value of the product of interest.
If you need to monitor the situation with prices on marketplaces, we recommend using the price monitoring service for marketplaces from the Price Control service. The service provides Rozetka price monitoring for suppliers and online stores. We will collect data on the availability and prices of the goods you are interested in in full. For manufacturers, the Price Control service will be useful for finding sellers of their brand on Prom.ua. The Prom.ua parser will collect information about all retailers that sell your brand. The parsing results will be generated into analytical reports in Excel format, in which, in addition to the name of the seller, you can see the price of the product and its availability.
Download an example of the Prom.ua parsing report
The Rozetka marketplace is also the most in demand among buyers. A wide selection of goods, points of issue in many cities of the country, developed logistics stimulate an increasing number of consumers to purchase. Many of them are interested in comparing prices for products on the marketplace. For these purposes, there is a special Rozetka price monitoring application that can be easily installed on a smartphone from the Chrome Web Store. With the Rozetka price monitoring application, a potential buyer will always be aware of current products and will be able to choose a seller with the most reasonable price and service.
Price monitoring of marketplaces for manufacturers
Marketplace price monitoring for manufacturers is the collection of data on the prices of goods of a certain brand in order to control compliance with the MAP/ MSRP. Pricing of marketplaces is based on affordable affordable prices, so even the cost of product innovations can be close to the purchase price.
It is possible to set dumping prices on marketplaces due to several reasons:
- Favorable purchase prices and discounts from suppliers.
- A high level of competition, which forces sellers to dump.
The administration of the marketplace does not control the retail prices at which merchants sell, therefore, on online trading platforms with several thousand sellers, dumping is an inevitable phenomenon. No one imposes penalties on sellers for dumping prices, and there is no acceptable price reduction limit.
Such a marketplace policy is beneficial for the consumer, but deadly for brands.
Let's delve into the reasons for the spread of dumping on marketplaces.
Reasons for dumping prices on online trading platforms.
The circumstances of the emergence of dumping, which were mentioned above, are not the only ones. So, there are the reasons for dumping prices on online trading platforms:
- Internal regulations of the marketplace.
The platform sets a price threshold above which the seller cannot set the cost of their goods. For example, a merchant sells goods at recommended retail prices in order to increase the margin of the goods and obtain optimal profit. Sales are stable and customer feedback is positive. But, after conducting competitive price monitoring, the marketplace decided to establish promotions or discounts on certain products that this seller has in stock. If the seller refuses to comply with the order of the administration, his product may be blocked in the display. Obviously, you will have to play by the rules of the marketplace. Sellers who have their own websites carry out price differentiation: they reduce prices on the marketplace, they sell at the MAP/ MSRP on their website.
2. High internal competition.
Hundreds of sellers with similar goods are forced to increase their own competitiveness by lowering prices. Buyers who are looking for the lowest price will go where it is cheaper. Naturally, in the struggle for a client and sales, sellers act on the principle of "all means are good."
What marketplace managers think about dumping: EVO PR manager Lilia Ovchinnikova believes that “sellers do not need to dump, because there is a lot of competition on marketplaces and you will not attract buyers by lowering the price tag. It is more important to work on the quality of service, so customers will trust the seller more."
3. Satellite sites.
ВIn order to avoid conflicts with manufacturers and suppliers due to dumping prices, entrepreneurs go to the trick and create pages on marketplaces with the same product as on the websites of their online stores. The difference is that on the website the price for a product of a certain brand will correspond to the recommended retail price, while on the marketplace page it will be reduced. Since the names of online stores on marketplaces are fictitious, it is difficult to track who the seller is. The only way to find out is to conduct a test purchase.
A test purchase on the marketplace will help identify not only the supplier of the goods, but also the online store, which is hiding under a fictitious name.
Learn more from our specialist
4. Sellers-switches.
Sometimes marketplaces can hide switch sellers who set the lowest prices for a product. They can be classified into two types:
- Switches to a product of another brand;
- Switches to your own online store.
In the first case, when ordering a product of a certain brand, the customer is informed that this product is not available, but it is possible to purchase an identical one, but from a different manufacturer. In the second, the client is offered to follow the link to the site and purchase this product there, thus increasing traffic to a site that is less promoted than the marketplace.
In both the first and second cases, dumping prices increase the likelihood that the client will visit the page of this seller.
Marketplaces in Ukraine - how to deal with dumping
Marketplaces in Ukraine are affected by dumping, which brings commercial and reputational losses to manufacturers and suppliers. Thoroughly built business promotion and sales strategies can collapse at one moment due to an uncontrollable situation with prices in the market. In some cases, dumping can lead to the closure of companies or the withdrawal of a brand from the country's market.
The appearance of dumping prices for goods requires a prompt response from manufacturers, up to the application of penalties.
As noted above, marketplaces are the epicenter of dumping, so, first of all, manufacturers need to track the prices of their branded goods on these resources.
The main tool for controlling prices on marketplaces is daily monitoring prices.
If violators are detected as a result of monitoring, it is recommended to contact the sellers and offer them to adjust the prices according to the supplier's price list. If the seller categorically does not respond to requests, you can proceed to more radical methods of protecting the brand on the Internet: start the procedure for removing the trademark from the seller's page on the marketplace. To do this, you can first contact the administration of the marketplace and point out the violator.
Unfortunately, not all marketplaces respond to manufacturers' complaints about their offending partners.
The Price Controls service has its own methods of working with dumpers on marketplaces. Contact us and the problem of dumping on the marketplace will be solved for you.
Dumping prices are the hallmark of not only marketplaces, but also online catalogs (price aggregators). Regular monitoring of such resources will allow manufacturers to control the prices for their brand from most sellers.
What is a price aggregator?
A price aggregator is an online platform that performs an advertising function for online stores, namely: collecting all price lists and organizing them in a format convenient for the consumer for comparison and final selection of the product of interest, as well as providing the client with information about its characteristics, price, availability in stores and reviews.
Price aggregators are also called price aggregators. They increase the convenience of choosing a product and show all offers at the request of the user of the resource.
Price aggregators do not sell goods, but earn by posting price lists of online stores, and monetization occurs for each visit to the online store website.
Price aggregators are used by an audience that has already decided on the choice of goods, but is looking for the most attractive option in terms of price and service.
The price aggregator is one of the main resources for suppliers and online stores to compare competitors' prices.
What is the difference between a price aggregator and a marketplace?
For many retailers who are faced with the choice of where to place their goods - on a marketplace or price aggregator, the differences between them are not obvious. And for the average consumer, the difference between these sites is not always clear.
Let`s consider the fundamental differences between a marketplace and a price aggregator:
Marketplace | Price Aggregator |
| One provides an opportunity to create your own online store on its platform to an unlimited number of sellers. | One organizes a variety of sellers' offers into a single catalog. |
| Order and purchase are made directly on the marketplace. | To order and purchase goods, you must go to the seller's website. |
Monetization | |
| A monthly fee and a percentage (commission) of sales are charged. | Payment is taken for each transition to the seller's website + a small amount for placing a price list. |
The e-commerce market is developing, and more and more purchases are made in the Internet space. Experts predict that by the end of 2022, 50% of all online purchases will be made on marketplaces. Marketplace is a more flexible model in terms of using various monetization methods. The aggregator can only earn on ads and clicks.
The largest Ukrainian`s aggregators and the principles of their work
In Ukraine, there is a fairly large selection of price sites that have approximately the same functionality: heading by product category, filtering, the ability to compare prices and track their dynamics, product and seller reviews, and evaluation. In this section, we will focus on the most popular price aggregators.
his is an oldest price aggregator that offers users a user-friendly interface for searching products in a large number of categories. Hotline.ua has a high attendance and a huge number of clicks. The site has reviews about stores and products. The aggregator takes payment from online stores per click. It is possible to place price lists of several online stores on one account. Sellers can set a budget limit for a day, as well as track the competitive position of their product in relation to analogues of other online stores.
The price aggregator sets certain rules for sellers, according to which they cannot place a product that is not available in the online store. If the seller violated the rule, the user of the resource can file a complaint against him, and the advertisement of this seller will be blocked.
Order now and find out how your competitors are pricing.
This price list has been in operation for over 10 years. A feature of the aggregator is the price control function - notifying the user about the appearance of the most favorable price offer for him. The price aggregator presents a large product range, detailed product descriptions and customer reviews.
More than 1,000 online stores present products on the E-Katalog price comparison and product search service, according to user reviews, at very attractive prices. There are more than 10 product categories in the catalog; the search engine allows you to search not only for the desired product, but also for the section of interest. Each model has a description, technical documentation, useful photos and videos. In the "Where to buy" section you can immediately find a list of online stores with links to sites and prices.
The price aggregator has been operating since 2007. Initially, it was focused on cataloging price lists of Kharkov online stores. Now it works throughout Ukraine and is becoming more and more popular among users. The site contains a standard catalog of goods, when choosing products; the aggregator displays a list of online stores where you can purchase goods. Promotions and discounts are updated daily. The aggregator's portfolio has a blog with useful articles from the "How to choose ..." category.
Despite minor differences in the structure and structure of price aggregators, all these sites perform one main function - comparing prices for goods in online stores.
Both online stores and manufacturers actively use the ability to compare prices for goods in dozens or even hundreds of online stores on one resource. Online stores regulate their own pricing policy by monitoring competitors' prices, and manufacturers monitor prices for their brand.
To monitor prices, entrepreneurs most often choose the Hotline price aggregator.
Hotline Monitoring
The Hotline Internet platform began its existence in 2006 and is still the leader among price aggregators in Ukraine. Therefore, both for manufacturers and online stores, this platform is one of the main services for monitoring prices.
There are reasons for monitoring Hotline.
- Ability to monitor the prices of most online stores.
Hundreds of different players in terms of their influence on the market are collected on one resource. The collection of prices from Hotline will provide an opportunity to analyze the pricing policy of competitors for the range of interest, and manufacturers to assess the level of prices for their brand from partners.
- Monitoring the emergence of new online stores.
Placement on Hotline for newly created online stores gives a chance for rapid promotion. Also, satellites of existing online stores often appear on the aggregator.
Since Hotline does not control the legitimacy of the implementation of a particular brand and compliance with the MAP/ MSRP, this gives newcomers and satellites the opportunity to dump interest in their sites to attract interest.
Often there are situations when the price on Hotline is lower than on the website. This is a violation of the rules of the site, although the administration of the aggregator does not always respond to complaints. Manufacturers need to track violators on Hotline, as a price reduction on the aggregator will lead to dumping from most sellers on the market. Many online stores follow the pricing on Hotline and, in accordance with the trends of the site, build their own pricing policy.
- Budget option for monitoring.
If a company has a limited budget, but at the same time it needs to understand the price trends of the market and conduct analytics on large amounts of data, Hotline monitoring can solve its problems. The monitoring report of the price aggregator will collect all offers for the nomenclature of interest to the client.
Against the background of all the advantages of Hotline price monitoring, there are certain disadvantages:
- Not all online stores and not all brand items are available on Hotline.
Since Hotline is an advertising platform, not all online stores on the market use its services. Therefore, the representation of sellers of a certain nomenclature can be no more than 10% of the total number on the market. For some industries and brands, there may either be no sellers on Hotline at all or they are in isolated cases. It's the same story with nomenclature. Not all products sold by the retailer are uploaded to Hotline, but are selected by margin, manufacturer, etc.
- Prices are shown irregularly.
To display the prices of online stores, there are certain settings that regulate the display schedule by day of the week. If you conduct daily monitoring of Hotline for a certain nomenclature, you will notice that the number of offers changes from day to day. In addition, the retailer's problems with impressions may be related to the banal lack of funds on the balance sheet.
- Correctness of data collection.
How accurate the monitoring data is depends more on the human factor. We are talking about the formation of product cards by the employees of the aggregator. Incorrectly completed cards, errors in color, size, specifications, etc. will already affect the correctness of the conclusions made after the analytics of the monitoring report.
What to choose for monitoring: marketplace or price aggregator?
There is no direct answer to the question that was posed in the title of the article. Before making a decision on monitoring, it is necessary to determine the main parameters - the purpose of monitoring and the budget for marketing processes.
If you own an online store and you need to monitor a dozen competitors to find out the average price in the market and the type of products they promote, price aggregator monitoring is suitable.
If you are a novice entrepreneur and would like to sell goods through the marketplace, understanding the specifics of pricing on trading floors is simply necessary for running a successful business. In this case, marketplace monitoring will help solve your problem.
If the task is to control prices in the market, an integrated approach is needed. In this case, Price Control Price Monitoring Service recommends not limiting yourself to marketplaces and price aggregators, but including in monitoring all Internet sites found as a result of the representation search, where your brand is represented. Only this approach will give an effective result. And we are ready to help you with this.
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