You’ve chosen your products and thought about marketing methods for your Amazon e-commerce store. But what about pricing? Setting the right cost per product will ultimately determine whether shoppers will stay on your site or move on; even more important is the ability to stay competitive in the marketplace. But how can you consistently stay on top of what other sellers are charging for their products?
That’s where repricing comes in, and Amazon recently introduced its own tool, Automate Pricing. Repricers use algorithms to move prices up or down depending on what your competitors are charging, and within parameters you set yourself; Automate Pricing will perform this task on anything you choose to sell via Amazon. Here’s a quick look at the benefits as well as a few things to watch for if you choose to use this Amazon-proprietary tool.
Pros to Amazon Automate Pricing
- Cost. It’s free with Amazon’s professional selling plan, and built directly into each seller account.
- Ease. The intuitive interface makes Automate Pricing simple to use; as a bonus, each screen includes a summary of the pricing changes according to the profile you create.
- Amazon-specific. Automate Pricing works seamlessly with Amazon, while an outside repricing tool may at times run into data problems.
Cons to Amazon Automate Pricing
- Aggressive downpricing. If just a single competitor sets a rule that will cause your own price to go directly to the minimum you set, there isn’t much you can do to control it since the tool will combine the two sellers’ rules. This means your item could have a significant jump to a lower price point if the other seller has a higher minimum price than you do.
- Lack of upload option. Although most third-party repricing tools include upload options allowing you to set repricing rules in bulk, Automate Pricing requires users to manually set the minimum and maximum prices individually.
- It can be hard to set higher prices. Even if you’re the sole seller of an item on Amazon, with Automate Pricing your price won’t increase unless you input it manually. Some third-party repricers allow sellers the ability to set a maximum price when you’re the only seller, which can improve your profit margins.
The Bottom Line
Amazon Automate Pricing can be a simple way to institute a pricing plan as an Amazon seller, but it does come with some drawbacks. Carefully read through the service’s FAQs, and consider the pros and cons of third-party repricing tools such as Appeagle, which may provide more flexibility and features.
