As an ecommerce seller, staying competitive on Amazon feels like a relentless game of whack-a-mole. You work hard to optimize every aspect of your product listing only to have a competitor undercut your price by a few cents the next day. But what if you could automate your pricing so it updates in real-time based on competitors? That‘s where an Amazon price tracker comes in.
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll cover everything you need to know to set up your own Amazon price tracking system and use it to consistently beat your competitors.
Why You Desperately Need an Amazon Price Tracker
Let‘s start by looking at 5 reasons why actively tracking and adjusting your Amazon prices is absolutely essential:
1. Amazon‘s Algorithm Heavily Favors Lower Prices
Amazon‘s search algorithm is designed to surface listings with the lowest price first. According to Jumpseller, Amazon ranks products primarily based on price – accounting for 63% of search ranking factors. This means if you don‘t have the lowest price for a product, you‘ll get far fewer impressions and sales. Having the most competitive pricing means you‘ll grab the Buy Box and get up to 80-90% of sales for that item.
2. Competitors Will Aggressively Undercut Your Prices
With over 2.5 million active sellers on Amazon, you can bet another seller will come along very soon and list their identical product for a few cents or dollars less than yours. In fact, many competitors use "race to the bottom" pricing strategies designed to undercut rivals‘ prices continually. You need to know immediately when this happens so you can reprice accordingly.
3. Prices Fluctuate Wildly in Response to Supply, Demand, and Competition
According to analytics from RepricerExpress, prices for the average product on Amazon change 5-15 times per day. Prices fluctuate in response to supply, demand, seasonality, promotions, and competitor actions. Manually staying on top of these continual changes is impossible – you need automation.
4. Lightning Deals and Other Promotions Drive Down Prices
On top of regular price variations, Amazon further pressures pricing with promotions like lightning deals and coupons that temporarily decrease prices by 30-50%. If you fail to respond, these deals will siphon off many of your potential buyers.
5. Overpriced Items Get Buried in Search Results
If your price climbs too far above competitors, Amazon will bury your listing pages back so that fewer shoppers ever see it. Maintaining competitive pricing is required to drive traffic to your listings.
How an Amazon Price Tracker Works to Your Advantage
Now that you know why price tracking is critical, let‘s examine how an Amazon price tracking tool actually works:
It continually monitors your prices and competitor prices 24/7.
When changes occur, it alerts you immediately via email, text, mobile notifications, etc.
It provides pricing analytics to uncover trends and optimize your pricing strategy.
It automates repricing to ensure your products remain competitively priced.
It integrates with other tools like inventory software, analytics, and order management systems.
For large sellers, this automation and intelligence is the only way to efficiently manage pricing across hundreds or thousands of SKUs.
Building Your Own Custom Amazon Price Tracker
While paid solutions exist, you can also create your own DIY Amazon price tracking system for free using web scraping. Here are the key steps involved:
Step 1: Use a Web Scraper to Extract Amazon Pricing Data
The first component you need is a web scraper that can automatically pull pricing data from Amazon at the specific intervals you set – hourly, daily, etc. Scraping tools like Octoparse, ParseHub, and Apify are great options here. These tools allow you to specify the ASINs or search criteria for the products to monitor.
Step 2: Store the Scraped Data
Once your web scraper pulls the latest pricing information from Amazon, you‘ll need a database to store that data for ongoing analysis. Options like MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, or Google Sheets all work. The key is choosing a database that allows easy querying and connecting to other tools.
Step 3: Analyze Price History to Uncover Trends
Analyzing the stored pricing history data is critical for identifying opportunities and setting competitive pricing. Key questions to analyze include:
- What are the average, minimum and maximum prices for each product?
- How frequently does the price change?
- How does my price compare to competitors over time?
- How has the price for a product fluctuated over the past 30, 60, or 90 days?
Step 4: Get Alerts for Competitor Price Changes
There are a couple ways to get notifications when your tracker detects critical competitor price changes:
Email/text alerts – Many databases or web scrapers support configuring automatic alerts.
Custom dashboards – Build a dashboard in a BI tool showing your price vs. competitors updated in real-time.
Step 5: Integrate with Repricing Software
To automate taking action on the data your tracker collects, integrate it with repricing software like RepricerExpress. This automatically reprices your inventory 24/7 based on the rules you set.
Choosing the Right Amazon Price Tracking Software
Building your own custom tracking solution gives you ultimate flexibility but also demands significant technical skills. Alternatively, you can choose from several purpose-built SaaS tools:
Keepa – Browser extension for tracking Amazon price history and alerts.
CamelCamelCamel – Popular Chrome extension for price tracking and alerts.
RepricerExpress – Specialized for repricing, with advanced price tracking built-in.
Sellics – All-in-one Amazon seller software, with robust pricing and sales tracking.
When evaluating tools, consider:
Data accuracy – Does it pull prices precisely, or are they just estimates?
Speed – How quickly will it detect and alert me to competitor price changes?
Pricing intelligence – Does it uncover actionable insights from the data?
Ease of use – Is the interface beginner-friendly?
Customer support – Will they help me if I have questions or need training?
For most sellers, a purpose-built SaaS tool will provide the best experience and value out of the box.
What Data Should You Track with Your Amazon Price Tool?
While monitoring your product price is the priority, here are some other key data points your Amazon price tracker should collect:
Competing product prices – Track how your rivals are pricing comparable products.
Buy Box price – This is the default price most buyers pay, so critical to monitor.
Lightning deal prices – Watch for Amazon temporary promotions on your or competitor products.
Shipping costs – Changes in shipping impact the total cost to customers.
Inventory levels – Low competitor stock can present opportunities to capture more buyers.
New product launches – Be alerted to new competitors entering your niche.
Product rating changes – Shifts in your rating may influence buying behavior.
Sales velocity – Monitor spikes or drops using Best Seller Rank as an indicator of changes in demand.
Developing a Winning Competitive Pricing Strategy
Once you‘ve begun tracking prices, use that intel along with your profit goals to employ proven pricing strategies:
Match the Buy Box price – This should be your baseline for competitive pricing.
List at 1-5% below your closest competitor – Subtly undercutting rivals sends a pricing signal to Amazon‘s algorithm.
Leverage automated repricing tools – Rules-based repricers integrate with your tracker to instantly adjust pricing 24/7.
Run A/B price experiments – Try lowering your price in increments to empirically determine impact on sales.
Factor in conversion rates – A lower price driving more conversions can ultimately mean higher profits.
Monitor trends and adjust – If sales sink below targets, lower prices to spur volume.
Watch for opportunities during pricing volatility – Use major swings in supply/demand to your advantage.
Other Important Pricing Considerations on Amazon
Beyond just your list price, other elements impact the total price customers pay:
Shipping costs – Offer free Prime or low-cost shipping options to improve conversion rates.
Taxes – Streamline tax calculation to prevent buyers from balking at surprise taxes at checkout.
Returns – Will you offer free returns? Making returns easier for customers lowers the risk of purchasing.
Multi-pack pricing – Bundling products together allows you to offer better per-unit pricing.
Coupons – Strategic coupon use helps you profitably acquire new Amazon buyers.
FBA fees – If using FBA, incorporate the referral fees into your cost structure.
Carefully optimizing each pricing factor is crucial to maximizing profits.
Best Practices for Effective Amazon Price Tracking
Follow these best practices to get the most out of your Amazon price tracker:
Focus on your top 10-20 best-selling items first – Start with where you have the most revenue opportunity.
Check prices at least 2-4 times per day – Every 2-4 hours lets you respond quickly to changes.
Create intelligent pricing alerts – Get notified immediately only when critical changes occur.
Use automated dynamic repricing – Repricing instantly translates tracker data into competitive pricing 24/7.
Leverage the historical price data – Analyze trends to inform optimal pricing strategies.
Audit tracker accuracy – Manually double check tracked prices periodically to confirm they‘re correct.
Research pricing thoroughly before launching new products – Use your tracker to determine competitive pricing from day one.
Consistent price tracking and informed repricing is the proven path to success on Amazon. Investing time into setting up and perfecting your tracking and repricing process will pay dividends for years to come.
Final Thoughts
In 2024, selling on Amazon without automated pricing intelligence and adjustment is like trying to navigate in the dark. The stakes are high, with competitors ready to outflank you in an instant.
By leveraging the data from an Amazon price tracker coupled with rule-based repricing, you can compete and thrive. Rather than getting bogged down trying to monitor pricing manually, leverage technology to do the heavy lifting.
As you evaluate technology options – whether building your own tracker or researching pre-built tools – focus on finding an approach that delivers the data and automation capabilities that best match your needs and budget. With dynamic pricing in place, you can focus your energy on growing the business, confident you are maximizing profits on every sale.
