Millennials are discount-hungry. Blame it on the economy in which they launched their careers or attribute it to their digitally savvy shopping habits. Either way, a new report from Mindshare North America shows that this generation will do just about anything to buy goods at the lowest possible cost. Just look at these stats:
47% of millennials will purposely leave items in their shopping cart in hopes that the retailer will reach out with a promotion.
39% of millennials clear their online search history to get better prices from online sellers.
26% of millennials have purposely entered a fake birth date to receive a discount.
70% of millennials search for promo codes online before purchasing.
Another study conducted jointly by Forbes and Elite Daily mimicked similar findings, and found that 57% of millennials report that they will not change their spending habits.
Millennials are also depending on their mobile devices as necessary comparison tools when shopping both in-store and online. Continuous access to the internet allows 59% of shoppers to simultaneously search competitor’s product listings or even access barcode scanner apps to find the same product for the cheapest possible price online. And, with 66% of millennials using new mobile payment services, the process of mobile purchasing isn’t only seamless — it’s becoming commonplace.
So, when comparison shopping is the norm, how do you balance offering competitive pricing and still hitting your desired margins? Below, I’ve pulled a few ecommerce apps most effective in helping your business stay ahead of the competition.
Wiser — Free Trial + $799/mo
Let’s face it, maintaining a competitive pricing strategy is an uphill battle. WisePricer from Wiser allows you to stay one step ahead of your competition by scanning the web for the price point at which all the other guys are selling the same product. Using the WisePricer dashboard, you can view and modify prices instantly. The platform also allows you to set custom pricing rules so that you never go below a set margin, but that you are offering the most competitive price — automatically.
DataFeedWatch — Free Trial + $29/mo
If you’re a fan of data-driven decisions, DFW is for you. The app makes it incredibly easy to create shopping feeds for comparison engines, and comes with a dashboard that tracks ROI. If a product isn’t performing in paid search, quickly take it out of the campaign and recycle those dollars into the higher performing ones. Nothing beats restoring profit by leveraging data.
SmartFeed — $69.95/mo
SmartFeed makes it easy to sync inventory data among different vendors to keep your shopping feeds up-to-date. Just like DataFeedWatch, you’ll be saving money by focusing your ad spend on performing products and taking out-of-stock items out of public view.
Discount Manager — Free Trial + $12.95-$18.95/mo
There are only so many hours in a day to run your online store the way you want or need. Additionally, setting aside time to manually update prices or run sales can seem like a daunting task. With Discount Manager, you can schedule sales and promotions without having to be in front of your computer to turn them on or off.
PayPal Powered by Braintree — Free
This one-click install is insanely easy for Bigcommerce merchants and allows you to optimize your checkout for mobile, among other things. Braintree is the Paypal-owned company which powers the checkout process for Uber — which if you’ve yet to try, you really should, even if only for research purposes. Plus, by integrating Paypal Powered by Braintree, you allow your customers to checkout across Bigcommerce’s tens of thousands of online stores without having to re-enter any of their information. This entire process streamlines online and mobile shopping for consumers, decreasing the chances that they will abandon their cart at the last minute.
What does any of this have to do with competitive pricing? Fair question — and when looked at directly, not much. But, with an abandoned cart rate average of 68% for online merchants, with 28% due to surprise costs and another 22% due to tedious checkout experiences, ensuring that your checkout process is seamless and transparent is the final step to ensuring you close the deal.
Know of any other apps or integrations out there helping you to win on the competitive pricing front and fully convert new customers? If so, let me know in the comments below!
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