Competitive pricing intelligence is pivotal for retailers seeking to analyze their product pricing in relation to competitors. This practice is essential for ensuring that their product range maintains a competitive edge, meeting both customer expectations and market demands consistently.
Product matching serves as a foundational element within any competitive pricing intelligence solution. Products are frequently presented in varying formats across different websites, featuring distinct titles, images, and descriptions. Undertaking this process at a significant scale is highly intricate due to numerous factors. One such complication arises from the fact that products are often displayed with differing units of measurement on various websites.
The Challenge of Varying Units
In certain product categories, retailers often offer the same item in varying volumes, quantities, or weights. For instance, a clothing item might be available as a single piece or in packs of 2 or 3, while grocery brands commonly sell eggs in counts of 6, 12, or 24.
Consider this example: a quick glance might suggest that an 850g pack of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes priced at $5 is a better deal than a 980g pack of Nestle Cornflakes priced at $5.2. However, this assumption can be deceptive. In reality, the latter offers better value for your money, a fact that only becomes evident through price comparisons after standardizing the units.
This issue is particularly relevant due to the prevalence of “shrinkflation,” where brands adjust packaging sizes or quantities to offset inflation while keeping prices seemingly low. When quantities, pack sizes, weight, etc. reduce instead of prices increasing, it’s important that this change is considered while analyzing competitive pricing.
Normalizing Units of Measure
In order to effectively compare prices among different competitors, retailers must standardize the diverse units of measurement they encounter. This standardization (or normalization) is crucial because price comparisons should extend beyond individual product SKUs to accommodate variations in package sizes and quantities. It’s essential to normalize units, ranging from “each” (ea) for individual items to “dozen” (dz) for sets, and from “pounds” (lb), “kilograms” (kg), “liters” (ltr), to “gallons” (gal) for various product types.
For example, a predetermined base unit of measure, such as 100 grams for a specific product like cornflakes, serves as the reference point. The unit-normalized price for any cornflake product would then be the price per 100 grams. In the example provided, this reveals that Kellogg’s is priced at $0.59 per 100 grams, while Nestle is priced at $0.53 per 100 grams.
Various Categories of Unit Normalization
1. Weight Normalization
Retailers frequently feature products with weight measurements expressed in grams (g), kilograms (kg), pounds (lbs), or ounces (oz).
2. Quantity or Pack Size Normalization
Products are also often featured with varying pick sizes or quantities in each SKU.
3. Volume or Capacity Normalization
Products can also vary in volumes or capacities with units like liters (L) or fluid ounces (fl oz).
DataWeave’s Unit Normalized Pricing Intelligence Solution
DataWeave’s highly sophisticated product matching engine can match the same or similar products and normalize their units of measurement, leading to highly accurate and actionable competitive pricing insights. It standardizes different units of measurement, like weight, quantity, and volume, ensuring fair comparisons across similar and exact matched products.
Retailers have the flexibility to view pricing insights either with retailer units or normalized units. This capability empowers retailers and analysts to perform accurate, in-depth analyses of pricing information at a product level.
In some scenarios, analyzing unit normalized pricing reflects pricing trends and competitiveness more accurately than retail price alone. This is particularly true for categories like CPG, where products are sold in diverse units of measure. For instance, in the example shown here, we can view a comparison of price position trends for the category of Fruits and Vegetables based on both retail price and unit price.
The difference is striking: the original retail price based analysis shows a stagnation in price position, whereas unit normalized pricing analysis reflects a more dynamic pricing scenario.
With DataWeave, retailers can specify which units to compare, ensuring that comparisons are made accurately. For example, a retailer can specify that unit price comparisons apply only to 8, 12, or 16-ounce packs, as well as 1 or 3-pound packs, but not to 10 and 25-pound bags. This precision ensures that products are matched correctly, and prices are represented for appropriately normalized units, leading to more accurate pricing insights.
For consumer brands, the digital marketplace presents an unparalleled landscape of opportunities for engaging with consumers and expanding their market presence. Within this dynamic environment, Digital Shelf Analytics has emerged as a crucial pillar in a brand’s eCommerce strategy. This technology provides valuable insights into a brand’s organic and paid visibility on marketplaces, content quality, pricing strategies, promotional efforts, and product availability. These insights help brands gain a comprehensive understanding of their competitive positioning and overall market performance.
Nevertheless, many brands often grapple with the question of whether this understanding translates into tangible actions that drive real business impact and return on investment (ROI). This uncertainty stems from a lack of clarity about the direct correlation between digital shelf insights and key metrics such as enhanced sales conversions.
Nonetheless, there is compelling evidence that when these insights are effectively harnessed and strategic actions are taken, brands can realize significant, measurable benefits.
So, the question arises: does Digital Shelf Analytics genuinely deliver on its promises?
At DataWeave, we’ve partnered with numerous brands to fuel their eCommerce growth through the application of digital shelf analytics. In this article, we will delve into these insights, uncovering the concrete and quantifiable results that brands can achieve through their investments in digital shelf analytics.
Digital Shelf KPIs and Their Impact
Digital Shelf Analytics is a robust system that analyzes specific key performance indicators (KPIs) about the digital shelf, furnishing brands with precise recommendations to not only bolster these KPIs but also to monitor the enhancements over time. The following is a brief explanation of digital shelf KPis and their expected impact areas:
Product Availability: Ensuring Shoppers Never Hear “Out of Stock” Again
Timely insights on the availability of products ensures brands reduce replenishment times at scale, which can significantly impact sales, creating an unbreakable link between product availability and revenue. With Digital Shelf Analytics, procurement and replenishment teams can set up notifications to promptly identify low or out-of-stock items and take swift action. This can also be done for specific ZIP codes or individual stores. In addition, availability plays a crucial role in a brand’s Share of Search and search rankings, as online marketplaces often ensure only in-stock products are shown among the top ranks.
If a product isn’t visible, does it even exist? In fact, 70% of consumers never go beyond the first page of search results on major online marketplaces. Therefore, as a brand, the visibility of your products for relevant search keywords and their appearance on the first page can heavily determine your awareness metrics. This is where the concept of Share of Search comes into play. Think of it as securing prime shelf space in a physical store. Digital shelf insights and benchmarking with category leaders for Share of Search help ensure your products command relevant attention on the digital shelf.
Content Quality: Crafting the Perfect Product Story
Creating engaging product descriptions and visuals is akin to giving your products a megaphone in a crowded marketplace. By enhancing content quality, including product names, titles, descriptions, and images, brands can climb the search result rankings, leading to increased visibility and subsequently, more sales.
Ratings and Reviews: The Power of Social Proof
Public opinion holds immense sway. Research indicates that a single positive review can trigger a 10% surge in sales, while a multitude of favorable reviews can propel your product to a 44% higher trajectory. The correlation between ratings and sales is not surprising—each step up the rating ladder can translate to substantial revenue growth.
While it’s reasonable to anticipate a connection between these KPIs and downstream impact metrics such as impressions, clicks, and conversions, we were driven to explore this correlation through the lens of real-world data. To do so, we meticulously monitored the digital shelf KPIs for one of our clients and analyzed the improvements in these metrics.
It’s essential to acknowledge that not all observed impact areas can be solely attributed to enhancements in digital shelf KPIs. Still, it’s evident that a robust correlation exists. The following section presents an in-depth case study, shedding light on the results of this analysis.
A Success Story: Real-World Impact of Digital Shelf Analytics
Let’s dive into the journey of one of our clients – a prominent CPG brand specializing in the sale of baked goods and desserts. Through their experience, we will illustrate the transformative impact of our DataWeave Digital Shelf Analytics product suite.
Over a period of one year, from August 2022 to July 2023, the brand leveraged several key modules of Digital Shelf Analytics for Amazon, including Share of Search, Share of Category, Availability, Ratings and Reviews, and Content Audit. Each of these digital shelf KPIs played a vital role in shaping the brand’s performance across various stages of the buyer’s journey.
The buyer’s journey is typically delineated into three key stages:
Awareness: At this stage, shoppers peruse multiple product options presented on search and category listing pages, gaining an initial understanding of the available choices.
Consideration: Here, shoppers narrow down their selections and evaluate a handful of products, moving closer to a purchase decision.
Conversion: In this final stage, shoppers make their ultimate product choice and proceed to complete the purchase.
Let’s now examine the data to understand how digital shelf KPIs helped drive tangible ROI on Amazon for the brand across the stages of the buyer journey.
Stage 1: Raising Awareness
Enhancing Share of Search and Share of Category can help brands boost product visibility and raise brand awareness. The following chart demonstrates the steady, incremental improvements in our client’s Share of Search and Share of Category (in the top 20 ranks of each listing page) throughout the analyzed period. These enhancements were achieved through various measures, including product sponsorship, content enhancement, price optimization, promotional initiatives, and more.
This amplified Share of Search and Share of Category directly translates into improved product discoverability, as evident from the surge in impressions depicted in the chart below.
Stage 2: All Things Considered
In the consideration stage, shoppers make their product selections by clicking on items that meet their criteria, which may include factors like average rating, number of ratings, price, product title, and images. For brands, this underscores the importance of crafting meticulously detailed product content and accumulating a substantial number of ratings.
The subsequent chart illustrates the year-long trend in both average ratings and the number of ratings, both of which have displayed steady improvement over time.
The enhancements in the number of ratings and the average rating have a direct and positive impact on product consideration. This, in turn, has led to a noticeable year-over-year increase in page views, as indicated in the chart below.
These improvements are likely to have also been influenced by the overall enhancement of content quality, which is detailed separately in the section below.
Stage 3: Driving Decisions
As buyers progress to the next stage, they reach the pivotal point of making a purchase decision. This decision is influenced by multiple factors, including product availability, content quality, and the quality of reviews, reflecting customer sentiment.
Our client effectively harnessed our Availability insights, significantly reducing the likelihood of potential out-of-stock scenarios and enhancing replenishment rates, as highlighted in the chart below. The same chart also indicates improvements in content quality, measured by the degree to which the content on Amazon aligns with the brand’s ideal content standards.
Below, you’ll find the year-over-year growth in conversion rates for the brand on Amazon. This metric stands as the ultimate measure of business impact, directly translating into increased revenue for brands.
As the data uncovers, growth in key digital shelf KPIs cumulatively had a strong correlation with impressions, page views, and conversion rates.
It is also important to note that the effect of each KPI cannot be viewed in isolation, since they are often interdependent. For example, improvement in content and availability could boost Share of Search. Accurate content could also influence more positive customer feedback. Brands need to consider optimizing digital shelf KPIs holistically to create sustained business impact.
Impact on eCommerce Sales
After the implementation of digital shelf analytics, the results spoke for themselves. Sales consistently outperformed the previous year’s records month after month. As shown in the chart below, the diligent application of DataWeave’s recommendations paved the way for an impressive 8.5% year-over-year increase in sales, leaving an indelible mark on the brand’s eCommerce success.
From boosting product visibility to catapulting conversion rates, Digital Shelf Analytics serves as the key to unlocking unparalleled online success.
While the success story detailed above does not establish a direct causation between Digital Shelf Analytics and sales revenue, there is undoubtedly a strong correlation. It’s evident that digital shelf KPIs play a pivotal role in optimizing a brand’s eCommerce performance across all stages of the buyer journey. Hence, for brands, it is vital that they collaborate with the right partner and harness digital shelf insights to fine-tune their eCommerce strategies and tactics.
That said, the eCommerce landscape is in a constant state of flux, and there is still much to learn about how each digital shelf KPI influences brand performance in the online realm. With more data and an increasing number of brands embracing Digital Shelf Analytics, it’s only a matter of time before a direct causation is firmly established.
Reach out to us today to know more about how your brand can leverage Digital Shelf Analytics to drive higher sales and market share in eCommerce.
Consider this scenario: A retailer establishes its fuel prices using pricing data that’s a few days old, only to subsequently discover that a nearby competitor is offering substantially lower prices. The result? Lost customers, decreased foot traffic, and diminished sales. This serves as a stark reality that retailers must confront and address today.
In the fiercely competitive realm of retail, where every decision holds weight, maintaining a competitive edge is paramount. The fuel category, frequently underestimated, has the potential to significantly impact a retailer’s revenue stream. This challenge is not unique; retailers worldwide, particularly in North America, grapple with a common hurdle: mastering the intricate art of real-time fuel pricing.
The Quest For Reliable, Real-Time Fuel Pricing Data
For retailers, traditional methods for procuring and analyzing fuel price data have proven to be both expensive and error-prone, often relying on manual data collection or third-party data providers. These outdated approaches yield frustrating delays, inaccuracies, and missed opportunities. When it comes to obtaining timely fuel pricing intelligence, the majority of fuel retailers grapple with three central challenges:
Low Accuracy: Ensuring that fuel pricing information remains up-to-date, dependable, and actionable, even when sourced from complex web-based platforms.
Less Coverage: Acquiring comprehensive data that encompasses all of North America, spanning across retailers, convenience stores, fuel stations, and beyond.
High Cost: Effectively managing the substantial costs associated with acquiring and processing this vital information.
DataWeave’s Fuel Pricing Intelligence Solution
Comprehensive, accurate, and real-time fuel pricing intelligence can play a huge role in the profitability of retailers throughout North America. DataWeave takes the forefront in delivering this transformative Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution to some of the most prominent retailers in the region, including the top 20 fuel retail behemoths.
With a rich and extensive history spanning over a decade in the realm of competitive intelligence, DataWeave boasts an impressive track record of empowering well-informed decision-making in retail. We leverage state-of-the-art technology to bring an unparalleled level of accuracy, timeliness, and coverage to fuel pricing intelligence.
The following are some compelling advantages offered by our solution:
Accurate and Real-Time First Party Data
We deliver retailers an unparalleled advantage through real-time, first-party fuel price data. Our data originates directly from the retailer’s own channels, encompassing websites and mobile apps, rendering it the industry’s foremost and most reliable source.
Imagine having access to fuel pricing information that updates as frequently as every 30 minutes. This rapid update cadence guarantees that you, as a retailer, constantly possess the latest pricing insights at your fingertips, empowering you to respond swiftly to market fluctuations and competitor manoeuvres. Our comprehensive data spans a wide spectrum of fuel types, including:
Gasoline: Be it regular, mid-grade, super, premium, ethanol-free, ethanol blends, methanol blends, or reformulated gasoline, we have got you covered.
Diesel: Our data encompasses biodiesel, biodiesel off-road, biodiesel blends, biodiesel ultra-low sulfur (ULS), diesel ultra-low sulfur (ULS), diesel off-road, standard diesel, and premium diesel.
Armed with our real-time, first-party data, you can make pricing decisions with unwavering confidence, secure in the knowledge that you possess access to the most current, authoritative, and extensive fuel pricing intelligence in North America.
The data points we capture directly from relevant web sources include: gas station postal code, store name and code, location, city, state, ZIP code, fuel type, competitor name, regular price, member price (if available), time and date of data capture, and more.
Click here if you wish to access a sample report of our fuel pricing data.
Unrivaled Geographical Coverage
Our extensive coverage of fuel data spans over 30,000 ZIP codes and encompasses the top 100 retailers across the western, mid-western, and eastern regions of the United States.
Retailers benefit from the flexibility to configure and tailor the solution to their precise needs, whether it involves adding more locations or selectively acquiring specific segments of the data. This far-reaching coverage guarantees that retailers, whether situated in bustling urban centers or remote areas, can readily access the essential data required to maintain their competitive edge.
Moreover, if you currently source your fuel pricing data from alternative providers, our solution seamlessly integrates, amplifies, and complements your existing array of data sources, ensuring a harmonious and unified approach to data acquisition.
Optimization of Dynamic Pricing Strategies
In the world of retail, the importance of timing cannot be overstated. Even a mere difference of a few cents can translate into millions of dollars in revenue impact. With DataWeave, retailers gain the capability to make data-driven decisions that provide them with a competitive edge around the clock, every single day.
Our platform empowers you to unearth margin gaps by pinpointing opportunities to raise prices while maintaining your competitive pricing position. It also identifies instances where you may be substantially overpriced, prompting necessary price adjustments to ensure competitiveness within the market. All these valuable insights are available at a hyperlocal level, facilitating pricing efficiency and optimization across your various regions of coverage. Equipped with this real-time data, you can swiftly adapt to ever-changing market conditions.
Furthermore, our comprehensive competitive data seamlessly integrates into your existing pricing systems through APIs, facilitating quick and informed pricing actions based on robust data.
Reliable and Customer-First Tech Platform
Our platform boasts a remarkable level of sophistication when it comes to data aggregation, normalization, visualization, and integration capabilities. It stands as a massively scalable system with the capacity to aggregate billions of data points daily, spanning thousands of web sources. This includes the intricate handling of sources like mobile apps and websites known for frequently altering their site structures, among others.
What truly sets us apart is our proficiency in addressing these challenges through a blend of human expertise and large-scale machine learning. Additionally, our commitment to delivering unmatched service extends to round-the-clock, 24/7 support. This comprehensive approach makes our fuel pricing intelligence solution not only effective but also cost-efficient in meeting your fuel data requirements.
We also provide a variety of options for you to consume our data, which includes receiving our reports via email, SFTP, S3 buckets, data lakes like Snowflake, and APIs.
Enhance your Fuel Pricing Strategies with DataWeave
In the ever-competitive world of retail, staying ahead is not just a goal; it’s a necessity. The fuel pricing landscape, often overlooked, holds immense power to impact a retailer’s profitability. DataWeave’s real-time, comprehensive, and accurate fuel pricing intelligence solution is the key to securing this advantage. Retailers and convenience stores now have a powerful platform at their disposal, offering unparalleled precision, comprehensive coverage, and the agility needed to navigate this landscape.
Join the ranks of industry leaders who have already harnessed the potential of DataWeave. Reach out to us today to redefine your approach to fuel pricing and propel your business to new heights!
In the evolving retail landscape, success often hinges on a singular focal point: pricing. A recent Statista survey revealed that 70% of US online users prioritize competitive pricing in their digital shopping choices. In this cutthroat arena, where surpassing rivals is paramount, a deep comprehension of pricing nuances is no longer just an edge, but a necessity.
Retailers are increasingly adopting pricing intelligence solutions that meticulously dissect competitor pricing data in comparison to their own, down to the SKU level. This analysis empowers their pricing teams with the insights they need to price their products competitively on a day-to-day basis.
However, in a landscape where a staggering 50 million price changes occur daily, reliance on a reactive pricing intelligence solution, though effective in many ways, often falls short. To develop a strategic and predictive pricing engine, retailers also need the ability to track historical pricing relative to market conditions, competitor actions, seasonality, promptness of competitor pricing actions, and more. This would be particularly useful for senior retail pricing and business unit leaders as they look to gain a strategic perspective on their competitive pricing health. However, even today’s leading providers of retail pricing intelligence solutions lack in this area. This results in a relatively myopic view of competitive pricing even in large retail organizations.
Introducing DataWeave’s PricingPulse
DataWeave’s PricingPulse helps retail leaders better understand their competitive pricing strategies in comparison to relevant market dynamics over time. The capability bridges the gap between day-to-day competitive pricing operations and long-term strategic pricing analysis and actions, enabling senior retail pricing leaders to untangle the complexities of their pricing strategies. Delivered as a dashboard, the view offers an elevated vantage point for industry-wide pricing dynamics, empowering retailers with the foresight needed to navigate market shifts, predict vulnerabilities, and capitalize on new opportunities.
PricingPulse is provided to all DataWeave retail customers as an add-on to our Pricing Intelligence solution.
The insights offered by PricingPulse enable retailers to answer pivotal questions about competitor pricing behaviors, price leadership across categories, timing of price changes, and the effectiveness of capitalizing on price improvement opportunities. Some of the questions that PricingPulse offers answers to include:
How frequently are my competitors changing prices and for which products?
How does my price leadership vary across key product categories?
Which day of the week or month do my competitors change their pricing most and least frequently?
How well do I seize on price improvement opportunities over time?
Strategic Pricing Views Via PricingPulse
In the following section, we share a few views available to retail leaders via our PricingPulse dashboard. For a complete list of insights available on the dashboard, request a demo today.
Competitive Price Leadership Across Retailers and Categories
This view provides retailers with an overview of the price leaders across various product categories and how it changes with time. More often than not, retailers would aim to gain price leadership in certain categories, while maintaining healthy margins in others.
Retailers can also gauge their consistency and effectiveness in maintaining a competitive edge for key categories over time. They can fortify areas of strength and identify opportunity areas to optimize their pricing.
In addition, the dashboard tracks a retailer’s price index across categories, a measure that determines its price competitiveness.
The price index is determined by dividing the retailer’s price by the lowest price offered by any of its competitors. A ratio lesser than 1 indicates that the retailer is the lowest priced in the market. This measure is also presented for competitors, providing insights into competitors that are most attractively priced in the market. A timeline trend of this metric helps track how price leadership among retailers changes over time.
Price Change Trends
This view provides a summary of the level of price changes by a retailer and its competitors over a period of time, which includes the average magnitude of price changes as well as the proportion of the retailer’s assortment that underwent these price changes.
In addition, the number of price changes each month are provided for each retailer. This is further broken down into the total number of price changes during each day of the week.
These insights help retailers determine which competitors are most and least active in their pricing activities, how aggressive the pricing actions are, and if there are any specific price change patterns followed in terms of the days of the week or month.
Price Improvement Opportunities and Actions
The dashboard actively reports on price improvement opportunities, which could include either a price increase opportunity or a price decrease opportunity, for a retailer and its competitors across categories over time. A price increase opportunity occurs when a product is significantly under priced (by more than 2%) and a price decrease opportunity occurs when a product is significantly overpriced (by more than 2%).
Further, the retailer gains insight into how many price improvement opportunities were actually acted on within 15 days of the opportunity presenting itself. This “action rate” helps retailers quantify how well they seize on price improvement opportunities, which eventually result in higher sales and margins. The dashboard also reports on the average number of days it took for a retailer to act on a price improvement opportunity, thereby quantifying the responsiveness and agility of pricing teams.
This is especially useful for pricing leaders to “audit” or evaluate the performance of their pricing teams. When similar insights are viewed for a set of competitors as well, retailers can better understand the level of sophistication of their competitors’ pricing operations.
Ready to Elevate Your Pricing Game?
The launch of DataWeave’s PricingPulse marks a significant advancement in the realm of pricing solutions for retail leaders. As the retail landscape undergoes continuous transformation, the significance of precise pricing strategies cannot be overstated. PricingPulse is the first and only pricing view in the industry to bridge the gap between tactical pricing decisions and comprehensive strategic analysis.
In a world where agility and foresight are crucial, PricingPulse equips retail leaders with the ability to predict competitor actions, optimize pricing strategies, and stay ahead of the competition.
If you are a senior pricing leader or retail business unit head, reach out to us today to either sign up or learn more!
Amazon’s India Prime Day 2023 shattered previous records with a peak of 22,190 orders received in a minute. An important aspect of Amazon’s India Prime Day was the benefits it offers to Prime Members. Thousands of sellers, brands, and bank partners collaborated to help Prime members save a staggering sum of over Rs. 300 Crores. The 2 day (July 15-16) event even witnessed strong growth in Prime membership, with 14% more members shopping than last year’s Prime Day event. 45,000+ new products were launched by over 400+ top Indian and global brands.
However, our analysis reveals that Amazon was able to make a huge splash despite adopting a relatively modest discounting strategy for the event.
Pricing and Discounts on Prime Day 2023
While Prime Day is Amazon’s showstopper, bringing huge benefits to partner brands and sellers, it’s interesting to also see how Flipkart responded to such a massive sale by its biggest competitor. Therefore, we leveraged our proprietary data aggregation and analysis platform to analyze the prices and discounts of Amazon and Flipkart across key product categories – Apparel, Home & Furniture, Consumer Electronics, and Health & Beauty – during Prime Day.
Since products on Amazon and other eCommerce websites are often sold at discounts even on normal days not linked to a sale event, we delved into the real value that Prime Day offers to shoppers by focusing on price reductions or additional discounts during the sale compared to the week before. As a result, our approach highlights the genuine benefits of the event for shoppers who count on lower prices during the sale.
Research Methodology
For our analysis, we tracked the prices of a large number of products across Amazon and Flipkart during Prime Day as well as the week prior to the event. The details of our sample are mentioned below:
Number of SKUs: 85,000+
Retailers: Amazon, Flipkart
Categories: Apparel, Home & Furniture, Consumer Electronics, Health & Beauty
Pre-event Analysis:10-14 July 2023
Prime Day Analysis: 15-16 July 2023
Our Findings
Based on our analysis, Prime Day showcased relatively higher price reductions in the Health and Beauty category, offering an average additional discount of 5.3%. In comparison, the Apparel category had lower discounts at 4.90%, followed by the Home & Furniture category at 2.50% during the sale event.
The Consumer Electronics category, known for attractive prices during sale events, featured only 0.9% price reductions. This is due to the fact that the category was already being sold at a very high average discount of around 44.8% the week prior to Prime Day.
Below, we delve deeper into our analysis of each category to better understand how price reductions were distributed across key subcategories on Amazon. We also report on the degree to which Flipkart responded to Amazon’s pricing actions during the event.
Apparel
As Amazon grappled with heightened costs and reduced profit margins in apparel (like most other retailers), its average discount before Prime Day was already at 36.5%. Then, on Prime Day, Amazon’s apparel deals were tempered at around 4.9% average price reduction across 43.7% of its assortment.
Flipkart, on the other hand, offered only a modest additional discount of 1.8% across 17.7% of its Apparel assortment. It’s clear that while Flipkart took steps to compete against Amazon in this category, it was done to a lower extent on fewer products than Amazon.
Across all the apparel subcategories we analyzed, Men’s Shoes (11.6%), Women’s Shoes (9.5%), and Men’s Shirts (8.7%) were among the ones with the highest price reductions. On the other hand, Men’s and Women’s Swimwear (2.3%), Women’s Innerwear (2.9%), and Women’s Athleisure (3.3%) had conservative markdowns.
Pricing choices within different subcategories likely stemmed from a range of factors, such as inventory quantities, trends in demand, and the aim to harmonize competitive deals with the maintenance of viable profit margins. These decisions reflect Amazon’s attempt to cater to a consumer base that is particularly conscious of pricing.
Across all apparel subcategories, leading brands that offered the highest markdowns were Sweet Dreams (65.5%), Ketch (55.1%), Clarks (44.9%), and Kibo (38.4%). Meanwhile, Reebok and Adidas offered significant additional discounts at 26.3% and 24.9%, respectively, as well.
For brands, however, reducing prices is just one approach to entice shoppers. They must also guarantee their prominent presence and easy discoverability within Amazon’s search results. This significantly amplifies their potential to generate higher clicks and conversions. In our analysis, we monitored brands’ Share of Search across various frequently used search terms in addition to the discounts they provided. The Share of Search denotes the portion of a brand’s products within the top 20 search results for a specific search query.
Our data indicates that certain brands gained ground in their discoverability during Prime Day, while others fell behind. Van Heusen in Women’s Athleisure (30%), Campus in Men’s Shoes (50%), and Rovar’s (30%) in Women’s Swimwear among others, improved their Share of Search by significant levels during Prime Day.
On the other hand, brands like Sparkx in Men’s Shoes, Xyxx in Men’s Innerwear, WomanLikeU in Women’s Swimwear, and Adidas in Women’s Shoes lost around 40%-80% in their Share of Search during the event. This is likely to have impacted their sales volumes adversely.
Home & Furniture
The Home & Furniture industry faced challenges of reduced demand and overstocked inventory over the past year. Therefore, even before Prime Day, discounts offered in this category on Amazon averaged a staggering 45.3%. Consequently, on Amazon Prime Day, additional discounts averaged only 2.5% on Amazon, offered across 33.3% of its assortment. Flipkart opted, in effect, not to compete with Amazon in this category, offering a negligible additional discount of 0.8% across 14.70% of its assortment.
Of all the Home & Furniture subcategories we analyzed, Luggage (5.1%), Beds (3.9%), and Coffee Tables (3.1%) had high price reductions, while Rugs (0.6%), Bookcases (1.5%), and Washer/Dryers (1.2%) had lower markdowns. This highlights the difference in consumer preferences across geographies, with rugs being more discretionary in India but staple in the US.
The Home & Furniture category is not known for its brand loyalty among shoppers. Therefore, brands often rely on attractive pricing to gain shopper interest. This Prime Day, brands that offered the highest markdowns in this category include It Luggage (40%), Couch Culture (25.8%), Story@Home (23.3%), and Verage (21.2%).
In terms of Share of Search, Wudparadise in Entertainment Units gained the highest (50%). Solimo (an Amazon Brand) in Beds (40%), Sofas (30%), and Coffee Tables (10%) gained significant ground in its respective categories too. In contrast, About Space in Bookcases (-60%), Anika in Entertainment Units (-40%), and Sleepyhead in Mattresses (-40%) lost out on their discoverability in their respective categories during the event.
To gain a competitive edge during sale events like Prime Day, brands need to monitor their Share of Search closely, especially in categories like Home & Furniture with low brand loyalty.
Consumer Electronics
This Prime Day, five smartphones got sold every second with 70% of the demand coming from Tier 2 & 3 cities in India, largely comprising of foldable smartphones and newly launched smartphones (OnePlus Nord 3 5G, Samsung Galaxy M34 5G, Motorola Razr 40 Series, Realme Narzo 60 Series and iQOO Neo 7 Pro 5G). Multiple new products were launched this Prime Day, by brands such as OnePlus, iQOO, Realme Narzo, Samsung, Motorola, boAt, Sony, and more in India.
Despite the high demand and new product launches, Amazon’s price reductions in the Consumer Electronics category averaged only 0.9% across 27% of its assortment. Similar to what we observed in the Home & Furniture category, this can be attributed to the prevailing high average discount of 44.8% the week prior to Prime Day. Essentially, in Consumer Electronics, shoppers needn’t always wait till sale events like Prime Day to view the most attractive deals. Several are offered even during the days leading up to the sale.
Across subcategories, Earbuds (2.4%), Wireless Headphones (1.6%), and TVs (1.3%) received the highest price reductions due to their popularity and high sales volumes during sales events. On the other hand, Smartwatches (0.6%), Drones (0.4%), and Smartphones (0.3%) had lower markdowns.
In terms of price reductions across brands, Da Capo (52.6%), Muzen (33.3%), JLab (23.6%), and Earboss (21.5%) offered the most attractive deals in the Consumer Electronics category. Notably, Amazon Basics also offered modestly attractive deals (12.2%), highlighting Amazon’s strategy of promoting in-house brands.
The Consumer Electronics category has a loyal shopper base, but generic search keywords like earbuds, headphones, and tablets remain essential for attracting high-intent shoppers and increasing brand awareness. So when it comes to Share of Search, Noise in Smartwatches, Samsung in Smartphones and Tablets, and HP in Laptops, all made strong strides in building their discoverability on Amazon during Prime Day.
Xiaomi in Laptops, Ekko in Earbuds, OnePlus in Smartphones and Apple in Tablets, lost out to other brands during the sale.
Health & Beauty
Health & Beauty emerged as the top-performing category in terms of additional discounts during Prime Day in India. Our data shows that Amazon offered an average additional discount of 5.3% on almost half of its products (46.8%) in this category. Competing head to head with Amazon in this category, Flipkart offered 5.5% additional discounts across 35.8% of its assortment.
Within all the subcategories we analyzed, Sunscreen (7.5%), Make-Up (7.2%), Shampoo (6.6%), and Moisturiser (6.4%) saw the highest price reductions on Amazon. Conversely, staple items like Toothpaste (3.%) and Beardcare (3.6%) had lower markdowns.
During the sale event, brands like Sadhev (43.4%), Clear (41.1%), Teenilicious (40.4%), and Coal Clean Beauty (38.4%), offered the most attractive deals.
In terms of significant gains in Share of Search for brands, L’Oreal Paris in Shampoo and Conditioner led the pack along with Oracura in Electric toothbrushes and The Formularx in Moisturiser. Perfora in Toothpastes and Ustraa in Beardcare also gained more than 10% in their Share of Search during the sale event.
Other popular brands like Tresemme in Conditioners, and Swiss Beauty in Make-Up surprisingly had reduced visibility among the top search results for relevant subcategories.
Navigating the Competitive Landscape: How To Thrive During Sale Events
Amazon’s strategic pricing during Prime Day reflects a balance of profitability, inventory, and competition. Competitive pricing insights empower retailers to make informed decisions, optimize strategies, and thrive during high-stakes events. Prime Day serves as a crucial opportunity to drive sales, attract new customers, and boost loyalty. Therefore, monitoring competitor prices accurately, at scale, is essential for impactful pricing strategies.
For more insights on staying ahead during sale events, reach out to us today!
If you’d like to learn about Amazon’s pricing and discounts during Prime Day 2023 in the US, check out our analysis here.
Inflation, like an invisible force, silently shapes the dynamics of economies, gradually eroding the purchasing power of consumers and leaving its imprint on various industries. High costs, hiring lags, and stagnating earnings pose severe challenges to businesses. One industry segment that intimately feels the impact of inflation is grocery, where price increases can be extremely concerning for the average consumer.
Over the last 12-plus months, the US has experienced a notable rise in inflation, stirring up concerns and influencing the way we shop for everyday essentials. Rising costs of raw materials, transportation, and labor have all played a role in driving up prices. Additionally, disruptions in global supply chains and fluctuations in currency exchange rates have further exacerbated the situation, creating a complex web of interdependencies.
To understand the magnitude of this phenomenon across leading e-retailers, we delved into an in-depth analysis of four major retail giants: Walmart, Amazon, Target, and Kroger.
Each of these retailers possesses a unique business model and competitive strategy, as well as faces unique challenges. This leads to distinct approaches to managing inflationary pressures. Walmart for instance, expects operating income growth to outpace sales growth in 2023. Given the persistence of high prices and the potential for further macro pressures, the retailer is taking a cautious outlook. In 2022, Amazon’s eCommerce business swung to a net loss of $2.7 billion, compared to a profit of $33.4 billion the previous year.
Amid these challenging circumstances, understanding the grocery pricing trends and strategies becomes imperative for retailers, both online and in stores to adapt and thrive in the current economic landscape. By examining their pricing trends, we can gain valuable insights into how these companies navigate the turbulent waters of the grocery industry against the backdrop of inflation.
Our Research Methodology
The data collected for our analysis encompassed a diverse range of products, from pantry staples like flour and rice to perishable goods like dairy and produce – a basket of around 600 SKUs matched across Amazon, Kroger, Target and Walmart, between January 2022 to February 2023.
Further, we separately focused on the prices of a smaller subset of 30+ high-volume daily staples that are likely to yield higher sales and margins for these retailers.
Average Selling Price of a Broad Set of Grocery Items
Our analysis reveals that Walmart consistently offers the lowest prices, with an average of 8% below its closest competitor, Target, despite an annual price increase of about 5%. Walmart seems to prioritize a “stability and predictability” strategy over margin optimization. The retailer’s 8% growth last quarter indicates that this strategy is bearing fruit. However, it’s important to note that this approach may have its drawbacks as Walmart’s margins come under pressure.
Average selling price trend across a basket of 500+ SKUs across Target, Walmart, Kroger, Amazon in the grocery category from Jan ’22 to Feb ’23.
In order to weather inflationary pressures, Walmart may adopt a cautious approach to growth while also focusing on securing margins. Reports suggest that the retailer has been pushing back against consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers following a series of price hikes to counter inflationary cost pressures in early 2023. One of the reasons behind Walmart’s growth and increased sales can be attributed to ‘non-traditional’ higher-income households now seeking deals and discounts at Walmart as their spending power declines.
Interestingly, Amazon emerges as the highest-priced retailer, followed by Kroger, which increased its prices by 10% throughout the year. Consumer perception commonly associates Amazon with the lowest prices, but the data tells a different story. In fact, Amazon has been charging 12% to 18% higher prices than Walmart for groceries and is still maintaining its success.
While the company’s online sales declined by 4%, it saw a significant 9% increase in revenue from third-party seller services, such as warehousing, packaging, and delivery, in 2022. Amazon’s strong logistics and same-day delivery services give it a competitive advantage over other retailers, contributing to its revenue growth and margins. Interestingly, this presents an opportunity for Walmart and other retailers to increase prices while maintaining their strong competitive price positions.
Kroger, on the other hand, seems to be aiming for a premium price perception, consistently raising prices almost every month. Kroger’s pricing strategy appears to be closer to Amazon’s.
Average Selling Price for High-Volume Daily Staples
Pricing strategies often change for different categories of products. To better understand this, we focused our analysis further on a small subset of 30+ high-volume staples across retailers. These include baked goods, popular beverages, canned food, frozen meals, dairy, cereals, detergents, and other similar items.
Average selling price trend of 30+ high-volume daily staples across Target, Walmart, Kroger, Amazon in the grocery category from Jan ’22 to Feb ’23.
Walmart, possibly overestimating the impact of inflation, has continued to keep its prices the lowest, potentially aiming to increase margins through volume.
The level of price disparity across retailers is expectedly lower here, with Amazon and Kroger closely tracking Walmart’s average prices.
Target’s pricing strategy stands out as it consistently emerges as the highest-priced retailer for daily staples, despite being one of the lower-priced retailers for a broader basket of grocery items. This suggests that Target’s underlying technology may not be as optimized to address market dynamics compared to other leading retailers. In our opinion, Target may want to strengthen its efforts to track pricing more intensely for this sub-category.
A Data-fuelled Approach is the Need of the Hour
In the challenging economic landscape, retailers and grocery stores are under pressure to maintain their revenues and margins. Adopting a comprehensive and dynamic pricing strategy is crucial. Understanding which product categories are experiencing price increases among competitors can help retailers make informed decisions on pricing at both the category and product level.
Retailers should consider their balancing margin performance with consumers’ willingness to pay, rather than implementing broad price increases that may harm customer trust. Price increases can be challenging for both customers and merchants. Retailers who employ a data-driven and insight-based approach are more likely to succeed.
Keep an eye on the DataWeave blog for analysis on pricing, discounting, stock availability, discoverability, and more, across retailers and brands from other industry segments as well.
By 2028, Fortune Business Insights projects that the global bakery products market will reach USD 590 billion. The CAGR (Compounded annual growth rate) for 2021-28 is estimated at 5.12%. Products in this segment include bread, buns, cookies, tortillas, salted snacks, English muffins, bagels, confectionery food, hot dogs, cakes, popcorn, and so on.
Due to disruptions in the global supply chain caused by lockdowns and border closures, the pandemic has had a negative impact on the demand for bakery products and snacks worldwide. However, the market is not only changing, but consumer demand is increasing. Post-pandemic, health, food, and safety have gained renewed attention.
People across the world are making healthier choices with a focus on wellness.
A growing number of people are interested in plant-based foods and beverages, reducing sugar consumption, and understanding the link between lifestyle and health, including obesity and diabetes. As a result of these trends, food producers are reshaping their product strategies to meet new consumer demands.
In this article, we take a look at the ways companies can leverage data to inform their e-commerce strategy.
What’s driving up the demand for bakery products?
More people are choosing easy-to-use bakery products and snacks over other foods due to urbanization, convenience, western diets, and women’s participation in the workforce. Additionally, innovations in baking systems, food technologies, ingredients, formulations, and product ideas are providing customers with a greater level of choice, flexibility, and freedom.
How is e-commerce changing the game for bakery product companies?
To optimize their supply chains, bakery food and snack companies must better understand e-commerce metrics given the wide variety of products available and eventually convert sales. There are several measures that companies need to pay attention to.
Stock availability metrics, discounts across locations, and share of search results – are all critical metrics companies need to track. In addition to providing manufacturers and retailers with an insight into the trends, DataWeave’s tools also allow them to make better business decisions and ultimately improve their bottom line.
Grocery Retailers and Bakery Brands tracked
Methodology
Data Scrape period: February 2022 to September 2022
Category tracked: Bread and Bakery, Chips, Crackers, Deserts, Snacks.
Share of Search Analysis
Which brands feature the most on e-commerce portals?
When listing items on e-commerce platforms, share of search is crucial. The highest share of the top ten or top twenty items available on these platforms is correlated with how many times the item may be viewed. As a result, it would have a greater chance of being selected by the customer.
By Retailer for Category “Desserts”
Share of Search for Brands in each retailer
In Walmart Grocery, Vachon has the highest share of search at 41%, whereas Betty Crocker, Presidents Choice and No Name had the lowest share of search at 0%, in the Desserts Category.
In Loblaws, Presidents Choice had the highest share of search of 34%, whereas Dempsters had the lowest share of search of 2% in the Desserts Category.
The brand Presidents Choice consistently ranks high in the share of search results for Desserts across multiple retailers, including Atlantic Superstore, Fortinos, Instacart, Loblaws, and Zehrs – except at two retailers, Voila and Watlmart Grocery, where its share is zero.
Trend of Share of Search for “Desserts”
Share of Search analysis by Brands over Time in category “Desserts”
Share of search had dropped by around 4% for No Name, whereas for Vachon, it increased by 3% from Jan’-22 to Sep’ 22
By brands, Presidents Choice had the highest share of search at 42%, whereas Betty Crocker had the lowest share of search at 12% between Jan’ 22 and Sep’ 22 in the Desserts Category.
Availability Analysis
Which products are widely available across e-commerce portals?
The availability of the product on the e-commerce portal is one of the key indicators of meeting customer demand. Brands can use insights from DataWeave to strategize how to restock their inventory and ease customer demand. Based on data analysis, brands can also determine which products to prioritize on which platforms.
By Category
Availability analysis by Category over Time
Availability of all five categories was around 52% in Feb’ 22, which steadily increased to 61% until Aug’ 22 and has reduced to reach 55% availability in Sep’ 22
Sliced Bread category has seen the most drop in availability by 12% between Jun’ 22 and Sep’ 22
The tortilla category has the most rise in availability. It has increased by 16% between Feb-22 and May-22. It also showed an overall rise in availability of 5% from Feb-22 to Sep-22
By Location
Availability analysis by Location and Category
Across categories, Snacks & Candy had better availability at 73% than Bread & Bakery, with 56% availability.
By Location, New Brunswick had more than 65% availability across all three categories; the closest Location is Nova Scotia, with 63% availability.
Alberta had the highest availability of 100% in the Snacks & Candy category and the lowest availability of 21% overall in all three categories (weighted aggregate)
Discounts Analysis
Several discount-based insights can be studied on e-commerce platforms. From location-based trends, retailer-based trends, and manufacturer-based insights. These insights can help companies make the most of the revenue opportunity while creating an attractive value proposition for the retail consumer.
By Category
Discount analysis by Category
Discounts of all three categories were around 24% in Feb’ 22, which steadily reduced to reach 15% in Sep’ 22
Snacks, cookies & chips category has contributed the most to the drop in discounting, which dropped by 17% between Apr’ 22 and Sep’ 22
The Tortilla Category does not have any discount in the month of Jul’ 22
By Retailer
Discount on Bread & Bakery category in Walmart Grocery was around 9% in Feb’ 22. It steadily increased to 13% by Jun’ 22 and thereon reduced to reach 11% availability in Sep’ 22.
By Location
Across Retailers, Nova Scotia had the highest availability of discounts at 22%, whereas New Brunswick had the lowest with discounts at 9% in Bread & Bakery category.
Discount analysis by Retailers and Locations – Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia Note: Analysis does not cover all locations
Bakery and snack product manufacturers on e-commerce platforms have access to a rich trove of insights they can leverage to benchmark their strategies. They can better understand customer demands, align their supply chain and critically understand the trends impacting their bottom line. Engaging with a third-party platform like DataWeave’s Digital Shelf Analytics can help brands unlock tremendous value.
Analyzing Search, Promotions and Availability for Chocolates, Biscuits, and Malt Drinks across BigBasket, Blinkit, Dmart, Swiggy etc.
Imagine you log into an e-commerce portal with a list of food items you need for the month. You know what you want, and scroll through the platform to see if there are any discounts. You check competitor products to see if you can get better deals. And within no time, fill your cart with products that you need and proceed to check out.
It all happens quickly. It’s an online shopping experience that we are familiar with. But what exactly is happening in the background?
Brands are tracking and ensuring the highest keyword ranking, optimal availability and competitive discounts to grab your order. And to enable this, Brands rely on Digital Shelf Analytics.
Here, we take a closer look at some of the key factors that Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Brands on e-commerce platforms need to pay attention to – to ensure their products appear on the top of search items, to better understand competitor discounts and to monitor the availability of their products across regions.
FMCG has experienced rapid growth in the last two years, largely attributed to digitalization, changing consumer habits, and increased spending post-pandemic. Macro factors, including government impetus, inflationary pressures, and consumption recovery, indicate a double digital growth for FMCG brands in the country. According to NielsenIQ’s FMCG Snapshot for Q2 2022, the FMCG industry has grown by 10.9% in the quarter ending June 2022, compared to 6% in the previous quarter. In the second half of 2022, consumers are expected to spend even more during the festive season. With these shifts underway, the growth opportunities in this sector can only be exploited by companies that can sense trends early – and take appropriate action.
In addition to providing manufacturers and retailers with actionable insights into e-commerce trends, DataWeave’s tools also allow them to make informed business decisions and ultimately improve their bottom line. Data-driven insights on e-commerce products can help brands optimize their supply chain to maximize sales. A company can determine the key areas that need attention based on an analysis of the availability of products on specific e-commerce channels, associated discounts, as well as zip-code level demand and supply statistics.
Here are a few sample insights and trend analyses for some popular FMCG brands in the Biscuits, Chocolate and Malt drinks categories spotted by DataWeave.
Analytics Methodology: An overview of the data set analyzed
What is the availability of Biscuits, Chocolate and Malt Drinks on e-commerce portals?
The availability of a product on an e-commerce marketplace is a key indicator of whether the product meets consumer demands. DataWeave’s availability analytics can be leveraged by FMCG brands to strategize their inventory and stock planning. Brands can also make data-driven decisions on product visibility, i.e. identify which products to prioritize on which platforms.
Biscuits had a better availability at 63% when compared to chocolates at 56% across all retailers
Dmart and Swiggy had more than 85% availability across all three categories, with Bigbasket coming next at 67% availability
Flipkart Grocery and Blinkit had the lowest availability at 46% and 50%, respectively.
Figure 1: Availability Scores for Biscuits, Chocolates and Malt Drinks across Retailers
Which manufacturers have the highest availability of products on e-commerce platforms?
A study of the availability of products across different manufacturers can reveal brands that have successfully tapped the market opportunity. Here’s a look at brands that have steadily improved their availability on e-commerce platforms.
Figure 2: Availability Trends for Biscuits across Manufacturers
In the biscuits category, all five manufacturers marked approximately 50% availability in Jan 2022. Availability steadily grew to 68% in June 2022, then declined to 63% in Aug 2022.
Unibic experienced the largest drop in availability, dropping 15% between May 22 and Aug 22.
Mondelez saw the largest rise in availability, an increase of 23% between Mar-22 and Aug-22.
Figure 3: Availability Trends for Malt Drinks across Manufacturers
Except for Boost and Nestle, availability for all seven manufacturers of malt drinks was consistently above 50%. The average availability across all manufacturers rose gradually from 55% in Jan to 63% in Jul-22, followed by a small decline to 57% in August.
From 30% availability in January 22 to a mere 7% in August 22, Boost has seen the greatest drop in availability.
The availability of Amul has risen the most over the past year, rising from 51% in January 22 to 78% in August 22, hitting 80% in July 22.
Chocolate: Which manufacturers have the highest availability of products on the e-commerce platforms?
Figure 4: Availability Trends for Chocolates across Manufacturers
Chocolate availability across all manufacturers averaged 47% in Jan-22, reaching a peak of 64% in May-22 and dropping to 51% in Aug-22.
From 46% in Jan-22 to 74% in May, Mondelez saw the biggest increase in availability, followed by a decline to 68% in August.
Ferrero experienced one of the sharpest drops in availability. Although the brand’s availability steadily grew from 77% in Jan 22 to 94% in Jul 22., it registered a steep drop to 49% in August.
The drop in availability hurts the Brand’s eCommerce in two ways. Not only does the Brand lose sales directly. But poor availability also impacts the keyword search ranking, which further hurts the sales.
Check out DataWeave’s Digital Shelf Analytics Product for insights on how Availability tracking can help reduce stock-outs and boost sales. Click here to know more.
Discount Analysis
Location-based, retailer-based, and manufacturer-based discount trends can be analyzed. These studies can help companies plan attractive and appropriate promotional and discount strategies to enhance their revenue opportunities.
Which manufacturer has been offering the most discounts?
A study of discounts offered across manufacturers for chocolates, malt drinks and biscuits indicates that some brands have increased their discounts while others have reduced their discount rates. These decisions could be triggered by demand, availability, and production cycle. Parle, for example, has steadily reduced its discount rates.
Figure 5: Discount Rate Trends across Manufacturers
Average discount rates across manufacturers were around 9% in Jan 2022 and rose steadily to reach 14% in Jul 2022. A small decline is observed post-July, with a 12% discount rate registered in Aug 2022.
In the biscuit category, Unibic offered the biggest discount of 28%, followed by ITC at 20%.
In the Chocolate category, Hershey’s offered the largest discount of 14%, followed by ITC at 12%.
In the Malt Drink Category, Amul offered the largest discount of 16%, followed by Boost at about 10%.
Check out DataWeave’s Digital Shelf Analytics Product for insights to respond to Competitor’s pricing and promotions. Click here to know more.
Share of Search Analysis
Which brands feature within the top 5 on the first page of the search?
A product that appears within the top 5 items on the first page of a search, has a higher probability of being purchased. Below is a study of the share of the search for biscuits across manufacturers and retailers.
Figure 6: Share of Search for Biscuits across Manufacturers and Retailers
Britannia dominates the top ten share of search across different online retail platforms.
Mondelez has the highest share of search at 62% in Amazon Fresh, whereas Parle-G has the lowest share of search at 7%.
In Bigbasket, Britannia has the highest search share of 62%, whereas Parle-G has the lowest search share of 7%.
Check out DataWeave’s Digital Shelf Analytics to track the Share of Keyword and Navigation Search. Click here to know more.
Conclusion
FMCG is a rapidly evolving industry sector with a high potential for growth in the coming years. FMCG brands must compete with one another to fully tap this market opportunity on several factors to ensure that their products are visible, available, and attractive to consumers. Digital crawling and big data technologies have enabled manufacturers and retailers to collect publicly available e-commerce data for useful, actionable insights and trend analysis. To stay competitive, it is crucial for manufacturers and retailers to engage with analytics and data experts to seamlessly integrate e-commerce analytics into their short- and long-term business strategies. Whether it’s building keywords to increase the share of search, knowing the right discounts to attract customers in a particular city or increasing the availability of products on specific e-commerce platforms, companies need to invest in the right data intelligence!
DataWeave for FMCG Brands
DataWeave has been working with global CPG/FMCG brands, helping them drive their growth on eCommerce platforms by enabling them to monitor their key metrics, diagnose improvement areas, recommend action, and measure interventions’ impact. DataWeave’s KPIs enable Brands to fill in the blind spots in their funnel data and allows them to respond to competitors on a near-real-time basis.
If you want to know to learn how your brand can leverage DataWeave’s data insights and improve sales, then click here to sign up for a demo
The festival of lights symbolized the victory of light over darkness, good over evil & knowledge over ignorance. Over the years, Diwali has become all that and more. It has single-handedly become the biggest shopping season in India! Splurging on a new Smart TV or Fridge, or a furniture upgrade at home has become customary during Diwali. Not to forget buying gold and gifts for all your loved ones!
As more and more people are doing their Diwali shopping online, we decided to look at the data, see what people were browsing and buying. And more importantly, which brands spruced up their Digital Shelf & put their best foot forward this Diwali Season.
Methodology
We tracked the first 250 products on Amazon & Flipkart against specific keyword searches & product categories.
Share of Search (SoS): The percentage of products that appeared on the search results page on Amazon or Flipkart belonging to a brand, against a specific keyword or category.
Dates of Crawl during the Flipkart Big Billion Day / Amazon Great Indian Festival. – Pre-sale period: 1st October 2021 – Sale Period: 3rd to 10th October 2021 – Post Sale Period: 11th – 18th October 2021
India’s E-Commerce Gold Rush
YouGov reported that almost three in ten urban Indians (28%) are planning to spend on gold in the next 3 months. Seven in ten (69%) of these prospective gold buyers agreed with the statement, “Diwali is the best time to buy gold”, highlighting their inclination to spend during the festive season. Also, the same survey showed that Tanishq was the most trusted gold brand. With Kalyan Jewellers, Malabar Gold & Diamonds and PC Jewellers also making it to the top 5 list.
While traditionally Gold was mostly sold offline, that trend has fast changed. We tracked brands that had the highest Share of Search against the keyword “Gold Coin” on both Amazon & Flipkart to see if Tanishq, Malabar Gold, PC Jewellers – the big trusted names in jewellery were making their mark online.
Search Insights for Gold Coin
On Amazon, MMTC-PAMP (a joint venture between Switzerland-based PAMP SA & MMTC Ltd, a Government of India undertaking) and Kundan had the highest visibility for the keyword “Gold Coin” at 10%, followed by Malabar Gold at 9%. (Refer to above graph of Search Visibility on Amazon)
MMTC-PAMP used the help of Sponsored ads to get this visibility. They sponsored 9 products during the sale, while ACPL, the largest supplier of silver in India sponsored 26 products and New Delhi-based PC Jewellers sponsored 12 products. (Refer to above graph of Sponsored Products on Amazon)
As recently as 2 weeks ago, MMTC-PAMP launched their e-commerce portal following in the footsteps of other jewellery brands. According to a report by the World Gold Council, the jewellery industry went through a massive slowdown amid the pandemic and prepping their e-commerce & digital strategies are likely going to be the only way forward.
On Flipkart, PC Jewellers, Malabar Gold & Kundan occupied the top 3 spots on the search results page. While PC Jewellers sponsored 12 products on Amazon, on Flipkart they sponsored zero. Malabar Gold on the other hand sponsored a whopping 25 products on Flipkart! Interestingly Malabar Gold sponsored no products on Amazon for the keyword Gold Coin. (Refer to above graph of Sponsored Products on Flipkart)
Unboxing the love – Branded Diwali Gift Hampers
Branded-Diwali-Gift-Hampers
Now let’s talk about Diwali Gifts. How often have you thought of buying someone a Diwali gift but had absolutely no idea what to get them? You’re not alone! A lot of consumers would simply run a search for “Diwali Gift Hampers” or Diwali Gifts” in the hope to stumble across a great gifting idea and make an instant purchase! Smart brands who know this make sure their products have organic or sponsored visibility against these keywords
OnAmazon, Tied Ribbons, a D2C gift and Décor company had the highest number of Sponsored products (15) against the keyword Diwali Gift followed by the iconic Brand Archies with (14) products. Flipkarthad a whole bunch of smaller brands and sellers optimizing their products for this keyword. Some bigger, more known brands like Chaayos, Cadbury, D2C Tea brand Vahdam did have visibility for the keywords “Diwali Gift Hampers/ Diwali Gifts” but they were way down on the list, at the bottom of the search results page, or on Page 2.
Was this a missed opportunity for them?
Give your home a festive upgrade!
Diwali is a perfect time to upgrade or buy new electrical appliances for your home. Great prices, new product launches, and an unmatched festive feeling make it even more ideal to make new purchases. If you’re eyeing smart innovative electrical appliances for your home this year and decided to go make your purchase during the Flipkart Big Billion Day or Amazon Great Indian Festival, let’s take a look at which brands made sure they showed up right on top in your online search.
We tracked search visibility for 5 keywords in the home appliance space – Smart TV, Washing Machine, Microwave, Air Conditioner & Refrigerators to see which brands had the highest share of search
Brands with the Highest Share of Search on Amazon
On Amazon, both Samsung & LG had high visibility across all products except Air Conditioners!
For ACs, Voltas had the highest share of search even though they sponsored 0 products! And that’s definitely noteworthy. So what really gave them the edge and put them in this winning position?
We took a look at their product reviews to draw an analysis. Voltas ACs had close to 10k reviews! The highest in the AC category. Ratings & Reviews play a key role in helping brands drive their Digital Shelf experience. Customers trust user-generated content more than information brands share with them. Also, Amazon’s A9 algorithm prioritizes products with better reviews & shows them higher up in search – a low-cost & organic way for brands to get to the top without spending money on Sponsored ads!
Most loved Air Conditioner brand
When it comes to washing machines, Lloyd & White Westinghouse (trademark by Electrolux) sponsored the maximum number of products in the category, this gave them the highest Sponsored SoS (13%) on the first page.
While their sponsored visibility was high, their overall SoS was low which is why they didn’t organically feature in the top 5. Sponsoring products is a great but expensive way to artificially boost product visibility during sale periods. Brands need to go the Voltas route by optimizing their reviews & rating or content, to organically gain and sustain product visibility.
… & here are the brands that made it to the top on Flipkart.
Brands with the Highest Share of Search-on-FLIPKART
Gift-worthy gizmos!
Buy the latest gadgets and pamper yourself this Diwali or gift them to your loved ones! You could be looking to upgrade your laptop, or buying a fancy DSLR or Smartwatch, buying it online may be your best bet. Discounts have dwindled over the years but you may still get the most lucrative discounts online. Let’s look at the discounts offered on Amazon & Flipkart for some gift-worthy gizmos like Laptops, Cameras, Smart Watches & Headphones this festive season.
The platform that offered the highest number of products in their catalog at a discount
On Amazon, during the sale, the headphones category offered a 75% of products on discount as compared to the pre-sales period. That number was just around 51% for cameras. Far more number of products were discounted on Flipkart – 87% for headphones & laptops. And cameras 77%. So if you were looking to shop for gadgets around Diwali, Flipkart would’ve been a better bet.
Let’s look at which platform offered the highest percentage of discounts on products.
Discounts were higher across all 4 product categories!
Apart from more products being discounted on Flipkart, Flipkart also offered higher discounts across these 4 categories. Discounts were higher across all 4 product categories!
Do you know if your brand is prepped and ready to make an impact on a Big Festival Sale Day? Or simply just wondering if your Digital Shelf is optimized with the right price, discounts, reviews and keywords? Our team can DataWeave can help! Reach out to our Digital Shelf experts to learn more.
After demonetization, Covid-19 has probably been one of the worst scenarios for the retail sector in India. The entire nation went into lockdown and the industry noticed some big changes around the entire globe. From remote working to shopping, everything turned to digital and Bharat witnessed new trends across payments, e-commerce, and more.
Not surprisingly, D2C has been a favorite amongst businesses thanks to its agility. More than 800 brands have joined the direct-to-consumer bandwagon in order to reach their audience quickly and in an efficient way. Where brands such as MamaEarth, Clovia, Bewakoof, Lenskart have been some of the popular brands in the sector, last year even traditional giants such as LG, Ajanta-Orpat, Piaggio, Havells also adopted the D2C model.
Brands are more focused on making the user experience better and it will be safe to say that this year, D2C will be the highlight of the e-tail ecosystem. Naturally, e-commerce giants such as Amazon, Flipkart have played an important role in this revolution. Amazon, which has over 100 Million registered users in India, announced that it will host its flagship event, Prime Day this year on 26-27 July.
Let’s look at some of the things brands can do to leave their mark this Prime Day in India.
Given that the pandemic has accelerated online shopping nationwide, Digital Shelf Optimisation (DSO) should be the key lever for any brand to accelerate its digital commerce growth. Events such as Prime day are significant for a brand’s reputation, customer experience, overall sales and can help you build a loyal customer base.
With that in mind, we have prepared a list of things to consider, in order to help brands stand out from the crowd.
Pricing and Discounting: Offer discounts and deals to attract customers.
It is obvious that Prime Day will see a tremendous influx of shoppers. Noticeably, impulsive shopping is a trend during these sales, as everybody loves a good product for a discounted price. Make sure to offer discounts and deals to attract customers.
Another suggestion is to keep a track of competition, their pricing and promotional strategies and keep an eye on price changes happening across relevant categories or SKU’s (Stock Keeping Unit). Competition analysis is a powerful tool and having accurate data on their sales, market share is a critical part of this.
Product Visibility: Lakhs of sellers & brands are vying for the same spot
Marketplaces are crowded, and getting discovered is already hard. Lakhs of sellers & brands are vying for the same spot. And with more people moving online, it’s going to get increasingly harder for brands to stand out. Optimize your search visibility using the right keywords relevant to your brand, strategically spend on Sponsored Ads to secure high visibility placements on Amazon and lastly make sure your online product packaging via product pages contain attractive images to position your product in the best light.
Product Availability: Have plenty of stock available
Make sure to have plenty of stock available as shoppers are likely to turn to other brands/products in case your product is unavailable. Also, keep in mind that people are generally more open to trying new products during a sale as it offers discounts. Track your products’ stock status to make sure they’re available 24 x 7.
As the foremost goal during sales is to move inventory as much as possible, offering a large assortment is a good idea. Create product bundles that complement each other.
A+ Content is King: The new age packaging for your product
Content is the new age packaging for your product. Content is crucial to change consumer shortlists & considerations into conversions.
Your content tells your product story & gives customers the information they need to make a purchase. Use high resolution and accurate images, add features, benefits, USPs of your products clearly. It is advisable to use more than one image to show your product more clearly. Make sure all your brand & product pages on Amazon are optimized.
Reviews and Ratings: Feedback is a very important e-commerce tool.
Why would shoppers rely on word-of-mouth when they can take help from millions of people from the community? Not said enough, feedback is a very important e-commerce tool. Amazon’s A9 algorithm presents the choices to the consumers but reviews and star ratings still play an influential role in the journey from consideration to conversion.
Brands could consider partnering with Dataweave, to keep track of reviews and manage negative ratings on Amazon.
Summary
According to a report by EY-IVCA Trend Book 2021, “ The e-commerce industry in India is expected to reach $99 Bn by 2024 and penetration of retail is expected to be 10.7% by 2024, compared to 4.7% in 2019.”
Source: Statista
The same report also revealed that India will have 220 Million online shoppers by 2025. With e-commerce growing at an exponential rate, brands are advised to be more statistical & data-driven to win a larger % of online sales. If you think this is the right time to optimize your digital shelf, take a look at our products and services.
We at DataWeave would be happy to be a part of your e-commerce and digitization journey. You can sign up for a demo with our team to know more
