Online retailers and travel companies need to be better at managing pricing to make this a profitable Christmas

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Online retailers and travel companies need to be better at managing pricing to make this a profitable Christmas.

Lixto Software, the provider of web data extraction and analysis for online retail and travel pricing intelligence, has some specific views on how pricing intelligence needs to be used more effectively by businesses to help them make the most of the Christmas shopping season.

According to Christian Koestler, MD at Lixto; "For many online retailers the Christmas period is the 'season of plenty' with consumers spending money on Christmas gifts, or planning for their next year's holidays. However, with the state of the global economy still uncertain, consumers are shopping with their heads, rather than their hearts. This means that pricing and product offerings have to be competitive to ensure healthy sales and margins during this critical shopping period."

As part of its research into how it has helped companies to increase sales online through pricing intelligence, Lixto looked at two organisations whose use of this technology has helped them achieve this. These were a leading European maker of computer and electronic accessories and an online Travel Agency (OTA).

Leading European Maker of Computer and Electronic Accessories A respected European merchandiser had concerns about other companies undercutting prices for its products online. To preserve and enhance the brand, management needed to obtain an accurate view of the competitive landscape and understand any violations in pricing policies. Additionally, the company had to learn of any sellers marketing grey-market imitations of its products.

Using a price intelligence solution from Lixto, the company is able to track virtually every product it sells on any website it selects. Using the suite to track products by manufacturing part numbers, the company can identify sellers marketing old products as new ones.

Online Travel Agency (OTA)
Key factors in determining an online travel agency's competitiveness are the abilities to negotiate best rates with providers, and the ability to ensure "best price" guarantees across the Web. For one worldwide hotel reservation service, that meant a growing gap, as the company lacked the means to accurately and reliably compare its own rates to those offered on competing sites. Since OTAs are dependent on their providers for the most competitive wholesale prices, thereby becoming the trusted source to consumers, this lack of solid timely information acted as a real threat to the OTA's long-term business.

This OTA replaced its software system with a pricing intelligence solution from Lixto to assure flexibility, automation and accuracy in competitive analysis. Today, the OTA uses the suite for 17,000 hotels and over 20 competitor sites, and plans to add more across a wider geographic area. With the fully automated process, the OTA now is confident of accurate, reliable information on competitor pricing.

"The fact that our solutions are proven to work for leading online businesses shows the results that can be gained through properly implemented pricing intelligence solutions," concluded Koestler. "We are convinced that awareness of the power of these types of solutions will help other companies benefit over the 2010 Christmas period and beyond."