How will the crisis affect e-commerce and what can you do about it?

E-commerce business representatives are quite worried about what the year 2023 would bring. This industry is also being impacted by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, the economic, ecological, and energy issues, as well as growing inflation. What can be done in light of the forthcoming recession? It turns out that a suitable pricing strategy, based on automated monitoring of online shop prices and monitoring of advertising and competition promotion, can aid e-stores in remaining competitive.

Better don’t act hastily in light of the impending economic crisis

Consumer behavior is affected significantly by a number of factors, including inflation, the conflict in Ukraine, the diminishing supply of some goods, the nation’s shaky political climate, and even the ecological disaster. The latest report of the Chamber of Electronic Economy shows that up to 79% of Polish citizens have changed their shopping behavior in connection with the upcoming economic crisis (source: Raport e-Izby „W Kryzysie Do E-commerce” 2022 – January 11, 2023). The same document analyzes various purchasing strategies used by Poles in the face of the crisis.

On the one hand, Poles declare buying online (31%), but on the other hand, they are quite cautious about spending.

The following purchasing strategies are dominant:

• so-called ASAP shopping, i.e. buying before the price increases,
• promo-hunting, i.e. hunting for bargains and discounted products,
• low-risk shopping, i.e. buying products that can be easily returned,
• purchase only essential products and services.

It is true that Polish online buyers observe that e-shopping is associated with reduced prices and a wider selection of brands, but the majority of respondents think that during a crisis, one should not buy everything at once before prices escalate. According to a significant group of respondents (59%), much better behavior in difficult times is to put off all unnecessary and limit spending to essential goods and services. a research of seasoned internet buyers who have been making purchases for more than 5 years reveals that 89% of them optimize their spending. Due to the crisis, Poles are more attentive to the availability of deferred payment options as well as alluring promotions and price reductions.

(source: Raport e-Izby „W Kryzysie Do E-commerce” 2022 – January 11, 2023).

In times of crisis, e-commerce should focus on monitoring competition prices, and automation

The upcoming economic crisis keeps many e-commerce specialists awake at night… But even in the face of regression, e-shops can still improve their condition owing to a variety of solutions. One of them is the monitoring of competitors’ prices. It is not worthwhile to leave the ongoing competition between online stores selling the same products since you risk losing clients for no good reason. Better to go with the flow! To do this, businesses might spend money on cutting-edge tools that will automate pricing monitoring and make it easier to gather other useful data on the actions of rivals.

Brandly360 is a solution that makes it feasible to keep the most margin while preserving a competitive advantage. On the screen below, you can See how one of Brandly360’s clients is evaluating the functionality of this tool by monitoring the prices of online retailers. Comparative analysis is performed for products from various categories and brands. The results can also be sorted by the names of stores where a given product is offered. Utilizing cutting-edge technologies, you can quickly review a large amount of hard data. Product prices and promotions are updated every 10 minutes.

Analyzing competitive activities is made much easier by transparent reports and color marks (red color indicates price drop, black color indicates no change and green color indicates price growth). The only thing left to do is create the best sales department strategy and outperform the competition. 

Brand monitoring may also include analysis of advertisements and competition promos

Monitoring of advertisements and promotions is another trend that, despite the impending economic crisis, has the potential to be very beneficial. These kinds of tasks would be tiresome and take a lot of time if they were performed manually and without automation. They would also be ineffective because the data would already be out of date by the time it was located and examined. Automation and the appropriate tool are used to solve the issue.

With the help of Brandly360 the owner of the online store may monitor all banners and promotions, both his own and those of the competitors. Data can be exported to CSV or Excel files, as well as connected via API with BI tools that the business uses on a daily basis. The information obtained will be used to confirm the efficacy of the purchased banners and to improve the visibility of advertisements. It will also make it feasible to identify patterns and respond as fast as possible to their changes.

Our tool not only allows you to see and analyze how your competitors advertise. With the help of Brandly360, it is also feasible to identify the locations that convert the best based on competition activity and ensure that investments in particular marketing channels are accurate. The initial step is to make a list of particular product groups that deserve to be highlighted. It won’t be able to maximize the advertising budget to turn a profit unless it is done in conjunction with knowledge of where to advertise the products.

Creating a pricing strategy based on the promos that convert the best is worthwhile when a crisis strikes

When a crisis appears to be approaching, it is especially crucial to have a suitable pricing plan based on the findings of various analyses. However, it is preferable to use intelligent tools rather than educated assumptions or laborious calculations. Tools that swiftly gather the relevant data show what the competition is doing and which promotion types convert the best.

The intuition that suggests a solid solution will be promotional codes for prior customers, multi-items (applying discounts on many pieces of the same item), or remarketing – reaching clients with an advertisement who have already interacted with the website, is half the battle already. Making the best business decision, however, will require knowledge of specific industry trends that have been supported by hard facts. With the help of Brandly360 you will achieve it! Our technology was developed so that merchants could maximize their online sales efforts and make them successful.