This article helps Product Developers understand the wider process involved once a product has been developed and launched to maximise revenues and make the best possible return on development efforts and avoid product 'doom loops'. Reference is included to distributors since manufacturers may be selling via their distributor networks as well as Direct-to-Consumer.
Pricing & Product Lifecycle
- When first doing your price research, use our Price Comparison app to add in exact matches to competitor products so you can track their price changes over time which may impact your conversion rates and sales. Here are some example screen grabs of existing product price tracking that's been entered:
Helicopter view of all products:
Today's price position for all tracked products:
Individual product with 6 month price tracking shown:
- Use the Top Products Report to check for search demand via Views, Conversion Rate and whether the product is being advertised on Google.
Top Products Report can be sorted by column heading or download as a CSV for more complicated sorting
- From time-to-time re-check in Price Compare for changes in pricing and re-price products where appropriate (prices can go up as well as down) and check on Google for new entrants into the market to maintain awareness.
- Product Lifecycle report will also show you where you are in the life cycle curve and when promos and price changes should be run, as per example below.
You could approach price changes in this order:
1. Marketing campaigns with coupons offering discounts first - could form part of a seasonal campaign
e.g. Easter Weekend Promo - Pump Up Performance with 15% Off
2. Putting a product on special offer for a period of time so the price difference is visible on the product page
3. Correct the main price (a) if it is clearly over or under-priced (b) once promos have run and you need to settle the price especially if you have distributors and it affects their prices. - Avoiding Product 'Doom Loops'.
AKA... Don't discontinue products too early and without due processes being followed so you fully understand why a product has seen revenues drop off and whether you can revive it:
1. Has it been removed from the ad product feed and therefore views are down? Can it be put back into the feed?
2. Have sales been down due to changes in ad spend?
3. Is the conversion rate low due to price changes by you or distributors or competitors? Check using the price compare app and a Google search
4. Have promos been run first and special offer pricing put out there?
5. Is there an issue with the product page itself / have there been negative reviews or lots of new questions from Expert Answers indicating an issue?
Distributor Performance & Embracing New Products
Two key drivers covered here:
- Do Distributors hit their sales commitments to receive the right level of discount?
This can be automated using our VIP Club system to move distributors through different discount bands automatically dependent on what they spend, with a number of email notifications to warn them if they need to spend more to maintain their discount, plus showing spend levels within the Distributor Hub and product discovery tools to show what else they can buy, new products etc. - How to ensure distributors list all your products on their websites quickly and sell more of them?
Your Marketing team should follow an established internal product launch process to make distributors aware of products and give access to marketing collateral.
Distributors can access product data either automatically via our product API or via a product download built on the Shopify standard.
If Distributors don't use either of these methods then your account managers can check and cajole them to update their sites to enhance sales and maintain or improve their discounts.
Screenshot of the current Distributor Hub
Account Managers can use the new Customer Order Analysis report to review / manage their contacts