Monitor your own and your competitors’ performance and pricing
In competitive sectors like TCG it is important to constantly monitor trends and performance in sales, marketing, promotions, and in your own pricing versus the competition. You need to be looking at this data very frequently to identify opportunities and spot emerging risk factors so you can act fast and with the confidence that your decisions are based on hard evidence.
Being ready to maximize 2021’s peak seasons is an ongoing process. You need to track price developments effectively. Today competitor prices move quickly throughout the year and frenetically during key promotional weeks like Singles’ Day and Black Friday.
By understanding what consumers will pay for a product and how much the competition is selling it for, you can evaluate whether your pricing is appropriate for the current market conditions. This is important in any given week but even more so in the most sales-relevant weeks of the year.
The relationship between sales and discounted price is only the first step to understanding the source of business. Success also depends on knowing if you have a distribution or a sales issue at retail. Only then you can determine the appropriate actions to optimize your campaign strategy. For an industry dominated by weekly sales activities, it is crucial to rely on granular analysis of performance – both past and present. Weekly performance reporting allows sales and marketing teams to maximize impact by acting fast, such as continuing a price promotion that delivers an uplift or ending one that fails to do this.
Today, Black Friday is the most important sales peak for retailers outside China. Monthly or less frequent sales data will show that November was a very strong month, but the weekly view will allow comparisons of Black Friday with Cyber Monday and enable an analysis of sales performance on channel level. You can now understand which channels and segments should be distributed during key promotional events. Use historical trend data to learn from the past – but remember, the pandemic has changed a lot so only monitoring what is happening right now will help you maximize your sales this peak season.
