As more and more suppliers and retailers are relying on omnichannel sales as a driver of volume growth and revenue, a new analytics tool has emerged to help marketers locate and track how their brand, along with their rivals’, is being promoted on retailers’ websites.
Called the Online Retail Tracker, this service shows the share of voice for brands in their product categories, latest deals, promotions, ad banners, cashbacks, product availability and other advertisements. Price fluctuations and comparisons are also available, which is significant considering the focus many suppliers and retailers place on online pricing compared to bricks and mortar stores.
The Online Retail Tracker is the brainchild of Renato Catalan, an experienced public relations professional who has worked with Acer, Western Digital, Brother and Agent 18, and is currently the principal of his own consultancy, Clearwater Communications. He devised the Tracker because it was becoming harder and harder for timepoor sales executives, retail buyers and marketing strategists to keep abreast of how all the different online retailers were promoting different products and categories.
“The Online Retail Tracker reveals the dynamics between competing brands and retailers which we ultimately believe will enhance their relationships in working closer together to promote products.” Catalan said. “With the rapid growth in online shopping, the need to quickly track how products are being sold to the buying public cannot be underestimated.”
The software allows for users to filter information by retail store, brand, model and price, which Catalan said enables fast-moving operators to identify and seize opportunities as they become available. Pricing for reports starts at $250 per week.
Catalan said the Tracker will follow more than 60 online stores, with more added as they gain prominence. The focus will be on consumer electronics and appliances. Headphones, cameras and smartphones are next on the agenda. Catalan said his plan will be to release an overview to the market for free, with detailed reports and analysis available for purchase.
In order to give a snapshot of what clients receive, we asked Catalan to generate some bespoke reports for the coffee machine industry. The following graphs show different retailers were promoting different brands and products in the week leading up to Christmas 2014 (these are real reports, not mock-ups, based on the actual data):
