IBM Wants To Use The Cloud To Get More Online Shopping Discounts

Online retailers may be about to gain a new weapon in the battle for low prices thanks to a new service from IBM.

The computing giant is releasing IBM Dynamic Pricing, a new cloud-based tool that will allow retailers to keep tracks of their competitors’ prices as well as the latest market data to adjust their prices accordingly.

This will include factors such as market demand, social sentiment, competitor prices, inventory availability, time of day, conversion rates, financial goals, and even the weather – all of which have been known to affect consumer shopping habits.

On the ball

Dynamic Pricing will allow companies to follow and track changes in the market, and adjust their own strategy to ensure they are not left behind, as the majority of online shoppers now expect to look around several retailers to find the best discounts.

The service will even automatically make real-time pricing recommendations when it thinks action should be taken.

For example, if a competitor has started a promotion on a key product, reducing the price by 15 percent, IBM Dynamic Pricing can evaluate and decide based on product availability, price sensitivity and customer demand that an eight percent pricing change will still enable the retailer to compete and to achieve sales and margin objectives, and update the price automatically.

Dynamic Pricing is also able to track competitors inventory to see when a retailer can raise their prices as a respond to high demand for a certain product, IBM says.

“At any given moment, a retailer is no more than one click away from losing a customer online. IBM Dynamic Pricing executes real-time pricing recommendations at the scale and speed needed to ensure competitiveness in a volatile shopping environment,” said Stephen Mello, vice president, IBM ecommerce & merchandising.

“This intuitive and dynamic pricing system improves visibility into what’s happening in the market, allowing retailers to make decisions that are best for their businesses and customers alike.”

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