Consumer products and retail businesses understand that staying competitive in the online landscape is essential for survival, let alone growth. For those looking to advance competitive position through more targeted and accurate pricing strategy, Lixto, Inc., is introducing the 2011 version of its Price Intelligence Suite.

The Price Intelligence Suite is a web extraction and analysis system that allows sales, pricing and financial management to obtain up-to-date views on competitors’ pricing strategies and customer feedback and reviews by accessing and monitoring information on thousands of products and price points across multiple websites quickly, accurately and reliably.

Consumer products and online retail companies can use the SaaS-based suite to better understand competitive pricing, qualitative rankings, and the impact of those changes on consumers and the competition.

“Price Intelligence Suite 2.0 will change the way consumer products companies and online retailers do business,” says Christian Koestler, president and chief executive of Lixto.

“Advances in the field of price intelligence, such as those in this new version, will continue to fuel its acceptance as an industry best practice.”

Updates in the Suite’s 2.0 version focus on advanced market analytics, price optimisation planning, and integration of qualitative information.

The new features enhance the system’s abilities in comprehensive modelling, ongoing “what if” analysis and accurate analysis of competitor pricing.

Enhanced market analytics: Aggregated analytics offer users the ability to obtain more detailed information on market dynamics for specified product categories and competitors. With an understanding of how many competitors sell identified products in specific markets or categories, and full trend analysis, managers can make better pricing decisions by quickly evaluating the impact of pricing changes – of competitors and their own companies’ – on margin and market share.

Price optimization planning:  Capabilities to simulate the competitive impact of price changes across online channels allows advanced “what if” analysis and price modelling on both the category and product levels. Features include meet-or-beat forecasting with and without shipping charges, and measurement and simulation of price competitiveness in multiple, user-specified categories.

Integrated qualitative information The new version adds qualitative customer rankings and review information. Moving beyond simple competitive price analysis, the qualitative information feature gives companies a more complete picture of the competitive landscape. Included are aggregated reports on consumer ratings of sellers and products on web platforms, and analysis of ratings to prices.

Lixto’s Price Intelligence Suite 2.0 is designed for a wide range of managers in the consumer products and online retail industries. C-level finance, marketing and e-commerce executives will use price intelligence for strategic planning, while pricing and product managers will focus on price operations.

Category, sales and channel managers will be able to make better, more accurate pricing decisions, and stronger contract negotiations, with the advanced price analytics.

Lixto Intros Price Intelligence Suite 2.0

“The ability to know what consumers knows about competitors’ pricing can impact the bottom line significantly,” says Koestler.

“Add to that the ability to understand competitive retailers’ strategy, and companies can realize operational improvements ranging from lowered abandonment rates to enhanced margins. Lixto’s Price Intelligence will continue to change the landscape of online business transactions.”

Lixto

Lixto, Inc. is an international leader in web data extraction and analysis. The company’s Price Intelligence Suite extracts specific, precise data from the web, offering competitive price visibility that empowers better decision-making and drives operational performance.

Companies throughout the world, including Insight Direct, USA, Fujitsu Technology Solutions, Hama, hotel.de, Iberostar Hotels, shopping.com, and ZF Friedrichshafen, have adopted Lixto solutions.