With ORIS, we have real-time monitoring and an easy-to-use platform that streamlines our process and ensures we can focus on serving mobile musicians - particularly important during the busiest shopping season of the year.
Columbus, OH (PRWEB) November 01, 2016
ORIS Intelligence, provider of actionable insights that preserve pricing integrity for manufacturers, analyzed data on pricing parity during the holiday shopping season and found that the largest increase in violations happen on Cyber Monday with a 25 percent increase.
The National Retail Federation predicts retail sales in November and December will increase nearly four percent to over $655 billion. Moreover, ecommerce sales are expected to reach almost $100 billion this holiday season. As manufacturers and merchants prepare for the biggest shopping season of the year, they must also be prepared to effectively monitor and enforce their minimum advertised pricing (MAP) policies, particularly because of the proliferation of online marketplaces. In fact, according to ORIS data, the number of marketplace sellers has increased nearly 23 percent year over year.
“While most manufacturers have seen a significant uptick in marketplace sellers, ORIS customers have seen a 26 percent decrease, making it easier for them to control and enforce their pricing policies,” said Pamela Springer, CEO of ORIS Intelligence. “Maintaining a pricing policy is critical for today’s retailers, and is even more important during the busiest shopping season of the year. While it has become common place for customers to search for the best deal, it is up to the manufacturers and sellers to abide by pricing rules to protect brands and maintain quality customer service.”
The ORIS platform delivers ongoing monitoring of websites and seller marketplaces, enabling manufacturers to easily identify violations and maintain consistent pricing across all channels. The company has experienced triple-digit growth in customers year over year, and 100 percent growth in its team.
Traveler Guitar, the leading innovator in the design and manufacture of full-scale travel guitars, recently deployed ORIS to gain more insight into pricing violations. With the help of ORIS, in just a few short months, Traveler Guitar went from 61 violations down to zero.
“Before ORIS, monitoring, detecting, and correcting unauthorized dealers and pricing violations was time-consuming, labor-intensive work – that’s all changed,” said Taylor Jordan, director of sales at Traveler Guitar. “We sell our product in 35 countries, but are a relatively small team, so it’s paramount that we have more control over our products and pricing and that we have the ability to review those details and take action at a moment’s notice. With ORIS, we have real-time monitoring and an easy-to-use platform that streamlines our process and ensures we can focus on serving mobile musicians – particularly important during the busiest shopping season of the year.”
In an effort to help manufacturers lay the foundation for a successful year ahead, ORIS Intelligence is outlining its top predictions for marketplace selling in 2017:
1. Fear of the Unknown: Unauthorized dealers will continue to go to great lengths to remain anonymous, so it will be increasingly important for sellers and manufacturers to keep close tabs on who is selling their items and where they’re selling them. Leverage third-party services and investigation tools that can help better identify unknown sellers. And always search online databases like Google, the Better Business Bureau and Manta that can provide contact information for sellers and businesses.
2. Beware of the Big Box Marketplace: Walmart violations will increase as they continue to add SKUs and sellers to its site – the retailer is adding one million SKUs per month and has grown from 300 sellers in April to over 4,000 in 2016. Moreover, the acquisition of Jet.com will accelerate this growth. If Walmart maintains its position on pricing, it is likely to force more competitive pricing amongst sellers.
3. More MAP: With increasing pressure from resellers to control distribution, more manufactures will embrace MAP as a critical component of their operational strategy in 2017. With the increasing emphasis on brands to have an omni-channel strategy, the only way to execute it is via a comprehensive MAP policy. With the explosive growth of mobile, this only reinforces the complexity in today’s retail environment. MAP enables brand manufacturers to leverage all channels so the consumer can buy when and where they want.
Springer added, “While one MAP violation from one retailer may not seem like an emergency, it generally signals the potential of a larger issue, especially around the holidays. Bottom line – you probably won’t have just one, so it pays to find out and enforce your MAP policy during the season and throughout the year.”
About ORIS Intelligence
ORIS Intelligence delivers actionable insights that preserve pricing integrity for manufacturers to help them protect their brand. Built from the inside-out, ORIS Intelligence’s cloud-based platform helps solve the complex selling challenges of today’s manufacturers by patrolling and enforcing minimum advertised price (MAP) everywhere their products are sold online, including discovering unknown sellers. With ongoing, frequently-updated reports, a streamlined user interface and hands-on customer support, ORIS Intelligence lives at the intersection of all channels to ensure manufacturers can better support trusted retail partners, while maximizing margins and increasing revenue.
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