Are you selling the same product on multiple sales channels but seeing a different price on every sales channel? This usually happens when the product price is not synchronized between ecommerce platforms, your ERP and other systems. It is one of the most common symptoms of ecommerce systems drifting out of sync.
In this article we look at how to resolve the problem by implementing a custom middleware software solution.
Causes of the Problem of Price Mismatch
Different Prices on Different Sales Channels
The main reason for price mismatch between sales channels is that each channel has its own set of rules for determining the price of a product. This is especially visible when you run wholesale and retail pricing on the same catalog.
Delayed Price Synchronization
Whenever a price changes in the ERP, the change may not be reflected in all the systems involved. Without real-time data synchronization, some channels keep showing the old price.
Channel-Specific Pricing Rules
Each marketplace works on its own set of rules that affect the product price, since the final price is based on commissions, shipping costs and promotions. See marketplace integrations 101 for how selling across several marketplaces adds this complexity.
Promotional and Discounted Pricing
Unlike the base product price, a discounted or promotional price may not be reflected in the marketplaces involved, since it is based on a percentage of the product price.
Manual Price Updates
Whenever a price is updated manually, mistakes can happen, which leads to price differences across channels.
Limitation of Standard Connectors
In multi-system ecommerce environments, standard connectors may synchronize basic product information but may not support complex pricing rules across multiple channels. Choosing the right integration platform helps here.
Currency and Regional Pricing Differences
Selling in different countries and regions can also create price differences if exchange rates and regional pricing rules are not applied consistently.
Impact of the Problem of Price Mismatch
Loss of Sales Margin
Businesses suffer a loss of sales margin when product pricing is inconsistent across marketplaces. Customers will buy only from the channel offering the same product at a lower price.
Loss of Sales
If a customer finds your product offered at a lower price by a competitor, they may buy it from the competitor, which leads to lost sales opportunities.
Loss of Customer Trust
Customers will notice a product price mismatch for the same product on different channels, and will develop trust issues because of the price inconsistencies.
Incorrect Discounts and Promotions
A promotion or discount may not be reflected simultaneously across channels, because of the limitations of standard connectors and the manual work involved in updating the final price. This creates confusion for customers about the price of the product.
Increased Manual Work
When pricing is incorrect across marketplaces, manual work is required to correct it. This becomes troublesome if you have a large number of products.
Increased Operational Cost
Correcting incorrect product prices across multiple marketplaces requires employee time and thus increases the operational cost of running the business.
Solution: Custom Middleware Software for Price Synchronization
Implementing a custom middleware software solution resolves the problem of incorrect pricing across different sales channels. It acts as a central pricing synchronization layer between the ERP, ecommerce platforms, marketplaces and other business systems.
Whenever a price changes in the master system, the middleware detects the change and automatically sends it to the connected sales channels. Businesses can also implement channel-specific pricing using the middleware, and define rules for discounts and promotions on different sales channels.
Frequently Asked Questions
Product price differences occur when the same product displays different prices on platforms such as Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, WooCommerce and Magento. This happens whenever there is a delay in data updates across the systems involved in an ecommerce store.
Promotions and discounts usually cause price mismatches when special offers, coupon codes, seasonal discounts or promotional pricing are not updated in real time across different ecommerce platforms.
Custom middleware helps maintain the correct product prices across different ecommerce platforms, ERP systems, accounting software and other business applications through a centralized integration layer. It collects pricing information from a single source, usually the ERP, and applies it to the different connected systems.
