Introduction
Do you find it difficult to maintain price integrity on multiple online channels? Are unauthorized sellers manipulating prices and adversely affecting your brand?
No worries. This is what most brands struggle with.
The solution? Well, enforcing Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policies is all you have to do. But monitoring it effectively is the key to enforcement. This is where great brands stand out.
It’s not merely about protecting prices. It’s also about how customers and retailers perceive your brand. It’s about enabling fair competition and ensuring healthy profit margins for retailers.
How to go about it? We have put together this comprehensive guide that takes you through easy steps leading to a proven MAP monitoring system. We have packed it with actionable ideas drawn from real-world experience of successful brands.
Expect every aspect of monitoring to be covered in it. The guide will explain how high-end technology can make MAP monitoring a walk in the park. The guide will help you choose the right software that checks prices 8 times a day. We will also let you explore how to harness advanced features like geolocation tracking and predictive analytics.
No matter where you are on the learning curve- a newbie or looking to take your current system to the next level. With this guide, the online marketplaces will light up like an x-ray; you will be able to see what is going on and what needs to be fixed. This is what your brand needs to maintain its value and enhance it over time.
Let’s get started!
Why MAP Monitoring Matters
Before we take you through the monitoring system, let’s take a moment to consider why MAP monitoring system matters:
- Protects your brand value
- Ensures fair competition among retailers
- Maintains healthy profit margins
- Preserves relationships with authorized sellers
Forrester Research study revealed that brands that effectively implement MAP monitoring systems reported an average of 20% increase in profit margins and a 30% reduction in unauthorized seller practices.
8 Steps to Set Up Your MAP Monitoring System
Step 1: Define Your MAP Policy
To start with, put in place a clearly defined, unambiguous MAP policy. This is the key to monitoring and enforcing it.
Here’s what you should include:
- Clear definition of what constitutes a violation
- Consequences for non-compliance
- Process for handling “false positives”
- Appeals process
Make sure it’s a unilateral statement. Not a two-way agreement. This is necessary for legal compliance.
Pro tip: Write in the language of a layperson. Don’t draft a complicated document. Your retailers will follow it if they can read and understand!
Step 2: Choose the Right MAP Monitoring Software
Monitoring it manually isn’t possible. Doing it using half-baked, basic tech tools won’t get it done either. You need high-end MAP monitoring software that is quick, effective and gives you real-time insights. It holds the key to the entire monitoring process.
Look for software that provides:
- In-depth coverage of online marketplaces and individual retailer websites
- Regular price checks (ideally several times a day)
- Real-time violation alerts
- In-cart pricing and special offer monitoring
- Screenshot capture for evidence
Would you believe it? Highly sophisticated tools like ProWebScraper check prices up to 8 times a day. With this kind of tool, there’s no way you will miss a single violation. Yes, but if you use basic tools that check prices 1-4 times, you will miss out on violations at times.
When exploring tech tools, think of promising players like ProWebScraper along with usual options that offer advanced features at competitive prices.
Step 3: Set Up Your Product Database
To start with, you need a product database.
- Work out a complete list of all your products
- Include key identifiers like UPC, EAN, or ASIN codes
- Identify and include the MAP price for each product
Pain point alert: This may take time. But it’s a vital part of the monitoring system. You cannot monitor it without a product database.
Step 4: Configure Your Monitoring Parameters
You know your business and brand better. You need to work out parameters on which you should get alerts, data and insights.
Think of the following:
- Key marketplaces and websites to monitor
- Frequency of price checks
- Price valiance that triggers price alerts
You need to work out a balanced system. Too many alerts will consume all your time and energy. But you don’t want to miss out on violations either. So strike the right balance depending on your need.
Step 5: Establish Your Enforcement Process
The path to MAP enforcement should be clear and well-defined. The enforcement process drives the monitoring system.
Here’s what you can consider:
- First violation: Triggers a warning
- Second violation: Leads to temporary suspension
- Third violation: Results in termination of the reseller relationship
Pro tip: Don’t write letters on your own which can be interpreted in different ways. Use automated mechanisms to send standards violation notices. Once you have standard drafts for various violations, it saves you time and energy.
Step 6: Train Your Team
You still need people to monitor the tech tools and the entire process. So train your team in a way that syncs with your objectives and goals regarding MAP enforcement.
Carry out regular training sessions on:
- How to use the monitoring software
- Salient features of MAP policy
- Responses to different types of violations
- Interpreting data analytics and visualizations
Step 7: Leverage Analytics for Insights
Gathering data is not enough. You need sophisticated analytics capabilities to power your MAP monitoring system. Leverage data analytics to get insights into the online marketplaces and pricing ecosystem.
Key analytics to focus on:
- Violation trends over time
- Most frequent violators
- Products most vulnerable to violations
- Geographical hotspots for violations
These insights can help you fine-tune your MAP policy as well as enforcement strategies. For example, ProWebScraper’s analytics suite offers powerful and customizable visualization of violation patterns. This can help brands instantly spot and tackle problematic areas.
Step 8: Regularly Review and Adjust
Every system needs review. E-commerce keeps evolving so the monitoring system also needs to adapt to the changes.
Carry out regular reviews to:
- Evaluate the effectiveness of your system
- Spot patterns in violations
- Modify your policy or enforcement strategies as required
MAP monitoring system is a work-in-progress. It’s not perfect and it’s never over. It’s an ongoing process. So keep working on it.
Advanced Features to Consider
A regular, basic software won’t be enough for this kind of robust monitoring system. Keep the following advanced features in mind while choosing your MAP monitoring software.
- Geolocation Tracking: This feature lets you track pricing across diverse geographical locations and regions. When there are specific MAP policies for different markets and or grey market goods, it’s particularly helpful. For example, ProWebScraper provides comprehensive geolocation capabilities. It can help you track pricing discrepancies across different countries in real time.
- Interactive Dashboard: You may not get into every minute detail yourself. So look for software that provides an easy-to-use dashboard. It will give you a quick overview of MAP compliance status and flag areas that need your attention. ProWebScraper’s user-friendly dashboard needs just a cursory glance to track where your MAP compliance stands on a particular hour on a particular day!
- Data Visualization: Breaking down data into understandable information is quite a task. This is why data visualization comes in handy. Tools that can turn your data into charts and graphs can help you quickly spot the trends and patterns in MAP compliance and violations.
- Price Sensors: Look for a feature called “price sensors”. It can identify even minute pricing changes, including hidden discounts or bundle offers that might manipulate your MAP policy.
- Predictive Analytics: This can help you prevent the violations. Some high-end solutions can harness machine learning to predict possible MAP violations in advance. This will let you take some preventive and proactive steps. ProWebScraper’s AI-driven predictive analytics give you an edge in early violation detection.
- Cartography Features: For global businesses, mapping tools are required. It can give you a geographical representation of MAP compliance and violations.
Case Study: OtterBox’s MAP Monitoring Success
Examples are better than theory. Here’s one when it comes to MAP monitoring. Like any other brand, OtterBox, a multi-million-dollar mobile accessory brand, encountered challenges with MAP violations and unauthorized sellers. Here’s how the brand addressed them:
- Before implementing a robust MAP monitoring system:
- 40% of their listings were below MAP across various platforms
- They spotted over 200 unauthorized sellers in a single quarter
- Authorized retailers reported a 25% drop in sales due to unfair price competition
- After implementing a robust MAP monitoring solution:
- MAP compliance grew from 60% to 95% within 4 months
- Unauthorized seller listings went down by 80%
- Profit margins increased by 30%
- Authorized retailer satisfaction increased by 50%
This real-world example illustrates the way effective MAP monitoring can protect your pricing strategy and enhance brand value.
Conclusion
Most brands have some sort of MAP monitoring system. However, the key is to set up an effective and robust MAP monitoring system that leads to desired outcomes. By following the steps contained in this guide, you can harness the right tools and monitor MAP policies far more effectively than before. You will be able to easily protect and maintain pricing integrity and enable fair competition among your retailers.
It may seem tough at first but many brands have done it before and reaped great dividends. You may look for a more conventional solution provided by established players. Or you may opt for something futuristic and innovative like ProWebScraper. You should choose something that syncs with your immediate needs and long-term goals.
Powered by these insights, get started on a journey of effective MAP monitoring and witness how your brand goes to the next level of profit and growth in the ecommerce marketplace!
Frequently Asked Questions
You should update it at least once a year. However, if you sense the need to change it due to market changes or distribution channels, feel free to modify it frequently.
Yes, many MAP monitoring solutions offer integrations with leading ecommerce platforms. However, it’s good to check the relevant features at the time of choosing the software.
You will need MAP monitoring software that provides geolocation features. It means that you can set different policies for different regions or countries and monitor them according to geographical locations.
ROI could be more or less, depending on the business and how it is implemented. But many brands report ROI of 300% or more within the first year of putting in place an effective MAP monitoring system.
Don’t simply send an email and be satisfied. A multi-pronged approach is usually more effective in communicating MAP policy. Use various and in fact, every available channel to communicate your MAP policies. For example, upload it on the website, send regular updates to your retailers, include MAP policy related information in all onboarding materials. You can even create a dedicated portal for retailers.
