SnapTrade - e-Commerce management for amazon

The sales overview of the last 30 days shows the sales figures, the order volume and the number of items sold. The blue coloured areas represent the same weekdays of the previous weeks, in order to be able to estimate how today’s sales are developing. For the current day the average value is displayed. This serves to estimate the sales development. In the chart below you can see the distribution of sales by hours of the day.

Tip: Use this information to increase the price in a low-turnover time window using the Cool Down strategy.

The sales analysis gives you a clear review of the business development in the respective marketplace.

The diagram provides an overview of the monthly turnover, orders and sales.

In the detailed overview, different time periods (year, quarter, month) are compared. This allows you to see how the key figures have developed.

Key figures in the time domain:

Overview of the best-selling articles in the range in a comparison of two time periods. The two time periods are compared according to sales, turnover and the average selling price.

The following rules should be observed so that a meaningful comparison is possible and the right conclusions can be drawn:

➊ The time range should have the same number of days. If the time ranges differ from each other, the second time range is marked red.

➋ If you compare seasonal items, the period of the previous year should be chosen. Advent calendars sell relatively poorly at Easter.

➌ The articles should have sufficient stock in both time periods. In this way you avoid that too few sales are made.

In the detailed overview, two time periods are compared with each other. This allows you to see how the sales or turnover has developed.

The article overview clearly displays all articles that match the filter criteria (SKU, ASIN or item name).

For articles with active repricing information, a green circle is displayed.

Articles with a green background indicate that you are offering at the lowest price. For this purpose, the current R(epricing)-Price plus shipping costs and the C(ompetitor)-Price are compared.

The article details include master data, article links and historical offer information (chart).

The following article-dependent information is stored:

Competitive offers can be ignored on the article, so that they are not taken into account in the price calculations. This ignoring of the offers on the article makes sense, if you do not want to exclude these competitive offers via the strategy for all articles.

An article family is a logical grouping of articles that relate to the same product on Amazon. Since an item can be found under several Amazon products (ASINs), several items are created with a unique SKU and the ASIN. In doing so, you have to set the allocation of the root article. SnapTrade analyses this mesh and forms article families of all articles with the associated ASINs. Above this, for example, the best sales are grouped (see Bestsellers).

It is often the case that several products are available on Amazon (ASIN) for one and the same item (SKU). These can vary in category, colours and quantity. In order to still be able to assign these articles (SKU) to an ASIN, it is possible to create any number of articles (SKU) for the various ASINs and assign them to the master article.

If you have articles that are offered on different marketplaces, a list of these articles will be displayed. This allows you to switch flexibly between the marketplaces in the article.

Using the ASIN-wide Repricing, offers from ASINs that you may not have in your range can be included in the price optimisation. SnapTrade checks whether the offer situation at the ASINs has changed and repriced the item with the new offer prices.

The ASINs offers are attached to the regular offer overview in SnapTrade.

SnapTrade records all relevant data on the offer of a product. The price development chart illustrates this information. This gives you a detailed insight into the history and allows you to gain important knowledge from it.

The following information is displayed:

The action Pricing allows you to conveniently edit the settings for price optimisation of selected items. The following actions can be carried out:

With the advanced article filter you can search for articles according to:

These filtered items can be downloaded as usual or used for pricing.

Tip: Please note the tooltip (mouse over field) on the search options for the individual search fields.

The list shows a summary of each processing. A coloured arrow indicates the processing status. Please check the entry for errors by looking at the detail for it. This gives clues to the incorrect records.

The detail shows you the protocol for processing. Information is grouped and important information (warnings & errors) is described in detail.

Items with an invalid price cannot be properly optimised by SnapTrade. This means that the price will not be adjusted and you may be offering this item at the wrong price.

The check identifies items with incorrect price information, e.g. items where the maximum price is lower than the minimum price.

Items that are no longer displayed on Amazon after item cleansing have an invalid ASIN.

Item stocks that are reported multiple times for one ASIN lead to an incorrect display in the offers. This is neither in the interest of Amazon nor of the customer. Analyse these items, delete duplicates if necessary or correct the stocks.

Articles with shipping costs that are not defined at the MWS access. This may be explicitly intended or it may be shipping costs defined by Amazon for articles of a certain category. This type of article should be avoided at all costs, as SnapTrade uses the defined shipping costs for price optimisation if the shipping costs are not shown by Amazon.

In the list of strategies you will find the number that can be used for the XML interface, the description, the filters, the general price difference, a symbol for the definition of competitor rules as well as the tactics Jump Back and Cool Down.

The strategy contains the rules for the different criteria for price optimisation. Each strategy is identified by a unique number. This number can be used when importing articles (CSV file) or via the XML interface. You can also enter a description for the strategy that will be used in the display.

Especially small or new competitors do not enjoy the reputation that you have built up in the course of your active Amazon time. While new sellers without reviews are not yet very popular with Amazon customers, there are retailers who do not meet Amazon’s high quality standards. You can use the rating filter to exclude these merchants with regard to the general rating and the number of ratings.

Amazon customers expect the goods they order to be processed and delivered quickly. Ignore offers whose shipping time is unacceptable in your opinion and the delivery date is too far in the future.

If you sell used items or collectibles and record the conditions properly, you can use a condition check of the offers to compare items that are not good with acceptable items.

With the general pricedistance, you define the difference to the cheapest supplier, provided this is not excluded by the filter criteria. Based on the type of item (Self-Fulfillment or FBA), the pricedistance can be defined with reference to merchant, Prime, FBA or Amazon.

The pricedistance can be specified as an absolute amount from the cheapest offer or as a percentage.

Note: Please note the minus sign if you want to undercut the competitor’s price.

If you pursue a different pricing strategy for certain competitors, you can specify this with the competitor-pricedistance. To do this, select the seller in question via the free text search. Define whether the seller is to be ignored or the pricedistance is to be calculated as an amount or percentage. The competitor’s shipping method can be selected for which the rule should apply. If you do not select a shipping method, the rule applies to all of the retailer’s shipping methods.

If a shipping method is to be excluded from the price calculations, this can be set up by entering an * (asterisk) for the seller and selecting the desired shipping method. If no shipping method is selected, all offers will be ignored.

If you participate in Amazon’s B2B, you can specify the price difference to your offer for all items. According to Amazon, the business price must not be more expensive than your own offer price. SnapTrade only sets the price if the item already has a business price.

It is possible to go below the minimum price with the business price.

Demand Optimization finds the right price for the demand when there is no competition for the product. The optimization is based on your sales numbers. Products that do not sell well can be reduced in price and as demand increases, the price is raised again. It is possible to set sales limits and adjust the prices accordingly.

Timing:

a) Days of the week on which the test is conducted

Test:

b) Reference value for the test: Sales / Profit

c) Period for determining sales/profit: 0 to 30 days

d) Condition for the threshold comparison less than / more than / equal

e) Threshold for the test pieces / percent Choosing a number of pieces will only evaluate one time period. (Example: If there were fewer than 3 (i.e., 2, 1, or 0) sales in the last 7 days, then lower the R-price (last offer price) by -0.20 €.) On the other hand, with a percentage, two time periods are compared. (Example: If sales in the last 7 days were less than 75% (compared to last week with the week before), then lower the price by -1% based on the R-price (last offer price).)

Action:

f) Price change (Important: Use a Minus sign for a negative price change)

g) Unit of the price change: Percent / Amount

h) Reference price = Price to which the price optimization refers. R-price / Solo price / Min. price / Max. price

Tip: Keep the rules as simple as possible. Usually, two rules are sufficient: low and high sales numbers. Choose a long period for low sales and a short period for high sales.

IMPORTANT: If you use multiple rules, they will be checked from top to bottom.

Examples

Case 1: Lower price in case of low demand or low sales numbers

If sales drop by 25%, the price is reduced by 1%. The check is conducted on Monday and Wednesday. The reference price is the R-price (last offer price).

Case 2: Increase price in case of high demand or high sales numbers

If sales increase by 25%, the price is increased by 0.20 €. The check is conducted on Monday, Friday, and Sunday. The reference price is the Solo price.

Case 3: Lower price if there are no sales in the period

If there were no sales in the last 7 days, the price is reduced by 1%. The test is conducted on Monday and Wednesday. The reference price is the Solo price.

Case 4: Combination of rules

Cases 1 to 3 were combined in Case 4. The test is conducted on Monday and Friday. The reference price is the R-price (last offer price). If sales increase by 25%, the price is increased by 0.20 €. If sales drop by 25% the price is reduced by 1%. If there were no sales in the last 7 days, the price is reduced by 0.5%.

The Demand Optimization can be set up so that the price is adjusted after every sale. The price optimization after each sale allows for demand optimization several times a day and thus enables a quick response to changes in demand. How often this leads to a price change is determined by the rules.

Setting example:

Hints:

✧ The first rule must include the highest sales number.

✧ Set the period to 0 days.

The jump back tactic makes it possible to increase the price when the distance to the highest 24h price of the relevant offer increases. This is the case when a competitor’s repricer pulls the price down.

Repricer detection is a technique SnapTrade uses to determine if the competitor is using repricing and adjusting its prices to match its own price changes. If the competitor does not use repricing, the Jump Back is not triggered.

Especially in the early morning hours - when hardly any sales take place - prices can be tightened. Thus, the repricer of the competition will also adjust the price upwards. After the cool down period, the price is optimised regularly. This allows the price to recover.

The automatic BuyBox Optimization makes it unnecessary to set individual price differences. Instead, automatic pricing takes place using the buybox indicator sent by Amazon. This makes it possible for your offer price to be optimally aligned in order to achieve the buybox quota that is specified using the setting options:

BuyBox-Target: Quota to be achieved for the buybox. The Maximum BuyBox Quota tries to set the right price difference for a clear buybox advantage. The Equal BuyBox Quota, on the other hand, is considered a conservative strategy in order not to increase the price pressure too much.

Alternative BuyBox-Target: If the price falls below the set percentage price difference to the minimum price, an alternative BuyBox-Target can be set. This is used, for example, in order not to build up too much price pressure near the minimum price with the aim of Equal BuyBox Quote.

Maximum Price Discount: In comparison to some offers, the actual achievement of the buybox field is only possible with very high price reductions. As a rule, this applies to self-shipping offers that compete with FBA or Amazon offers. This also applies to FBA offers in competition with Amazon. The Maximum Price Discount is used to limit the price gap and still send a clear signal to the consumer to win the sale.

Maximum Price Surcharge: In rare cases, despite the buybox, the price is too far from the cheapest offer and sales decrease. In order to prevent a price difference that is too high, the maximum price surcharge can be defined.

JumpBack-Detection: The buybox optimization automatically recognizes when competitors keep jumping up in price. If Jump Back Detection is activated, your offer price will remain at the lower price, giving you a greater advantage when placing in a buybox.

Ignore offers below minimum price: You can completely ignore offers that are already below your minimum price. This leads to a price relaxation and allows the price to enter the price range in which the price optimization can gain market share.

Do not undercut: The competitor’s offer will not be undercut. This is helpful if a price freeze has been agreed or if price specifications from the supplier are to be met.

Max.-Price if delivery time of own FBA article >0h: In the case of a stock transfer or FBA items that are still being shipped to the warehouse, the shipping is in the future (available from …). If this function is activated, the maximum price will be used for these FBA items until the shipping time is 0h by default.

BuyBox-Search: The search for the buxbox can be restricted in order not to reduce the price too much. If no value is specified, the buybox is searched for up to the minimum price. If this is unsuccessful, your offer will be matched to the lowest competitive offer.

In the overview you will find all the marketplaces you have created as well as clear general information about your article master and the repricing settings used. This view only refers to active items with stock:

Note: For users of Amazon’s „International Listing“ feature If SnapTrade optimises the prices for several marketplaces of a seller account, Amazon automatically stops the matching of the prices and the inventory (starting from the "initial marketplace"). For inventory maintenance, an inventory management system is therefore necessary, which offsets all orders of the marketplaces in the inventory and transfers them to Amazon for each marketplace. (FBA items are excluded from this rule).

The number of queries to Plentymarkets was deliberately kept low in order to avoid throttling. With full comparison, the complete article/variant master is loaded in blocks of 50 variants via a query (call) (e.g.: 50000 variants ⇒ 1000 queries). With the 30-minute check, one query is usually sufficient to obtain a maximum of 50 changes. If there are further changes within this time range, further queries are carried out.

SnapTrade receives access to your Plentymarkets account via a special user whose permissions can be set in such detail that only read access to relevant master data is allowed.

Please create the API user as follows:

➊ Log in to your Plentymarkets admin area.

➋ Go to Setup ⇒ Settings ⇒ User ⇒ Accounts and create a new user

➌ Select REST-API as access and assign a secure password.

➍ Click on the new user and grant the following accesses in the Rights tab in the subcategory Manage menu and REST API rights under Authorisations in the Items section:

The following accesses are selected in the Listing section:

In the Rights tab in the subcategory Manage menu and REST API rights under Menu visibilities in the Item section, grant the following accesses:

The following information must be set for SnapTrade to perform automatic price matching:

The import of purchase prices and transportation costs from Plentymarkets can be activated in order to store them directly on the item.

➊ Different values can be stored on the item, which then apply across the board to the rules set in the marketplace.

➋ Price ranges already stored on the item have priority over the calculated price ranges from the price calculation.

➌ If both the profit and the percentage profit are deposited, the higher value applies in each case. Thus, a minimum profit can be defined.

If a minimum order quantity is stored on the item on Amazon, SnapTrade can take this into account when calculating the minimum price.

The following security mechanisms are in place to secure your SnapTrade access:

Password complexity

The complexity of the user passwords is correspondingly high in order to make spying more difficult. The following rules are set for the password:

Multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication gives the user the option of requesting a second piece of information in addition to the password, which makes theft more difficult by possessing the generator. In doing so, the generator creates one-time passwords that can either be used only once or whose validity is only short.

➊ Yubikey - Key generator

The Yubikey is an event-based generator of one-time passwords developed by the company Yubico. It is characterised by its ease of use and its steadily growing popularity.

➋ TOTP - Time-based one-time passwords

This type of key generation can be provided by hardware or software. An example of a free software solution is Android Token.

ACL - Access Restrictions

By releasing IP address ranges of the public network, access from certain address ranges can be configured. This is particularly useful for exclusive access from the company network if static, public IP addresses are assigned to it.