In the fast-paced and competitive world of B2B and B2C businesses, pricing managers need powerful competitive pricing tools to stay ahead of the curve. With the right pricing tools, businesses can make informed decisions that maximise revenue and profit margins. Check out the top 6 advantages of competitive pricing for b2b companies.

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From considering the competitive landscape to understanding a product’s price sensitivity, developing a sustainable pricing strategy becomes 10 times more efficient and manageable.

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This blog will discuss the top 10 competitive pricing tools designed for pricing managers, covering the essential features and benefits of each. But before that, you can check out the three pricing factors of competitive pricing to understand the basics of competitive pricing.

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However, before discussing the different pricing tools, let’s explore, from a macro perspective, where other types of pricing tools also come in. It could be that you are already using one of them, and you’d prefer to switch to a more sustainable deal.

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Types of Pricing Tools and the Different Niches They Cater to

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With an explosion of data availability and advancements in artificial intelligence, we've seen an emergence of sophisticated pricing tools. These tools promise to streamline pricing processes, offer data-driven insights, automate repricing, and much more. However, not all platforms are created equal, nor are they universally applicable. The choice of the right tool depends mainly on the unique needs and circumstances of each business.

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Hence, let’s look at the pricing tools from a higher level so you can make an informed decision according to your organisation’s needs, goals considering budgets and sustainability.

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• ‍Pricing Analytics and Optimisation Tools:

These tools help businesses analyse large amounts of data to understand pricing trends, customer behaviours, and market dynamics. Optimisation features can then suggest the optimal price points based on this analysis, often utilising advanced machine learning techniques. These tools usually have predictive capabilities, forecasting future price changes based on historical data.‍

• ‍CPQ or Configure, Price, Quote Tools:

CPQ software streamlines the quote-to-cash process by providing a systematic way to configure product offerings, price them, and generate a quote. This is especially useful for companies with complex products or services where configuration affects pricing. These tools can incorporate rules, discounts, and promotional pricing to ensure that quotes are accurate and profitable. Better yet, you can understand it better with a clear and detailed point of view in our blog, What is CPQ?‍

• Integrated Price Management:

Integrated Price Management tools allow for centralised price management across multiple channels, regions, or divisions of an organisation. This ensures consistent pricing strategies and provides the medium for efficient price changes, adjustments for currency fluctuations, and rapid response to market changes.

• Revenue Management:

These tools forecast demand, optimise inventory, and price products or services in a way to maximise revenue. Common in industries like airlines, hotels, and restaurants, revenue management tools use predictive analytics to anticipate demand and adjust pricing accordingly.

• Trade Promotion Management:

These are specialised tools for managing promotional pricing activities, often in the consumer goods industry. They track promotional events, analyse their effectiveness, and suggest optimal promotion strategies. They can also integrate with supply chain systems to ensure product availability during promotions.

• Pricing Research Tools:

These tools support market research related to pricing, such as surveys and conjoint analysis, which determines how product features and price influence customer choice. They can help businesses understand customer price sensitivity, willingness to pay, and the potential impact of different pricing strategies.

• Repricing Platforms:

Often used in industries where prices change frequently (like online retail or commodities), repricing platforms automate the process of changing costs in response to market fluctuations. These tools can track competitor prices, demand trends, and even weather patterns to recommend price adjustments.

• Retail/eCommerce Specific Pricing Management Tools:

Designed specifically for the retail or eCommerce sector, these tools help manage pricing across various platforms (such as an online store, Amazon, eBay, etc.). They can centralise pricing decisions, coordinate promotional activities, and respond rapidly to competitor pricing changes.

• Price Scraping Tools:

These tools collect pricing data from competitor websites or other online sources. This data is used to track competitive pricing trends and inform pricing decisions. Price scraping tools can be part of a larger pricing toolset or be a standalone solution.

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Different Types of Pricing Tools that Help Grow Profitability

Having understood the various types of pricing tools, let’s continue to look at some of the best integrated and competitive pricing tools with a more informed perspective.

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1. PriceFX

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PriceFX is a cloud-based pricing platform that includes many competitive pricing tools and functionalities. It’s one of the b2b pricing tools that help with price management and is a CPQ platform that provides transparent and responsive pricing solutions. Pricing Managers can leverage its price comparison tools and features to analyse their other players' prices and data. Designed for B2B and B2C companies, PriceFX is a pricing platform that allows dynamic planning & pricing to replace Excel, home-grown tools or legacy Gen1 solutions. See detailed comparison between price fx and SYMSON here.

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Pros:

• It's easy to learn and implement
• Automates pricing, erasing the workload of Excel files
• Able to process large assortment
• Able to bring the whole pricing team together in one place
• Able to handle specific needs and easy to share with colleagues

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Cons:

• Lack of a suitable mechanism to handle global organisations with multiple business/pricing model needs.
• Customers cannot program the system alone - the support of Pricefx or a certified local partner will always be required to make any change or enhancement in the algorithm logic after the project period.
• Many algorithm procedures and functionalities must be designed from scratch due to a relative lack of pre-defined functionalities.

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2. PriSync

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PriSync is a versatile price comparison tool that offers dynamic pricing solutions and C-level analysis for B2B and B2C companies. It's one of the competitive pricing tools that enable pricing managers to track competitors' prices, analyse their stock availability, optimise prices, and adjust their strategies accordingly. PriSync's b2b pricing tools help identify gaps in the market and optimise pricing for maximum profitability.

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Moreover, Prisync aids in analysing market pricing & stock availability with filtering options and can check historical trends to anticipate when competitors change their prices. The online customer support team is available to answer any requests. Prisync offers a free onboarding service to plan a long-lasting relationship with all its customers. See the comparison between PriSync and SYMSON here.

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Pros:

• ‍‍Historical Pricing Trends & Stock Availability Tracking
• Bulk Importing & Exporting
• Dynamic Pricing

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Cons:

• ‍‍Labour-intensive set-up depending on how many unique SKUs or products you offer
• The onboarding of the items is time-consuming
• Does not offer an AI or ML price optimisation feature

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3. Competera

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Competera is an all-in-one competitor pricing tool and price optimisation platform that offers a suite of competitive pricing tools for pricing managers in B2B and B2C businesses. It uses AI and ML technologies to maintain optimal pricing decisions. It is a ready-to-use tool helping to manage pricing at the category level for any number of SKUs. Competera combines competitive data, rule-based and demand-based engines to help businesses achieve strategic goals, whether margin growth or an increase in operational efficiency. Its advanced analytics capabilities enable companies to monitor market trends, make data-driven pricing decisions, and increase profit margins.

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Pros:

• ‍‍Competera offers lightweight integration, actual and reliable data and information updates.
• Great customer support and very user-friendly.
• Information-rich yet very intuitive interface.

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Cons:

• ‍‍No possibility of tracking the quality of data.
• More functionality is needed when it comes to using the forecasting tool.
• Custom prices may be inaccessible for small and mid-range businesses.

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4. Omnia Retail

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Omnia Retail is one of the competitive pricing tools that offer dynamic pricing, competitive price monitoring, and a robust price comparison tool for enterprise retailers and brands. It provides businesses with the insights needed to optimise pricing strategies. Its advanced analytics and user-friendly interface make Omnia popular among pricing managers.

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As an all-in-one solution that handles data collection, price calculations, and price updates, Omnia makes it easier for you to take control of your entire assortment and monitor your products from one easy-to-use portal. See the detailed comparison between Omnia Retail and SYMSON here.

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Pros:

• Omnia gives you a good overview of market prices and strategies
• Omnia's dynamic pricing unloads users with a vast amount of workload
• Omnia enables the user to track the prices of competitors.

Cons:

• The processes within their algorithm can be challenging to understand
• If you rely on Google Shopping alone as a data source, the pricing data that you get is not limited to your country, which may affect the scope of your target market
• Lack of visualisations affects comprehensibility
• Does not include an AI or ML price optimisation solution

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5. PROS

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PROS is an AI-powered pricing platform that offers competitive pricing tools for pricing managers in B2B and B2C companies. PROS focuses on a price optimisation strategy that quickly delivers optimised prices and cultivates a simple, customer-empowered buying experience.

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Its advanced analytics and price optimisation capabilities enable businesses to make data-driven pricing decisions, monitor competitor prices, and adjust their pricing strategies accordingly. PROS is another popular choice for pricing managers with its easy integration and user-friendly interface. It has applied three decades of deep data-science experience to hone this strategy. It is best suited to manufacturing, automotive, tech, and others. See the detailed comparison between PROS and SYMSON here.

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Pros:

• ‍‍Quick delivery of the optimised prices to sales teams and partners
• Ability to centralise price governance while enabling price discipline and visibility
• There is no black box around the AI algorithm

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Cons:

• ‍‍The character limit for product names can cause minor inconveniences
• The software could be too expensive for small to medium businesses
• The process of adapting from a non-flexible legacy system to the PROS tool can be rather difficult

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6. Vendavo

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Vendavo is a leading b2b pricing tool that helps pricing managers maximise profitability and drive growth. Its pricing optimisation solutions include price management, deal management, and advanced analytics. Moreover, it empowers Pricing Managers to make informed decisions in the B2B and B2C sectors. With the Vendavo Commercial Excellence platform, companies develop dynamic customer insight and optimal pricing strategies that maximise margin, boost sales effectiveness and improve customer experience.

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Pros:

• ‍‍Easy access and sharing of information
• The platform is very intuitive and user friendly

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Cons:

• ‍‍The system is more rigid than "homegrown" tools; modification requires cooperation between Vendavo, ETL and corporate IT
• The setup is not very straight-forward and can be pretty time-consuming
• Starting price can be too high for small to medium corporations

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7. Price2Spy

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Price2Spy is a powerful competitive pricing tool that provides real-time price monitoring and alerts for pricing managers. Its integrated competitor pricing tool capabilities make it a popular choice among businesses. It allows for accurate price comparison and effective pricing strategies.

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Price2Spy caters to B2B and B2C companies, offering a range of features that help businesses stay ahead of the competition. Users are provided with pricing acquisition and multiple reporting mechanisms for analysing data.Price2Spy's API enables tight integration with the organisation's software and allows automatic price matching following the competitor's. For utmost clarity, you can find a clear comparison between Price2Spy, OptiPrice and SYMSON.

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Pros:

• The Repricing module enables you to define your pricing strategies to identify which products can go up / down in price and get these prices changed in your online store
• Price2Spy is capable of monitoring websites that are built to shield off monitoring applications. You can virtually see the pricing of your competition even if their websites don’t want to be monitored

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Cons:

• ‍‍Navigating through the user interface can be slightly confusing
• The report generation tool is not flexible enough, hindering the generation of accurate customer reports
• The input of products can be time-consuming, depending on the number of products

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8. BlackCurve

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BlackCurve is an innovative pricing optimisation platform that helps pricing managers in B2B and B2C companies make data-driven decisions. It helps to decrease marketing spending and improve Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). It’s one of the competitive pricing tools that enable businesses to scrape, track and analyse competitor prices.

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BlackCurve includes price comparison features and is one of the B2B pricing tools that ensure businesses optimise their pricing strategies and maximise profit margins. Its 'Marketing Plugin' shows how price influences digital marketing performance. BlackCurve's Dynamic Pricing Technology allows you to beat the competition and improve Google Ads performance.

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Pros:

• ‍‍Ability to monitor the market value for a wide array of SKUs (25000+ SKUs).
• Ability to build rules around pricing to allow different price strategies for different brands, categories, and product lines.

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Cons:

• ‍‍The reports are not thorough enough and may lack relevant information.
• The software is relatively expensive for focusing exclusively on competitor pricing.
• Black Curve is not an out-of-the-box solution.

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9. Price Edge

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Price Edge is another cloud-based solution for B2B and B2C pricing managers. The tool helps to find price improvement opportunities to measure price effectiveness, and it provides a clear overview of the pricing impact over time through its built-in or custom reports. It helps optimise the prices of your products and conducts thorough competitor pricing analysis using its price comparison tools.

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With a thorough competitive pricing analysis and price recommendations, Price Edge helps businesses stay competitive. Its easy-to-use interface and flexible pricing plans make Price Edge a top choice for pricing managers of all sizes.

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Pros:

• ‍‍Can be implemented in less than a day
• Fully documented
• Can be used stand-alone, or it can be integrated with your ERP or PDM

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Cons:

• ‍‍Massive updates sometimes cause the system to lag
• Integration issues sometimes occur

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10. SYMSON

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SYMSON is an Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning-powered competitive pricing tool that helps pricing managers find optimal recommendations. With its advanced price comparison tools and features, mature data and more, SYMSON suggests prices with explainable AI. That is, Pricing Managers can clearly understand the logic behind each recommendation. You can read more about implementing a competitive pricing strategy and understand it better.

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Moreover, it has other competitor pricing tool functionalities like researching the market trends- from macro to micro, fetching and analysing competitor data and more. In SYMSON, you could also set scenarios and run simulations to stay prepared for any market changes in the future. You can read more about it at SYMSON’s demand forecasting compared to the other players. Let’s have quick look at the other functionalities of SYMSON:

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Pros:

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• Access to an extensive partner network that can help with the integration.
• Great Price-Quality Ratio.
• All-in-one Pricing Management System; ability to execute multiple strategies.
• Rapid Implementation.
• Focus on Hyperlearning.
• Enable users to leverage the advanced Price Elasticity feature.
• Set simulations to run future predictions.
• Consider seasonality and regional aspects for pricing.

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Cons:

• Massive updates can sometimes cause system lag.
• Not always suitable for all markets.

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Conclusion

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The top 10 competitive pricing tools mentioned in this blog post offer a comprehensive suite of features of b2b pricing tools. To find a detailed comparison between all the 10 pricing tools, you can download our Whitepaper: Top 10 Pricing Software Solutions.

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Now that you know about the capabilities of a competitor pricing tool, you can get started with a reliable choice. Instead of simple price comparison tools, Businesses choose a complete pricing platform that leverages Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to conduct intelligent price recommendations.

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SYMSON is a powerful competitive price management software that pricing managers use and make well-informed decisions, optimise pricing strategies, and drive growth in their organisations. Whether you are a seasoned pricing manager or new to the role, these competitive pricing tools can help you navigate the ever-changing competitive landscape of B2B and B2C pricing. With a keen understanding of these tools and their capabilities, pricing managers can ensure their businesses stay ahead of the competition and maintain a strong market position.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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1. What are the top 3 competitive pricing tools?

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There are multiple competitive pricing tools that different companies use. However, here are the top three picks so you can make informed decisions:

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• SYMSON
• Omnia Retail
• Vendavo

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You can head over to our comparison page for a detailed comparison.

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1. How can a pricing tool help with competitive pricing?

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Smart pricing software leverage advanced data and algorithm to help companies with complex, competitive analysis and price recommendations. Here are what it can do to maintain competitive prices:

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• Helps scrape prices and brand offers of competitors from multiple websites using API,
• It helps analyse the collected data and organise it in a structured form,
• Helps recommend prices after market research and maintains optimal profit margins.

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To know more, you can check out how SYMSON helps companies maintain maximum profits.

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2. Can pricing tools help fetch competitors’ pricing from eCommerce websites?

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Pricing tools can help scrape prices and offers from competitor websites and eCommerce websites like Amazon and Google Shopping. They can also help analyse the data and suggest optimal competitive prices to maintain healthy revenue and maximum profits.

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