Making Sure the Price is Right

Aug. 9, 2011
Service monitors online pricing, helps spot counterfeiting.

As online retail outlets proliferate, many manufacturers find themselves at a technology disadvantage when it comes to keeping tabs on the prices of their products, not to mention spotting gray market and counterfeit goods. Assigning a couple people to look at sites likely is insufficient to keep up with dynamic pricing changes.

Channel IQ helps manufacturers, retailers and distributors keep on top of pricing activity by providing real-time online pricing intelligence. The Chicago-based company uses a combination of software and services to monitor the prices being offered by thousands of retailers on Amazon, eBay, product comparison sites and individual retail sites. The company can check if, for example, retailers are violating minimum- advertised-price policies. Channel IQ also can check retail prices for competitors' products to help manufacturers and retailers adjust sales prices when warranted.

Along with helping set prices, the company can help spot counterfeit goods. That's a huge problem. Last November, agents from the Justice Department and Homeland Security closed 82 websites involved in selling counterfeit goods. In 2010, government agents seized fake goods totalling $188.1 million, which if genuine would have been worth $1.4 billion. Goods from China accounted for 66% of the value of the seizures by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The outsourcing of manufacturing to China, in combination with more online selling, introduced the specter of counterfeiting as a much more serious problem, notes Wes Shepherd, CEO of Channel IQ. He says many manufacturers were slow to recognize the threat and respond with policies, procedures and use of services such as his to combat counterfeit goods.

Channel IQ helps combat counterfeiting by taking products from a manufacturer's catalog that are susceptible to counterfeiting, matching SKUs against each web page and looking for key attributes, says Shepherd. We can filter against their catalog and, for example, show all the listings in North America that are below the landed costs on the West Coast, Shepherd explains. From perhaps 10,000 listings, the software uses data points associated with counterfeiting to produce a suspect list of 100. Of those 100 instances, 80 may actually be counterfeit. Armed with this data, companies can act to close counterfeit sites.

See Also:
Moving to Plan B

Popular Sponsored Recommendations

Empowering the Modern Workforce: The Power of Connected Worker Technologies

March 1, 2024
Explore real-world strategies to boost worker safety, collaboration, training, and productivity in manufacturing. Emphasizing Industry 4.0, we'll discuss digitalization and automation...

3 Best Practices to Create a Product-Centric Competitive Advantage with PRO.FILE PLM

Jan. 25, 2024
Gain insight on best practices and strategies you need to accelerate engineering change management and reduce time to market. Register now for your opportunity to accelerate your...

Transformative Capabilities for XaaS Models in Manufacturing

Feb. 14, 2024
The manufacturing sector is undergoing a pivotal shift toward "servitization," or enhancing product offerings with services and embracing a subscription model. This transition...

Shifting Your Business from Products to Service-Based Business Models: Generating Predictable Revenues

Oct. 27, 2023
Executive summary on a recent IndustryWeek-hosted webinar sponsored by SAP

Voice your opinion!

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of IndustryWeek, create an account today!