Q&A: How often should I reprice my books?
QUESTION: What is the best frequency for repricing? I used to do it every two or three months, then monthly. Now I do it every two weeks, and I still don't know what interval is best. I drop prices just a penny below the lowest matching my condition. What have you found to be the ideal timing?ANSWER: That's a tough question, and there are countless ways to approach it.
No seller likes to lower their price, but sometimes it's necessary if you realistically expect to make a sale. Sometimes your repricing chores can pay off nicely -- when you find an opportunity to raise your price.
At one point I repriced at least once a day, usually twice. Nowadays I probably reprice once every couple of months. I have never sat down to figure out which is the most profitable. Sometimes I sell my books at a higher price because I haven't chased the price down -- and the market price eventually comes back up to where I've been sitting. On the other hand, sometimes my books become totally worthless -- and maybe I could have gotten a sale, but now I have junk that will never sell.
Sometimes I use automated repricing for books worth less than $10 or $20, but I usually take the time to individually consider price changes for books worth more. The higher the price, the more likely the buyer will consider factors other than price -- like feedback. Especially for these pricier books, you need to go with your gut instinct: Will demand for the book probably rise, or fall?
My hunch is it probably doesn't hurt to lower your price at penny or so at a time to keep your visibility -- as long as it doesn't eat up other time that you could be devoting to getting new stock, etc.
However, by lowering by "a penny or so at a time," I don't think it's smart to use software to lower your price by a pennies several times a day. For example, I was recently watching one book on Marketplace where there is a short supply of used copies, and the book normally sells for around $18. There were two sellers battling to have the lowest price. They were lowering their price by 6 cents each time -- every several minutes! It had to be automated repricing. The point is, over the course of an afternoon they chased the price down almost $3 until one of the copies sold. The price went right back up, so one of those seller left $3 on the table. That's just one example I happened to see with my own eyes. I'm sure there's lots of cases where automated price-cutting is leaving a ton of money on the table for some sellers.
Does anyone else care to share their strategy on optimal repricing?
posted by Steve Weber at 2/20/2007
11 Comments:
I have done a rough breakdown of the sales rate of the items that I list. I figure about 20% to 25% sell within the first month. Another 10% to 15% sell within the next month. Then it drops dramatically to to 3% to 5% or so over time after the first two months. So, As you can tell by the percents only about 30% to 50% of the listings sell in the three months to a year I have them listed. When I check the straggler book's sales rank on Amazon it is usually from none to 2,000,000 or more (it isn't going to sell).
I reprice about once a month, on average. I can't usually do it all in one sitting, so I do it a little at a time. Listing is a better use of your time than repricing! The more quality listings (stuff that sells), at the correct price, the more sales you get.
I try to keep the inventory moving by beginning to reprice the listings after about two months have passed. I begin by adjusting the prices by fifty cents for the first couple months of repricing.
After the listings have been there about five months or more, I drop the prices at about a dollar each time I reprice. I drop the prices until they reach my minimum ($4.50), then edit them off. I have better use for the storage space and my time.
I do have a brick-n-mortar store, where-in, I get most of my inventory as trade-ins. So, my methodology may not be in-line with sellers, like Steve, that handpick and outright purchase most of their inventory.
When repricing you must consider what type of book you are repricing.
If the book is Fiction reprice every 10 days.
If it is a textbook and it’s the middle of April, reprice it HIGH not low. April is not a textbook selling month.
You do not have to be the bottom price to sell. Description of book is a huge selling point. I recently sold a book on African Pottery for 175.00. A seller undercut me by exactly 100 and therefore was priced at 75.00.
Yet mine sold. I had a detailed description but the other seller had the blanket description of “we strive for 5 stars etc”. Not a single wording about the book.
"...had a detailed description but the other seller had the blanket description of 'we strive for 5 stars etc'. Not a single wording about the book. " I am glad this was mentioned since it is one of my fave complaints about descriptions when I am the buyer not the seller....a good description is what makes me buy even if it is higher than some of the other offers...
You probably should not be chasing the price down by 1 cent each time, but instead matching the lowest price. When matching the lowest price I do not have to engage in a price war about 1/5th of the time as when I make the lowest price. It seems like matching it is best, especially when you offer a better description.
Eric Carlson
I never undercut the lowest price. I'll match it. Undercuting, by even a penny, only drives down the price. As Steve pointed out, other sellers are doing the same. The price just spirals down.
I usually don't even go for the lowest price. I usually price in the mid-range, but with a good description and good feedback I sell my books for more than others (usually).
If the rank is good (high demand) I'll price higher. If the rank is poor then I'll match the lowest price in my condition catagory. I also take into consideration the other sellers' feedback. If the lowest price is a seller with 80% I'll go up to the next price. If that seller is at 91%, I'll go up again, until I reach a seller with similar feedback to my own, then I'll match that price.
Undercutting and low-balling prices only hurts everyone. I've, more than once, went to list a book only to find it's listed for a penny by many sellers. I've already got that far and it's easier to list it than discard it at that point, but my minimum listing price is $3.50. I'll list it at $3.50. Sometimes I'm not even on the first page, but yet, it sells. Some people evidently don't trust the penny sellers.
I found one book that had only ten copies for sale. Eight of the copies were listed from $150 to $300. Two were listed at $35.00. I listed mine at $200 (based on condition) and I bought the two at $35. After receiving them I listed those at $200 also. Since then I've sold one, so I've already made a profit. Why were those two at $35? I have no idea.
I have a 99% feedback rating, higher than most sellers, so I usually price at one penny HIGHER than the lowest price. It works, and it saves the work of constantly competing over pennies as well as making a few extra cents.
In the year I have started to notice a trend rising. I have always had the policy of being the second lowest price. I never stay close to the lower seller and stay closer to the 3rd highest seller. Once I do this sometimes I notice the low sellers will match the price I have or go higher. One book I listed started at 7.25 and we battled it out till we moved it up to 46.32 (the price it sold for). I update my listings everyday but only to raise and not lower. Just look for the ones with the check marks and up the price. This takes about 10 mins. A day. As far as lowering prices I only do that monthly. Myself as a buyer 99% purchase the lowest priced book. I sell books on the side so I interview people at my work about how they purchase and most say they purchased the cheapest one and because of the negative experience they never purchase the cheep ones or they look for the guys with the good description and good rating regardless of price.
I would like to hear from booksellers about suggestions, advice and /or comments for specific software available to reprice your inventory. Thank you!
I reprice twice a day, and I do not use any repricing software. By repricing I mean that twice a day, I spent 5-10 minutes and look quickly through my inventory and I may only adjust a few prices. How much I adjust depends on many factors, such as the sales rank, condition and also the competition. Trying to fight with the big dog sellers with their repricing software is a waste of time and money, but if you are smart and really watch the market, you can beat them at their own game, however, things can easily backfire if you aren't careful. This mainly applies to books with low sales ranks where having high visibility in the rankings is of extreme importance if you want a quick sale.
For average and high sales ranks, dropping your price even just a little can cause all kinds of problems. We've all seen how the big dog and inexperienced sellers operate, and my main repricing is done to keep my listings visible so they don't get buried. I don't need to be at the top of the list, but I don't want to be at the bottom, either. Every month or so I go through my entire inventory and do a major adjustment to all of my titles, and also toss out of the deadwood, etc.
The ironic part is, I've seen the biggest bidding wars on some of the strangest (and least valuable) books, and when I see that happen I stay far away. Let those people battle it out and keep your focus on your very rare and very valuable books that always have a market. Eventually, you will sell them but you just have to be very patient! :)
I think another good point is how often sellers stress over a repricing battle over a $15 dollar book.
Factor in a few things when you reprice and move on. If you are spending a lot of time worrying and readjusting the same book your wasting time.
It really comes down to , do you want the fast nickel or slow dime. If you need the fast nickel then sell on eBay.
It makes more sense to hold out before you go crazy repricing inventory. If I have a book listed for 20 dollars and 3 selles come in at ten then I wait. Sure I will have to wait an extra month before it moves, but they have to do double the work to catch up to my profit.
Its not how many books you move, but how much each book sells for.
I am a relatively new seller and I appreciate learning from all of your experience! Up till now I'd been manually (without software) repricing my listings daily, by a penny or 5 cents at a time. Since I have an inventory of under 400 books, this was not overly time-consuming. However, I've been operating under the assumption that if I'm not one of the three or so lowest prices,I won't make the sale. I recently figured out that some people actually prefer to pay a little more to get the best customer service, tracking,etc. My feedback is currently 100 percent positive so perhaps I should make the most of that asset and not stress over being the lowest price. So I'm not going to price-down for a couple months. We'll see how this new method pans out..
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