Understanding Your Competitors: How a Product Library Can Help

Making money selling major appliances is no easy feat. There are only so many SKUs on the market, and there are countless other companies trying to outsell you every day. One way to gain market share? Using a product master for major appliances.

In this guide, you’ll learn how a product library can help, what it does, and some major benefits of using one.

What Is a Product Library?

Also called a product master, a product library is a database that centralizes information. In simpler terms, it’s a single place where anyone in your company can go to learn more about a product that’s for sale in the market.

Product libraries can — and should — include pricing details, images, SKU information, appliance documentation, any current promotions, assembly parts, and more. A well-made major appliance product library will tell you everything you need to know about your products and the models your competition is selling.

Typically digital, you can either make a product library from scratch, or gain access to an existing library. Smaller companies might set up their own library to track internal and unique products.

Distributors for commercial brands, on the other hand, would be better to buy into an existing library.

Existing libraries should have all the information for each competitive SKU offered in your product line.

Tools like TraQline SKU Metrix™ are built on advanced technology that delivers SKU-level detail across brands and outlets. With the most comprehensive product library available, SKU Metrix delivers key insights on your competitor’s products.

Key Insights from Comprehensive Product Masters

Why do you need a product library for your team? Here are some key benefits to consider.

Trending Features & Product Attributes

The features and attributes of your major appliances might be what sets your company apart from your competitors. If you’re not selling those features, then you’re not selling yourself.

A product feature is a description of a particular function that a model performs or possesses. For example, “color” is a feature. A product attribute is a description of that feature’s state. For example, “stainless steel” is an attribute of the “color” feature. Within a product library, all this information will be displayed alongside a photo of the appliance.

An existing product library will also highlight insights beyond feature information, such as what features are currently trending by looking at pricing and availability across the globe.

With SKU Metrix, you can also put products head-to-head (pictured right), and see this information in a product matrix, where features are normalized across brands.

Utilizing these feature and attribute insights allow you to start pushing those products in new ways, tapping into market current trends.

Pricing & Promotions

Pricing is one of the most important parts of your business.

You need to know when promotions are applied, seasonal sales roll around, or pricing changes as global demand or inventory shifts. Missing the newest price change could mean losing money on a deal or losing a customer to your competition.

With a pre-established product library, pricing is updated regularly — SKU Metrix, for example, is at least twice per week. This allows you to see pricing trends (pictured left) and have the data needed for competitive pricing strategy. For example, based on how much Lowe’s is selling a competing GE-brand range for, your price could be adjusted accordingly.

You can also use this information to investigate margin gaps and ultimately optimize your pricing.

Market Gaps & Opportunities to Gain Share

Offering in-demand products that your competition doesn’t offer will help you gain market share. Working with a well-made product library simplifies the competitive assessment process.

With this breadth of data, you are equipped with the tools you need to discover opportunities to gain share. You might notice a gap in brands, features, or pricing using a trending feature on their latest washers, for example, and can capitalize on this.

SKU Metrix: Your Competitive Major Appliance Product Library

It bears repeating: a good major appliances product library gives you the tools you need to improve your margins and gain market share.

SKU Metrix is an indispensable resource for teams across an organization, from merchandising to product assortment, insights, and planning. With more than 27,000 major appliances SKUs at your disposal, you will have the data you need to develop promotional plans, improve pricing strategies, and identify winning market opportunities.

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