If you want to fine-tune your pricing strategy based on factors like Buy Box status, fulfillment method, stock levels, shipping, and more, then Competitor Rules are exactly what you need! You can add Competitor Rules to an existing Repricer that you've created, or create a new repricing rule. In this article we will guide you through creating Competitor Rules and what you can do with them. If you'd like to understand how to set up your Basic Rule and Advanced Options first, click here.

  

What are Competitor Rules and Default Rules?

Every Repricing Rule has a Default Rule. The Default Rule is what determines how you are going to compete with other sellers. The most common approach to a Default Rule is to go below your competitors by 1c, however, you can of course match or price above your competitors. Your Amazon metrics will allow you to determine the best Default Rule for your account.A Default Rule is essentially a broad brush that applies to all competitors. But we know that not all competitors are equal and there are some you'd want to compete with differently. For example, if you have an FBA competitor you'll want to compete with them more aggressively than an FBM competitor. This is where Competitor Rules come in.

A Competitor Rule is essentially a rule within a rule. Within each Competitor Rule, you can determine the scenario in which it would apply and how you would like to compete with your competitor. This means you can be very granular in how you look at your competitive landscape and have your rule react differently depending on who your competitors are.

Examples of Competitor Rules could be: 1) go below your FBA Competitors by 10c; 2) go below FBM competitors by 1c; and 3) price above competitors that have less than a 90% feedback score.   

You can also control what happens if your Competitor Rules don't match any other sellers. You can have it fallback to your Default Rule or apply your No Competitors Scenario setting. If you want to understand Competitor rules better, read this practical example.

How to create a Competitor Rule?

Competitor Rules are part of Amazon Repricing Rules. If you want to add one you should,

  • Click Repricing Rules on the left-hand Nav
  • Choose the Repricing Rule you wish to add a Competitor Rule to
  • Click on the Competitor Rules tab
  • Click the Add Competitor Rule button

competitor-rule

Competitor Rules Options

Below you can find an explanation of all the options you have when creating a competitor rule. The most common use for Competitor Rules is to set up rules to target Amazon, FBA, FBM and SFP sellers differently. We explain exactly how to implement this setup in this article.

Your Competitors Section

Within the Competitors Section, you will determine how to target competitors based on your and their Buy Box status, Fulfillment methods, and Prime.Your CompetitorsHere are the options available,

  • Competitor Pricing Rule: This is your pricing outcome for the scenarios you select below.
  • Buy Box Winner Rule: Here you can target competitors based on whether you have the Buy Box or your competitor has the Buy Box.
  • Fulfilment Rule: This rule helps you target your competitors based on fulfilment types. Here you can select if you or your competitor are FBA or FBM.
  • Prime Rule: Here you can select if you or your competitor are Prime fulfilled.
 

Stock and Shipping section

In this section, you can filter and target competitors based on their stock and fulfilment characteristics.stock-and-shippingHere are the options available:

  • Competitor Stock Rule: Target competitors based on their stock levels and whether they are domestic or not.
  • My Stock Level: Reprice based on your stock levels. For instance, if you have a high amount of stock for a product you may choose to reprice more aggressively.
  • My Stock Age: Reprice based on your stock age. This is helpful for instances where you’d like to move old stock quickly or if you have an item that has a sell-by date.
  • Lead Time to Fulfilment: Reprice based on the amount of time your competitor takes between when a customer places an order, and the seller ships the product. You can choose a range of both minimum days and maximum days.
  • Last Sale: Here, you can choose to reprice your product based on when the last sale of the product happened. Whether it is hours, days, weeks or months.
  • Free Shipping Rule: Here you can change your strategy based on whether you or your competitor has free shipping.
 

Feedback Section

In this section, you can filter and target competitors based on their seller feedback count and rating.feedbackHere are the options available:

  • Rating Count: Target competitors that have a certain number of ratings on their Amazon store.
  • Rating Score %: Target competitors based on their overall review scores from the past 12 months.
 

Include and Exclude Section

In this section, you can include or exclude specific competitors from your rule.include-excludeHere are the options available:

  • Marketplaces: If you have multiple marketplaces you can select which marketplace(s) this rule should apply to. The rule will not match if the marketplace is not selected.
  • Merchants: In this section, you can choose from the dropdown whether to Include or Ignore specific sellers. You then input the seller(s) Merchant ID. Make sure to only put one Merchant ID per line. To find the Merchant ID, go to your competitor’s storefront on Amazon and copy the string of letters and numbers that appear after seller= in the URL.
  • # Competitors Between: This Competitor rule is for when you have a strategy targeting products based on how competitive the market for them is.

Further Reading

If you want to learn how to assign Repricing Rules to your products, click here.
Want to understand how advanced options work? Click here.

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