FOAL, LLC Grew Margins and Increased Market Share with Automated Pricing Intelligence, Repricing
Consumers in the market for everything equine can look no further than the aptly named OneStopEquineShop.com, owned and operated by FOAL, LLC.
The Illinois-based online merchant has spent years refining its eCommerce business to connect shoppers with the best horse tack and riding apparel available, including expanding its reach to sell on Amazon, eBay, and in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and Spain.
As a result, FOAL has learned first-hand what it takes to succeed in eCommerce, especially when it comes to price. The fast-paced, hyper-competitive environment sees prices fluctuate constantly, and top retailers are the ones who have learned how to balance attractive prices with protected margins and streamlined operations.
This was the goal set forth by FOAL: Monitor competitors’ prices and reprice in a way that is effective, efficient, and creative.
Challenges
As any online retailer can attest, this goal is easier said than done. FOAL and its equine assortment are in an industry where prices change by the minute. It’s easy to lose a sale if prices are out of step with the competition.
Furthermore, FOAL is a lean operation, and places a premium on efficiency, simplicity, and customer satisfaction. The company must be creative with its problem-solving and have faith in its data to make educated decisions on its prices.
Naturally, this is a challenge compounded by its large assortment of more than 300,000 SKUs. With products available on OneStopEquineShop.com, Amazon, eBay, in Europe and North America, FOAL was in search of a fast, scalable solution to capture pricing across these online marketplaces.
Solutions
FOAL turned to Wiser for its holistic and automated pricing solutions. Wiser offers both competitive pricing intelligence and a rule-based repricing engine, so FOAL could make confident pricing decisions in a way that aligned with its lean operations and business goals.
FOAL quickly began using Wiser’s competitive pricing intelligence to monitor the equine category and keep track of price fluctuations from other sellers. This solution gave them insight into prices, of course, but also key products during price-sensitive periods, their own margins and competitor margins, and historical data.
In addition, FOAL automated its repricing with Wiser to adjust prices across all its online marketplaces, including Amazon and eBay. This was completed via pre-determined rules, such as match to top competitors, 20 percent off, or top competitors less than 1 percent.
Best of all, FOAL also integrated Wiser’s intelligence and repricing platform into both Google Shopping and its webstore, so price changes could happen quickly and with little-to-no manual effort from FOAL employees.
SOLUTIONS USED:
Since 2014 when we started using Wiser, their tools have been critical in our growth into a business doing $10 million-plus per year, which has been a growth of over 20 times since 2014.
Alexander Lans
President & CEO
$10+ MM
Per Year Business Growth
20x
Revenue Increase Since 2014
Results
These additions to how FOAL monitored and adjusted prices had several effects on the business. The online merchant quickly noticed how the automated and hands-off platform aligned with their lean operations.
FOAL also realized time-savings with the automation and can scale the data alongside its own business as it adds more SKUs to its assortment. The Wiser platform allows FOAL to compete on prices and raise prices in a way that doesn’t erode margins. Specifically, FOAL attributes 7 percent growth in overall gross margin over the past five years to the implementation of Wiser’s platform.
“Since 2014 when we started using Wiser, their tools have been critical in our growth into a business doing $10 million-plus per year, which has been a growth of over 20 times since 2014,” noted Alexander Lans, President and CEO of FOAL, LLC. “Initially, the usage was to drive top-line growth and stay very competitive to gain market share.”
FOAL is now positioned to excel in the competitive world of eCommerce, as the company has actionable pricing intelligence and automated repricing services to support its corporate objectives. For its customers, this means access to a leading assortment of equine products across multiple countries and continents, and stronger margins and improved sales for FOAL. That’s a winning result for everyone.
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Knock that next merchandising campaign out of the park. Win market share from your competition with price optimization. Understand shopper insights to create better messaging. No matter your goals, Wiser is here to help.
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