It’s pretty hard for a retail firm to be successful if it (a) does not know what prices its competitors are offering and (b) it does not have a pricing strategy that reflects the competitive marketplace — whomever the retailer defines as its competitors.

As Gilon Miller writes for Upstream Commerce: “Setting prices today is not an easy task for retailers. It wasn’t so long ago when you could simply hire a secret shopper to see what the competition was up to in your geographical area or browse a few online Web sites for competitive retail pricing information. Now, your retail competition is global and you have to consider many thousands of online prices in addition to traditional brick-and-mortar pricing.”

Click the image to read Miller’s “secrets” to competitive pricing.