Why Are MAP Policies Important To Your Business?

MAP stands for “minimum advertised price”. It is the lowest price that can be designated for a product placed on sale, and that which is presented publicly. Map policies are generally enacted by a particular brand to guarantee that its network of sellers does not market its products at a price that is below a certain benchmark. You must be wary because substantial sales and discounts at the level of retailers can undermine your control pertaining to the amount of cash that you obtain from consumers for your merchandise.

You can have an edge on the competition through map policies because they give you the capability to put a limit on the price online and offline resellers place on your goods. Retailers may be able to charge a price that they want to in-store, but they should not be allowed to entice new customers by promoting your products at a lower price than what is indicated by the MAP.

For a growing business, this is good news. However, it can be tricky to keep track of the marketed price of every retailer. By yourself, you can put in the leg work, but it can cost your business a huge amount of time and financial resources. A smart option is to work with a third-party for your map monitoring endeavors. It is more cost and method-effective in terms of ensuring your map policy compliance.

Online selling was not so easy ten years ago. During those years, the world wide web was a space that favored the young, technical savvy and adaptable types. If you were into a new retail business or owned a brick and mortar shop, you had to deal with a restrictive range of services if you want to take your business online. It is a deed that you had to do all by yourself.

But technology, amazing as it is, has rapidly grown and developed. So fast in fact, and now there are platforms such as eBay, Shopify, Amazon and Magento that makes selling online very easy. Barriers to the entry of your products have been done away with, and risks are minimized. Other than these platforms, there came the outputs of niche-specific and peripheral services that especially cater to internet resellers. If you take time to learn the ropes of online selling, you’ll realize that you can work with it, instead of fighting it. To this point, there is an astounding amount of people selling stuff online.

The competition in online selling has become tougher, too, and merchants who want to gain an advantage over it have resorted to giving discounts, promotions and lowering their prices. Now, selling on the internet has become a game of how low (a price) can a merchant go to be able to gain more customers.

It is this trend that resulted to brands and distributors mistrusting online retailers because their products are sold at lower prices. Then again, there’s no getting away with it because of product price comparison and intelligent software. The incredible discounts are bound to spread throughout a brand’s selling network quickly. The race to go lower at the bottom and the practices of misguided online sellers ultimately result in the eroding of a brand’s image. There no longer are expectations of longevity.

To curtail this trend that leads to a downward spiral map policies have been imposed as a response to control the easy online selling practice and placing discounts.