Ensuring pricing integrity via a MAP policy is a top priority for companies collaborating with resellers online. When MAP violations occur, it not only impacts the brand's bottom line but also strains relationships with honest resellers, potentially tarnishing the company's reputation among loyal customers. However, monitoring and enforcing a MAP policy across various eCommerce platforms is incredibly time-consuming, a task many businesses simply can't spare time for.
To address this challenge, an increasing number of companies opt for software solutions like MAPP Trap—an innovative tool automating MAP policy enforcement. Learning to leverage MAPP Trap's automation empowers you to delegate MAP policy enforcement, freeing up time for other business endeavors while ensuring policy adherence is happening in the background.
In this guide, we’ll explain the benefits of utilizing automation in MAP enforcement software versus doing so manually, and how you can achieve this step-by-step with MAPP Trap.
Let’s dive in!
Manual Vs. Automated MAP Enforcement: What You Need to Know
The Challenges of Manual MAP Enforcement
Imagine you're a dedicated brand manager, striving to enforce MAP policies manually without any tech support. You dive into this mission, scrolling through endless product listings scattered across various platforms—it's like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Despite your meticulous efforts, you have to manage:
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The amount of products online: The sheer volume of products and platforms makes it nearly impossible to catch every violator.
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Time to market: These days - and with the help of AI - online resellers are able to get up and running in minutes, which can make it hard to keep up.
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Gathering evidence: like snapping dated and time-stamped screenshots—is a time-consuming ordeal. Meanwhile, new violators are slipping through the cracks.
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Impact on resources: This exhaustive process drains your team's resources and detracts from critical business strategies. The strain isn't just on your eyes; it's on your time and focus, too.
Are there any pros to manual MAP enforcement? There might be. It offers granular control, enabling brand managers to take a hands-on approach and focus on specific violations or platforms. Additionally, manual enforcement allows for tailored strategies to address unique situations or overlooked violations. Another benefit is its immediate adaptability—managers can swiftly adjust strategies in response to policy changes or sudden platform modifications.
The Benefits of Automating MAP Enforcement
Now, envision using MAPP Trap—a game-changing tool that swiftly pinpoints violators and automatically compiles evidence in real time. How much time and worry could you save once you switch from manual MAP enforcement to automating it? Okay, maybe we’re a bit biased. But, let’s break it down and you decide for yourself!
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Efficiency: MAPP Trap drastically reduces the time and resources spent on MAP policy enforcement by automating the process. This efficiency allows you to focus on other crucial aspects of your business.
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Accuracy: Automated tracking eliminates human error and ensures that no violations go unnoticed.
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Consistency: Automated systems ensure consistency in monitoring and enforcement, reinforcing the credibility of your MAP policy.
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Data-Driven Decision Making: Comprehensive reporting and analytics provide valuable insights that can inform your strategy and decision-making process.
How to Automate Your Map Enforcement: A Step-By-Step Guide
Because there could be a learning curve for staff to become acquainted with the new system, we recognize the importance of getting a visual of how it would look to use the automation MAP enforcement features in MAPP Trap.
Step 1: Create a Customized Enforcement Plan
To start, you’ll create your customized plan. Click on "Create New Plan'' within the MAPP Trap platform to start customizing your enforcement strategy. In this step, you’ll decide if you want notices sent based on prices (MAP Plans) or listings (for IP notices, unauthorized sellers, etc.), name the plan and give it a description. Be sure to assign titles and descriptions that are easy to identify for all team members.
Even with automation, organization is an important factor when utilizing any software, so you may want to discuss your plan of attack before implementing it into the software.
Step 2: Select Which Products/Merchants to Enforce
Next, you’ll select which products and merchants you want included in this enforcement plan. Assuming you’ve already decided this when you created your plan in step one, MAPP Trap will pull up a list of all your products and merchants and you can select which ones you want to monitor in this specific customized plan you’ve created.
Step 3: Set Your Notification Rules
Now, you’ll get to decide what happens when a MAP violation is spotted. How many days of compliance, which is the number of days a merchant must be in compliance before the plan resets, or before you might update the price. Does the seller get a single warning or three strikes? Choose the name of each notification type, select the notification type (we have a drop-down list to choose from, including “violation cited” or “warning”), then choose the number of days between each notification step.
Step 4: Write Your Custom Notification Emails
Then, based on the previous step, you will customize each email based on the rule that it corresponds with. Each email can be saved as a template, which will be personalized depending on who it may end up being sent to. We offer different text templates that you can use depending on the email type. You can also add your logo, policies, pricelists, or more.
Step 5: Select Release Types
Finally, decide exactly how you’d like your plan to be implemented. This is where you finalize the automation flow. In this step, you will set emails to go out automatically or manually. If email release types are manual, then you will need to log in to review and then release the email. And, “Actionable” enforcement emails can only be set to “manual” or “notify me” as they require you to review prior to sending. Otherwise, once you click “save” you’re good to go! Now, your MAP enforcement is automated.
Key Considerations for Handling MAP Violators
In addition to providing you with the steps to automate your MAP enforcement, here are some things you’ll want to keep in mind:
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Clarify objectives: Why do you want to establish MAP enforcement in the first place? Define clear objectives—are you targeting unauthorized sellers to take them down, reducing discounts, or just keeping an eye on the market? Clarity here strengthens policy and enforcement.
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Strategic approach: Tactics like emails are essential to MAP enforcement, but they must be aligned with your objectives. Specific objectives demand specific plans reflected in your outreach.
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Consistency and follow-through: Stick to your strategy consistently and follow through on all threats to maintain effectiveness.
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Realistic expectations: Channel issues require time for resolution. Patience and a step-by-step approach are important. Even with automation, results can take time.
Additional Automation Features with MAPP Trap
MAPP Trap is an advanced, cloud-based software designed to address these challenges by automating the MAP enforcement process. But here are some other cool features:
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Real-Time monitoring: MAPP Trap monitors online prices across thousands of websites, marketplaces, and shopping comparison engines in real time. This feature ensures that you are promptly notified of any policy violations.
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Violation alerts: Each day, MAPP Trap sends you automated alerts, providing you with insight into new merchants, updated merchant information, merchant name changes and more.
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Comprehensive reporting: MAPP Trap’s robust reporting capabilities allow you to gain valuable insights from your data. You can view trends over time, identify repeat offenders, and understand the impact of MAP policy violations on your brand.
Special Feature: AI-Guided Compliance Assistant
MAPP Trap's AI-Powered MAP Enforcement is a standout capability. This feature utilizes machine learning to automate and optimize the enforcement of MAP policies. It dynamically analyzes enforcement efforts against results, offers actionable insights for policy adherence, identifies areas needing attention or strategy changes, and promptly flags any deviations from set pricing guidelines. By providing real-time insights, which can be used to enhance your MAP enforcement automation flow.
The Bottom Line
Automating MAP enforcement with MAPP Trap not only simplifies a complex process but also enhances your brand protection efforts. By leveraging this technology, you can safeguard your brand’s integrity, maintain healthy relationships with your resellers, and focus on your business's strategic growth. Automation is the future of MAP enforcement, and MAPP Trap is leading the way.
Embrace the future of MAP enforcement with MAPP Trap and bolster your brand protection efforts. Reach out to us today to learn how automation can simplify your MAP processes and fuel your strategic growth.