Global OEMs face challenges in managing parts pricing across different countries. While trade regulations vary significantly across regions, currency fluctuations and market dynamics further add to the complexity. Combined, these challenges make it difficult for OEMs to maintain consistency, compliance, and competitiveness in their multi-country pricing strategies.
An advanced spare parts catalog software, such as Intelli Catalog, helps OEMs address these challenges efficiently. This software provides a centralized, automated platform for simplifying multi-country pricing and catalog operations.
This article will discuss how Intelli Catalog transforms parts pricing and delivers measurable benefits to global OEMs and dealers, helping them stay ahead in a highly competitive ecosystem.
Complexities Involved in Handling Spare Parts Pricing in Multiple Countries
Managing spare parts pricing across latitudes involves a web of challenges for OEMs and their dealer networks. These difficulties may involve navigating legal regulations across diverse jurisdictions and tackling multi-currency integration.
Let’s dig into these complexities faced by OEMs when handling spare parts pricing in multiple countries.
Adhering to The Local Trade Laws
When defining global pricing strategies, OEMs must adhere to the local laws and regulations. Different countries may have varying laws that impact pricing practices for manufacturers, including price controls, price fixing, and predatory pricing. This makes it essential to comply with competition laws, price regulation, and antitrust policies. To avoid any legal backlash, OEMs should go through such regulations and maintain their pricing strategy ethically.
Country-Specific Pricing
Costs like production expenses, taxes, tariffs, and distribution rates differ significantly over regions. In such circumstances, OEMs and dealers face difficulty in calculating total expenses as prices keep fluctuating in different countries. Maintaining uniformity in multi-country pricing is a challenge here and imposes an extra burden on the manufacturers to sustain profitability and competitiveness.
Multiple Currency Integration
When operating in multiple countries, OEMs are bound to accept the local currency to maintain an optimal sales volume. However, integrating multiple currencies is a more protracted problem than it seems. This is because inconsistency in exchange rates can significantly impact manufacturers’ pricing decisions and profitability. Currency fluctuations also affect the costs, like import tariffs and manufacturing expenses, disturbing profit margins every time. This makes it necessary for OEMs to monitor exchange rates closely and adjust pricing strategies accordingly.
Taxation Policies in Different Countries
As each country has its own taxation policy, it poses a major challenge for OEMs to manage spare parts pricing globally. Taxation plans and structure change with region and must be applied accurately to parts pricing to ensure compliance and prevent penalties. However, keeping up with the frequent modifications in local taxation policies across regions is a serious difficulty. When calculating tax on cross-border transactions, the process becomes even more complicated and increases the risk of errors creeping in.
Customer Perspective and Expectations
What customers perceive and value varies greatly across countries. The distinguished price sensitivity factor and expectations of local customers in different markets also impact OEM’s decisions when drafting pricing strategies. It is essential to balance competitive pricing and customer expectations to gain customer acceptance and build brand loyalty over time.
Features of Intelli Catalog That Cater to Geographical Diversity in Spare Parts Pricing
To mitigate these challenges faced by global OEMs in handling multi-country pricing, we at Intellinet Systems developed Intelli Catalog, an illustrated spare parts catalog software. The software comes with multiple search options that simplify the parts search process and ensure the right part ordering. It also allows the user to interact in their native language, overcoming significant language barriers that extend across countries and regions.
Let’s discuss all these features offered by Intelli Catalog that help OEMs in managing regional parts pricing across countries below:
Centralized Pricing Management
Intelli Catalog offers a centralized platform for the OEMs to store a single database for all dealers globally. Manufacturers can later customize the database for different geographies whenever required. This centralized approach makes it easier to collaborate with teams working in different locations.
Info Updates in Real-Time
Global OEMs often complain about the long hours they spend on making changes to the parts information data. Aligning all the teams on the same page is often a challenge as multiple locations and time zones get involved. Intelli Catalog provides all the information centrally, making it easier for OEMs to update parts-related information. The changes made are reflected in the database instantly. This feature also enables manufacturers to ensure everyone has access to the same information.
Multi-Language Support
Change in countries becomes more pronounced with the switch in languages and dialects. To mitigate this challenge, we have developed our software as a multi-lingual system. This allows manufacturers to use the software in any language of their choice. They can introduce any new language by simply using the utilities available in the system to extract data dynamically.
ERP/DMS Integration
Intelli Catalog’s robust integration capabilities seamlessly connect other systems used by the OEM, such as Dealer Management System (DMS) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). This integration helps OEMs ensure that all data flows smoothly between other systems and Intelli Catalog. It also eliminates the need to update data manually and reduces errors from surfacing.
Benefits of Intelli Catalog for Global OEMs
For the OEMs specifically operating in multiple countries, Intelli Catalog provides the following advantages:
Enhanced Compliance with Local Laws
When operating in multiple countries, the manufacturers have to manage a large network of local regulations. These may include tax laws, product compliance standards, and custom provisions. As Intelli Catalog integrates with the OEM’s existing ERP systems, it ensures that all the spare parts pricing and catalog data align with the country-specific laws. Based on the local tax data, our software automates the application of local tax rates in the billings. This automation reduces errors involved in manual calculation that might have caused fines, penalties, and delays.
For instance, the software enables real-time data synchronization. This feature ensures that all billings are done on the latest tax rates as stated by the local authorities for each region. Automated documentation of compliance in the form of custom declarations helps manufacturers to monitor cross-border transactions better. This allows OEMs to overcome the need to constantly track regulatory changes and focus on more crucial operational tasks.
Improved Global Pricing Strategies
Intelli Catalog provides a centralized platform to OEMs for managing and updating pricing strategies on the go. Authorized users can access the software’s user-friendly backend and adjust part prices anytime, which gets reflected instantly. This ability to update prices in real-time ensures consistency and competitiveness across global markets. When integrated with an ERP system, Intelli Catalog provides data-driven insights on demand forecasting and regional sales trends. OEMs can modify their pricing strategies after evaluating these insights and maximize profitability.
Suppose there is a higher demand of a given part within a country. The OEM can increase its price in this region to raise profitability and regulate demand simultaneously.
If the same part has lower demand in some other country, the manufacturer can offer discounts on it to clear the excessive stock. This way, OEMs can set differentiated pricing for the same part in varying countries using Intelli Catalog. Manufacturers can also have clear visibility into global pricing data and automate currency conversions using the software. This helps them regulate profit margins and maintain competence in diverse markets.
Streamlined Operations
Manual processing involved in parts catalog management, such as updating printed catalogs, often consumes long durations and is prone to errors, especially for OEMs operating globally. Intelli Catalog automates tasks like the creation, distribution, and updating of spare parts catalogs within an online ecosystem.
Its advanced search options, including the VIN/serial numbers search and interactive 3D illustrations, enable dealers to accurately identify the required parts and order them quickly. This not only reduces errors in orders but also accelerates their fulfillment. The field technicians can use Intelli Catalog on the mobile-based app to access parts information instantly from anywhere and fix repairs, minimizing downtime and improving service efficiency. Overall, Intelli Catalog transforms the entire operations, including cost reduction, dealer productivity improvement, and higher customer satisfaction across countries.
Conclusion
Manufacturers handling multi-country parts pricing face several challenges to meet local trade law compliance while maintaining profitability. An electronic parts catalog software like Intelli Catalog stands out as an innovative solution to such OEMs and dealers. The software automates compliance with local laws, enabling the OEMs to draft global pricing strategies dynamically. This streamlines manufacturers’ operations and empowers them to operate more efficiently and compete across diverse markets.
Integrating it with ERP and DMS systems, utilizing features like real-time pricing updates and interactive catalog tools, helps OEMs meet the global operational standards and demand while minimizing costs and errors. With the continuous expansion of industries globally, Intelli Catalog provides a scalable platform. With this solution that grows as your business expands, OEMs can achieve profitability, compliance, and customer satisfaction. This also drives them toward long-term success in an evolving industry.
To learn more about how Intelli Catalog can facilitate multi-country spare parts pricing for your business, request a free demo today.
