'Beat-the-Best-Price-Now(TM)' Instant Price Beating Technology Deployed by Music44

Indianapolis, IN (PRWEB) April 10, 2008 -- Music44's Sheet Music Store (http://www.music44.com) was always a low price leader in the niche industry of retail sheet music and music books. But the age-old business question loomed: Will profit increase by dropping prices further and increasing volume, or are we better off to raise prices even if it reduces volume? For Music44, Beat-the-Best-Price-Now(TM) (http://www.music44.com/X/page/bbn_info) (a.k.a. "BBN") renders this question moot, and delivers the best of both worlds. Counter intuitively, the price-lowering technology has enabled increased profit margins.

Gary Osborne, President of Music44, explains, "The most highly price-conscious customers can scour the web and use BBN to buy at the absolute rock bottom price. But many customers are less interested in spending a lot of time and just want a 'good' deal. They can buy at the store's normal, slightly higher prices. So BBN puts the customer in charge."

As a result Music44 no longer has to slash prices across the board to gain those low profit sales. Instead, the customers segment themselves based on what is most important to them. "How good a deal do you want?" Gary says, "That's a question we let our customers answer. And they love it."

How does it work? In simple terms, the customer navigates to the competitor's webpage, snags the URL and gives it to Music44 along with the current price. With the click of a button, Music44 instantly lowers the price on that item to not just match, but actually beat the competition. Of course, a number of fail-safes are built into the system to avoid misuse.

Another benefit is found in not having to "shop" the competition. According to Gary, "With BBN, the customers deliver us all the best pricing information, so we don't have to go looking at competition pricing." This is critical because Music44 has a very deep catalog, selling virtually all sheet music (http://www.music44.com/X/products/sheet%20music) and music books (http://www.music44.com/X/products/music%20book) in commercial print. That's a lot of sheet---well over 200,000 titles. So BBN is an ideal solution.

What about the potential for abuse? The concept of "automatic" or "instant" price alteration may frighten some business owners, but the fear is quickly dispelled when one understands the mechanisms involved. "The transaction is completed right away," says Gary, "but nothing is shipped until a real person looks at the competitor page and price and verifies that the items are the same. It only takes a moment."

Can prices be lowered too far? "We can put a floor on prices, so it never falls below cost," Gary answers. "But that's not been an issue in our business where everyone buys the exact same items from the same manufacturers at nearly the same cost. When BBN seems to not to have worked to beat a given price on an item, it has always turned out to be a customer error, where they entered a similar but differently priced item."

Still, isn't instant price change put into the hands of customers an open invitation to some to attempt to cheat the system. "Not so," says Gary. "Ninety-nine percent of use is legitimate. There are a few mistakes occasionally, but we catch them. To deter real abuse, we inform customers that fraudulent use will result in the cancellation of their order and a small service fee imposed. That seems to do the trick."

So will Beat-the-Best-Price-Now(TM) be licensed? In industries where identical products compete largely, or even solely, on price, BBN could be a massive competitive advantage. What about licensing it for use by online retailers in other industries? "That is an option we will be considering seriously," says Gary Osborne. "It would be great for a smaller company that is going up against a larger company already known for low prices and beat them every time, providing the customer with substantial savings."

For more information, please contact Troy Mulander or visit http://www.music44.com/.

About Music44:

Music44 is a privately held corporation and online retailer of sheet music, music books and instruments. The company has been in business since 1999 and grown steadily to become one of the top retailers in its niche. Beat-the-Best-Price-Now(TM) is Music44's patent pending instant price change shopping technology (http://www.music44.com/X/page/bbn_info.mvc) for ecommerce.

Contact:

Troy Mulander

Music44.com

(866) 419-6497

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