Why two price lists cannot be compared as they come
On paper, comparing two offers means putting two prices side by side. In practice, the two lines rarely describe the same thing, in the same unit, at the same moment:
- The reference differs. “JBL GO Essential 2” at one supplier, “GO Essential 2” at the other: a VLOOKUP on the exact reference matches nothing any more.
- The currency differs. One price in dollars, another in pounds, a third in euros.
- The incoterm differs. An ex-works price includes neither freight nor customs duty; a DDP price includes both.
- The pack size differs. One unit, a pack of two, a carton of twenty.
- The date differs. A June offer and a September offer do not describe the same market.
Any one of these is enough to skew the comparison, in either direction. The method takes five steps.
1. Put every list in the same shape
Before comparing anything, every line needs the same fields, whatever the supplier's layout: reference, description, colour, price, currency, incoterm, pack size and barcode (EAN). Keep, for each line, the file and the row it came from too: the day a price surprises you, that is the only way back to the source.
Offers that arrive over WhatsApp or in the body of an e-mail go through the same step. A line in a message is a price list line like any other, and it deserves the same care.
2. Match references from one supplier to the next
The EAN barcode is the best matching key: it identifies one product, and only one. When it is missing, you need a stable model key, stripped of what varies between suppliers: the brand repeated or not, word order, spaces, capitals.
Two checks before you trust the match:
- The colour. At the same supplier, a few per cent between the black and the blue of one model is a production batch or an exchange rate effect. Beyond that, it is a question to ask before comparing.
- The EAN itself. A barcode carried by two different products is a supplier typing error. Seen in a real offer: a 64 GB and a 128 GB USB drive under the same EAN. Match on that code and you compare two different products.
3. Convert to one currency before comparing
Comparing 112 with 108 compares numbers, not prices. In two real offers, 112 USD at one supplier against 108 GBP at the other showed only a 3.6 % gap in raw figures: nothing alarming. Once both were converted to euros, the real gap was 23.8 %, €28 a piece.
Convert with your rate, the one your bank actually gives you, and the same rate for every offer in the same currency. Otherwise an exchange rate move passes for a price increase, or hides one.
4. Compare landed costs, not list prices
A supplier price is not what a unit costs you. What counts is the landed cost: the converted price, plus fees (insurance, currency exchange, bank charges), customs duty and freight to your warehouse. The incoterm tells you what the price already includes:
| Incoterm of the offer | Freight | Customs duty |
|---|---|---|
| EXW, FCA, FAS, FOB | to add | to add |
| CFR, CIF, CPT, CIP, DAP, DPU | included | to add |
| DDP | included | included |
Skipping this costs real money: in two real offers, a FOB Shenzhen price compared as is with a DDP Hamburg price made the DDP offer look a good twenty per cent dearer, when it already included freight and duty. Our landed cost calculator does it for one line, with the same rules as Merconto.
5. Compare at equal pack size, and at equal date
Bring everything back to a price per unit. An offer per pack of two looks twice as expensive as an offer per unit, and a carton of twenty does not carry the same freight per unit as a product shipped alone. If two suppliers do not pack alike, note it next to the price: that comparison is one to make by hand, not one to let slip.
Then date every offer. A price list has a lifetime: comparing it with an offer from three months earlier compares two markets. Keep every version, with its date: that is what lets you see, at the next list, what went up, what went down and what disappeared. The guide on tracking price increases starts there.
Same product (EAN checked, colour included)? Same currency, at the same rate? Same incoterm, or landed costs worked out? Same pack size, price per unit? Offers from the same period? No “not for EU sale” note on the cheapest line?
Six yeses, and the gap is real. A single no, and it has to be cleared before you negotiate.
Beyond the price
The cheapest is not always the best buy. Look at the minimum order quantity, the stated availability, and above all any sales restriction: a low price that comes with a ban on selling in your territory is not comparable, it is out of the game. A restriction that disappears from one version of a list to the next deserves a question to the supplier too.