Cross-Border Price Comparison Across 5 EU Markets

Client Snapshot

A European brand selling the same catalog through localized storefronts in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Poland.

The Challenge

The brand's country teams set prices independently. Nobody had a consolidated view, and the gaps had grown large enough that grey-market resellers were buying in the cheapest market and reselling in the most expensive — undercutting the brand's own storefronts with the brand's own product.

Building a comparison was harder than it sounds. Prices are in different currencies, VAT rates differ by country (so displayed prices aren't comparable at all), shipping thresholds differ, and the same product carries different local SKUs.

Objectives

• Build a like-for-like price comparison across 5 markets
• Normalize for currency and VAT so figures are actually comparable
• Quantify the arbitrage gap per SKU and flag exploitable spreads

The Actowiz Approach

The engineering effort went almost entirely into normalization, not collection.

Each market's listings were captured with local currency and tax-inclusive prices, then converted to a common currency at the captured-day rate and adjusted to a net-of-VAT basis using each country's applicable rate. Only then are two prices comparable — and once they were, the picture looked very different from the raw figures the country teams had been circulating.

Local SKUs were mapped to a global product ID via the client's own master data where it existed, and via attribute matching where it didn't.

Data Delivered

Global product ID, market, local SKU, local price (gross), currency, VAT rate, net price, EUR-normalized net price, max/min spread, arbitrage gap %.

Format: Excel + BI feed · Cadence: Weekly

Results

• 5 markets, 2,800 SKUs compared on a normalized basis
• 340 SKUs found with a net price spread above 15%
• Largest single spread: 31% between two markets on the same SKU
• Client used the data to consolidate pricing bands and close the arbitrage window

Compliance Note

Public storefront pricing only. VAT rates sourced from published national tax schedules.