CASE STUDY
Baker & Taylor Maximizes Competitive Edge with Ficstar’s Reliable Pricing Data
Baker & Taylor, a distributor of books and entertainment, has been in business for over 180 years. It is based in Charlotte, North Carolina and currently owned by Follett Corporation.
Before its acquisition by Follett in 2016, Baker & Taylor had $2.26 billion in sales, employed 3,750, and was #204 on Forbes list of privately-owned companies in 2008. Baker & Taylor distributes books, hard copy and digital, to libraries, institutions, and retailers, including warehouse clubs and internet retailers in over 120 countries.
FACTS ABOUT BAKER & TAYLOR
1828
Year Founded
1M+
Unique SKUs Shipped Annually
1.5M+
Titles Offered
385K
Titles Stocked
THE PROBLEM
Baker & Taylor hired a service provider to help collect pricing data from competitors. However, the provider was only able to pull data twice a month but Baker & Taylor wanted the data at a daily basis.
The provider also showed that it was unable to keep pace with the competitor’s ongoing pricing changes on websites and typically, by the time they had fine-tuned their algorithms, the competitor had moved on to the next set of changes.
After working with two providers, both of which had charged a premium fee for data services but provided only inconsistent and unreliable results, Baker & Taylor was still facing the same challenge that it’s not able to catch up with the competitor’s pricing changes.
THE SOLUTION
Ficstar’s customized solution helped collect and deliver competitors’ price data daily and weekly in the formats requested by Baker & Taylor at a lower cost than its previous service providers.
Baker & Taylor started to receive reliable competitor pricing data that were accurate and consistent for their competitor price monitoring needs. They were able to compete with confidence from that.
“Ficstar’s customer-focused approach, and genuine interest in what Baker & Tayler needed made it immediately apparent Ficstar was a partner that genuinely wanted to understand our needs and provide the solutions in the format and with the frequency that worked best for us.”
Margaret Lane
Vice President of Retail Sales at Baker & Taylor
THE RESULT
Thanks to Ficstar, Baker & Taylor consistently provided its customers with the data they would need to make the strategic business decisions that would most benefit their companies.
Baker & Taylor’s customers appreciated the fact Baker & Taylor gave them the pricing data they would need to adjust their pricing within certain parameters.
“Ficstar will always be our provider of choice when it comes to superior, quality data collection and smooth, seamless customer service. Whenever someone asks for a referral to a data mining and data extraction provider, I recommend Ficstar without hesitation.”
Margaret Lane
Vice President of Retail Sales at Baker & Taylor