If there’s one thing every dropshipper learns fast, it’s that setting prices isn’t a one-time thing. Prices fluctuate, suppliers change costs, demand changes over time, and suddenly boom: your carefully calculated profit is out the window.
That’s why having automated tools to track and optimize this is a game-changer. AutoDS’s Automatic Price Optimization feature increases or decreases prices automatically to help you keep your store competitive and profitable 24/7.
In this article, we’ll explain how this feature works, what makes it different, and how it compares against other popular tools in the dropshipping space.
Automatic price updates save time and boost your profits. Instead of manually adjusting prices, automation helps you stay competitive, react fast to customer demand, and keep your margins healthy.
AutoDS is the only platform in the comparison with real performance-based pricing. Its Automatic Price Optimization feature adjusts prices based on sales activity, giving you smarter, data-driven control over your profits.
Other tools, such as DSers, Zendrop, and Spocket, only offer basic or static pricing rules. They rely on fixed markups or supplier cost changes, without reacting to real-time customer demand.
What Is an Automatic Price Optimization Tool?
So, what is automatic price optimization, exactly? If you’re thinking about some kind of robot accountant that adjusts your prices while you live your life, you’re not too far off. It’s a smart system that constantly checks your prices to make sure they’re actually profitable and competitive. If they’re not, this little automated friend tweaks the prices accordingly, without you lifting a finger.
The market is a dynamic ecosystem, not static. It’s constantly shifting with trends, competition, and buyer behaviour. What sells like crazy one week might stall next week. That’s why pricing strategies need to be agile. Sticking with static markups means missing out on potential profits.
Without this tool, you would have to manually optimize every tiny price change across dozens (or hundreds) of products. Could you imagine? That’s a full-time job on its own, especially for big dropshipping stores or new ones that are scaling fast.
Instead, an automatic price optimizer steps in, does the math for you (what a blessing), follows your rules, and keeps your margins competitive while you can actually focus on the strategy instead of the logistics.
AutoDS Automatic Price Optimization Feature
AutoDS Automatic Price Optimization feature is like having a pricing ninja on your team: silent, smart, and always working behind the scenes to make your prices more competitive.
Instead of locking in a price and hoping for the best, this feature tracks how each product performs and then tweaks the price up or down to maximize profit or boost sales. Always taking into consideration how often products are viewed, added to carts, and bought.
Here’s how it works. First, you set up your own rules. This includes telling AutoDS when and how you want prices to increase or decrease. This literally takes two seconds. Just make sure to set up rules according to your own pricing strategy. Then, the magic happens. Let’s see:
- Price increase: If a product is flying off the virtual shelves, AutoDS will automatically increase the price within the limits you set, helping you earn more while demand is hot.
- Price decrease: If something’s gathering dust, waiting for someone to at least show a little bit of interest, the price gets lowered to help you encourage conversions.
No need to monitor or manually test price points. AutoDS does it for you, constantly and intelligently, always within your set range.
To avoid any confusion, keep in mind that this is not the same as the AutoDS Price & Stock monitoring feature. They are two separate tools with different goals. While the Price & Stock Monitoring reacts to changes from your suppliers (like cost or availability), the Automatic Price Optimization tool adjusts your prices based on product performance and demand from your customers. The first one protects your margins, while the second one keeps them competitive.
Skip the manual hassle and let AutoDS handle pricing for you automatically → Start your $1 trial.
AutoDS vs DSers: Automatic Price Optimization
DSers is a platform for AliExpress dropshipping. While it includes a few price optimization rules, it falls a bit short. Let’s see why.
The tool does a decent job when it comes to automating pricing based on supplier costs. You can set simple rules, like adding a specific margin percentage or markup, and DSers will apply them automatically when the supplier’s price changes. This is what AutoDS does with price and stock monitoring.
But here’s where AutoDS takes a step forward: unlike DSers, AutoDS Automatic Price Optimization also adjusts pricing based on performance. DSers has no built-in way to raise prices when an item starts flying off the shelves or lower them when they’re not really generating interest. In other words, DSers helps you stay consistent, but not necessarily competitive with demand-based optimization.
And here’s another thing you should consider: DSers only works for AliExpress, while AutoDS optimizes prices automatically for a wide range of suppliers, giving you more flexibility and alternatives.
👉Bottom line: If you’re looking for smart pricing that reacts in real-time to actual shopper behavior for multiple suppliers, AutoDS outperforms DSers with next-level automation that DSers simply doesn’t offer.
AutoDS vs Zendrop: Automatic Price Optimization
Zendrop gives you the basics when it comes to pricing automation. You can set a default profit margin, either a fixed dollar amount or a percentage, and Zendrop will apply it to the products you import. That’s great for saving time and making sure you’re not losing money on supplier cost changes. But that’s about where the automation ends.
What Zendrop doesn’t do is actively respond to how your products actually perform. There’s no smart pricing logic that kicks in when an item is trending, getting lots of views, or racking up sales.
This leaves you to manage your pricing strategy manually whenever you spot opportunities for increasing or decreasing prices, unlike AutoDS, which goes full chessmaster with real-time demand signals.
👉Bottom line: AutoDS goes further than Zendrop’s basic price optimization, with real-time demand-based price changes that help you sell and earn more.
AutoDS vs Spocket: Automatic Price Optimization
Spocket makes product pricing simple. You can set a fixed or percentage-based markup that automatically applies when you import products to your store. That’s handy for consistency, especially if you’re looking for a quick setup without spending hours on each item.
But Spocket doesn’t touch the price once it’s live. There’s no dynamic pricing engine adjusting things based on how well a product performs or how often it sells. And that’s the main difference with AutoDS, where pricing is alive, constantly changing based on what happens on your store.
👉Bottom line: When it comes to pricing optimization, AutoDS takes the lead against Spocket. Spocket keeps your pricing stable, but static, unlike AutoDS, which gives you a performance-based edge that helps you power up your strategy in real-time.
Side-by-Side Feature Comparison Table
| Platform | Automation Level | Ease of Use | Supported Suppliers | Customization | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AutoDS | Advanced: demand-based automatic price in real-time | Beginner-friendly with intuitive UI | Wide range of global retailers and private suppliers | Highly customizable | Trial for $1, then plans from $29.90/mo (billed monthly) |
| DSers | Basic: cost-based markup only | Easy to set up for AliExpress | AliExpress only | Limited: markup rules only | Limited free plan, then starts at $19.90/mo (billed monthly) |
| Zendrop | Basic: profit margin settings only | User-friendly dashboard | Zendrop suppliers only | Limited: fixed or percentage markup only | Limited free plan, then starts at $49/mo (billed monthly) |
| Spocket | No dynamic optimization | Clean and simple interface | US and EU-based private suppliers | Low: markup at import only | Limited free plan, then starts at $39.99/mo (billed monthly) |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a free trial to test AutoDS for automatic price optimization?
Yes! You can test AutoDS for automatic price optimization and other dropshipping features through our 14-day free trial for just $1.
Can I set AutoDS to raise the product price automatically once it is sold?
Yes, with AutoDS, you can automatically raise the product price once it’s sold. You just have to set up your rules in Settings—it takes just a few clicks.
Is it possible to choose between raising the price only for the first sale or for each sale?
Yes, you can totally choose when to raise the price—either for the first sale or for each one. You set up your own rules, and the system follows them automatically.
Can I set AutoDS to drop a product’s price when it doesn’t generate sales within a specific range of dates?
Yes, you can set AutoDS to drop a product’s price when it doesn’t generate sales within a specific range of dates. Through settings, you can choose how and when the price changes with just a few clicks.
What’s the difference between AutoDS’s automatic price optimization and price monitoring?
The difference between AutoDS’s automatic price optimization and price monitoring is that price optimization adjusts your product prices based on how well they perform, while price monitoring tracks your supplier’s prices and updates your listings if the cost or stock changes. While the first one reacts to customer demand and increases competitiveness, the second one reacts to supplier changes and protects your margins.
Final Verdict: Which Tool Does Automatic Price Optimization Best?
When it comes to automatic price optimization, AutoDS offers real automation based on actual product performance, not just supplier cost changes or flat markups. With AutoDS, you can set smart rules and let the system optimize pricing 24/7 to maximize profits based on what’s selling and what isn’t.
DSers, Zendrop, and Spocket all offer basic pricing automation, but they fall short when it comes to optimizing based on customer demand. This is good for consistency and cutting down setup time when importing products, but it doesn’t power up your pricing strategy or help you be more competitive.
With AutoDS, set everything up once and let automation do its magic.
Want to learn more about pricing strategies and dropshipping tools? Here are a few articles you can take a look at:
