Competitor Price Analysis: Strategies for E-commerce Success

January 9, 2025
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Competitor price analysis is a method for evaluating the competitiveness of your products or services. This is achieved by monitoring competitors’ prices and tracking market price trends. When prices for identical products drop on other platforms, potential customers are more likely to choose the stores offering the best value.

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1 Competitor Price Analysis: Strategies for E-commerce Success

What is Price Analysis?

Price analysis is a strategy that allows businesses to monitor average market price trends and develop pricing policies that ensure their competitiveness. This approach helps businesses achieve their market objectives while maintaining their position in a dynamic marketplace.

The Connection Between Price Analysis and Competitor Price Monitoring Online

Online price analysis involves finding and collecting price data for products or services from the internet and processing it effectively. For e-commerce businesses, gathering information from the online marketplace is a crucial step in shaping pricing strategies.

Analyzing prices in online stores helps businesses set optimal market prices to retain their potential customer base. For brands and suppliers, price monitoring is critical to identify who is selling their branded products and at what price.

Why Conduct Competitor Price Analysis?

The primary goal is to know your competitors! Competitors Price Monitoring Program provides systematic access to pricing data. Analyzing this data allows businesses to draw timely and actionable conclusions.

Tracking competitors’ activities and leveraging the collected insights is essential for growing your own business.

The Role of Competitor Price Monitoring in Price Analysis

Competitor price analysis heavily relies on online price monitoring. The quality of reports and subsequent strategies depends on how thoroughly the data is collected. Therefore, choosing the right method for price scraping and monitoring competitors’ prices is a decision that requires careful consideration.

Why Monitor Competitors’ Prices?

1) Market Positioning

Monitoring competitors’ pricing enables businesses to understand where they stand in the market relative to their competitors. By analyzing competitors’ price points, companies can:

Identify market gaps: For instance, if competitors are overpricing products in a specific category, this could present an opportunity to attract customers with more competitive pricing.
Align with customer perception: A well-positioned price reflects the perceived value of a product or service. Understanding competitors’ pricing strategies helps businesses determine whether their pricing aligns with customer expectations.
Adapt to market trends: Competitor price monitoring reveals broader industry trends, such as seasonal price fluctuations or the impact of external factors (e.g., supply chain issues).

2) Strategic Pricing

Pricing decisions significantly impact a company’s market share and profitability. Competitor analysis helps businesses:

Set competitive prices: Ensure your prices are neither too high to deter customers nor too low to compromise profitability.
Develop pricing strategies: For example, if competitors follow a penetration pricing strategy (low prices to gain market share), a business might counter with value-added pricing, highlighting superior quality or additional benefits.
Test price elasticity: By observing competitors’ reactions to price changes, businesses can infer the sensitivity of customers to price variations in specific markets.

3) Promotion Planning

Promotions are an effective tool for customer acquisition, but they require precise timing and pricing to be successful. Competitor price monitoring helps businesses:

React to competitor promotions: By keeping track of discounts and deals offered by competitors, businesses can counteract with timely promotions.
Optimize discounts: Understanding the average discount range in the market prevents businesses from over-discounting, which can erode profitability.
Target specific segments: If competitors are attracting price-sensitive customers through frequent promotions, businesses can design offers that provide better value without necessarily undercutting prices.

Methods of Competitor Price Monitoring

How to Track Competitors’ Prices? Competitor price analysis can be conducted using several methods.

1) Manual Monitoring

Manual monitoring is the traditional method of competitor price tracking. It involves manually visiting competitors’ websites, marketplaces, or other sales channels to gather pricing data. While this method is low-cost and straightforward, it has several limitations:

Time-intensive: Collecting and comparing large datasets across multiple competitors and platforms is labor-intensive.
Limited scope: Manual tracking often misses frequent price updates, flash sales, or dynamic pricing adjustments.
Human error: The likelihood of inaccuracies increases with larger datasets or more frequent monitoring.

However, manual monitoring can be useful for:

Small-scale businesses with limited competitors.
Spot-checking specific products or competitors in addition to automated tools.

2) Price Scraping

Price scraping involves using specialized software to collect, process, and analyze pricing data from competitor websites and marketplaces. These tools offer several advantages:

Efficiency: Automated systems can monitor hundreds of competitors and thousands of SKUs in real time, saving time and effort.
Accuracy: Advanced parsing algorithms ensure consistent data quality and eliminate human errors.
Comprehensive insights: Many tools also provide analytics, such as pricing trends, average market prices, and competitor behavior over time.

Price scraping is particularly valuable for:

Dynamic pricing strategies: Real-time data feeds allow businesses to adjust prices in response to market conditions or competitor actions.
High-frequency monitoring: In markets with frequent price changes (e.g., electronics, travel), automation ensures that businesses always have up-to-date information.

By combining both methods, businesses can achieve a balanced approach—manual monitoring for qualitative insights and automated parsing for large-scale, quantitative analysis.

The Price Control Service can assist with competitor price analysis. The price monitoring software collects data and provides reports for thorough analysis.

The Market Offers a Wide Range of Price Monitoring Services. There are affordable options with limited functionality, as well as more expensive solutions offering comprehensive price scraping and end-to-end pricing strategies. If you are currently selecting a price monitoring service, we recommend checking out our new article: “Top 12 Price Monitoring Tools in E-commerce for 2025.”

Learn more how the Competitor Price Monitoring service works

Benefits of Competitor Price Analysis

1) Defining Market Position

Competitor price analysis is the process of studying and systematically collecting data (online price monitoring) about prices, discounts, and promotions on products and services in online stores. This data is further examined and compared based on specific criteria to uncover competitors' key pricing strategies.

For a company to succeed, it needs a starting point, which requires a clear understanding of its position in the market and niche. Competitor price analysis helps define your positioning, identify strengths and weaknesses, and understand the value you offer to potential customers.

When a company has a well-defined position, it can develop an actionable plan and set clear goals.

2) Identifying Key Competitors

How can you successfully conduct competitor price analysis? Start by analyzing your brand’s presence and selecting the right research targets. While most businesses focus on industry leaders, the circle of key competitors often extends beyond them.

To ensure comprehensive and accurate data, monitor prices not only in stores with overlapping product ranges but also among sellers offering products with comparable technical characteristics. Gathering insights from diverse sources will give you the most complete and up-to-date picture.

If your business operates in a specific region, focus on nearby competitors (within your city, suburbs, or neighboring areas). This is particularly relevant for service industries such as private medical and veterinary clinics, beauty salons, and educational centers.

3) Launching Successful Advertising Campaigns

Competitor price analysis allows you not only to identify the most expensive and cheapest offers but also to create effective advertising campaigns. Based on data about promotional activities in other stores, you can design unique programs featuring attractive discounts, deals, and bundled offers.

According to statistics, around one-third of products on the market are sold at prices above the average. However, these products account for no more than 7% of total sales, while their advertising expenses consume approximately 35% of budgets. This demonstrates that the success of an advertising campaign heavily depends on how competitive a store’s prices are compared to the current market average.

4) Competitor Pricing Policy Analysis as a Means to Boost Sales

Since the primary goal of any business is to maximize profit, monitoring and analyzing competitors' prices can reveal the factors preventing you from selling and earning more.

Regularly tracking competitors’ prices and products enables you to identify ways to improve profitability. For instance, addressing issues such as:

Low customer activity
Unsellable inventory
Ineffective advertising

By resolving these issues, you can focus on the primary factor limiting your sales: pricing above the market average. For most buyers, price is the leading factor when choosing a seller. Ignoring this reality can result in low store popularity, making pricing strategy a top priority.

When setting prices, consider not only competitors’ prices for identical products but also the prices of substitute goods. Products of comparable quality but lower prices may become optimal alternatives for customers.

Competitor price analysis provides direction for addressing shortcomings in your pricing strategy. For example:

Analyze the market to offer customers the best prices without excessive undercutting.
Outsell competitors while maintaining profitability.

Timely responses to competitors' actions and quick price adjustments can significantly boost conversion rates and sales volumes.

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Implementing Competitor Price Analysis: A Step-by-Step Guide

1. Identify Key Competitors

The first step in implementing a successful competitor price analysis is to identify which competitors to monitor. This involves categorizing competitors into two main groups:

Direct Competitors: Businesses that offer similar products or services and target the same customer segment. Their pricing decisions often have a direct impact on your market share.
Indirect Competitors: Companies that offer alternative products or services that could substitute yours. Monitoring them is crucial for identifying broader market trends and potential threats.

Key actions:

Market Research: Use industry reports, online directories, and market analysis tools to create a list of competitors.
Customer Insights: Understand which businesses your customers consider alternatives by analyzing customer feedback, surveys, or reviews.
Segmentation: Focus on competitors with significant market overlap, as their pricing strategies are most relevant to your business.

2. Data Collection

Collecting accurate and up-to-date pricing data is the backbone of competitor price analysis. The methods used will depend on the scale of your operations and the frequency of price changes in your industry.

Methods of data collection:

Manual Scraping: Visiting competitors’ websites or online marketplaces to record prices. This is suitable for small businesses or occasional monitoring.
Automated Tools: Use price monitoring tools or software that gather data in real time, such as web scrapers, APIs, or specialized pricing platforms. These tools often come with analytics features to streamline the process.

Key data points to collect:

Product Prices: Capture base prices, discounts, and dynamic pricing adjustments.
Promotions and Offers: Note special deals, seasonal discounts, and bundle pricing.
Additional Fees: Include shipping costs, taxes, and optional add-ons.

Challenges to address:

Data Accuracy: Ensure data collected is reliable and up-to-date. Automated tools with error-checking algorithms can help.
Legal Compliance: Be aware of regulations related to web scraping or data collection in your region.

3. Data Analysis

Once data is collected, the next step is to make sense of it by identifying patterns, trends, and actionable insights. This process involves comparing your own pricing to competitors’ prices and identifying opportunities or threats.

Key approaches to analysis:

Price Comparison: Compare similar products across competitors to identify if your prices are above, below, or aligned with the market average.
Market Trends: Analyze pricing patterns over time to anticipate future changes, such as seasonal discounts or industry-wide price hikes.
Gap Analysis: Identify products where competitors offer better value or pricing advantages, as well as areas where your pricing outperforms theirs.

Questions to consider:

Are there significant pricing gaps between your products and competitors'?
Which competitors consistently undercut your prices, and by how much?
What pricing strategies do competitors use (e.g., dynamic pricing, tiered pricing)?

Tools like Excel, Google Sheets, or advanced analytics platforms can help visualize pricing trends through charts and graphs.

4. Strategic Adjustment

The final step is to use the insights from your analysis to adjust your pricing strategies. This ensures that your prices remain competitive, align with market trends, and support your business goals.

Common pricing strategies:

Competitive Pricing: Align your prices closely with competitors to stay relevant in a price-sensitive market.
Value-Based Pricing: Set prices based on the perceived value of your product, emphasizing quality, unique features, or brand reputation. This works well when your product offers advantages competitors cannot match.
Dynamic Pricing: Continuously adjust prices based on real-time market conditions, competitor pricing, and demand fluctuations. This strategy is often used in industries like travel, e-commerce, and retail.
Promotional Pricing: Offer discounts or special deals to counter competitors’ promotions or attract new customers.

Key actions:

Test Adjustments: Implement changes gradually and monitor their impact on sales and customer perception.
Automate Changes: Use dynamic pricing tools to adjust prices automatically in response to market or competitor changes.
Monitor Results: Regularly review performance metrics (e.g., sales volume, profit margins) to evaluate the effectiveness of your pricing strategies.

Tips for Long-Term Success

Continuous Monitoring: Competitor pricing analysis is not a one-time task. Regular updates ensure your strategies remain effective over time.
Customer Feedback: Align your pricing adjustments with customer expectations and feedback to avoid alienating your audience.
Adapt to Market Changes: Be prepared to revise your strategies in response to economic conditions, new competitors, or changes in demand.

By following this structured approach, businesses can turn competitor price analysis into a powerful tool for maintaining competitiveness, improving profitability, and responding effectively to market dynamics.

How to Conduct Competitor Website Analysis

Competitor website analysis involves evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, and features of competitors’ websites to gain insights that can improve your own online presence and strategy.

All information about competing firms can be found in the public domain. The main thing is to know where and what to look for. For example, the primary search for keywords in advertising campaigns.

Using similarsites.com, you can get information about the site of interest: organic search statistics and user visits, similar resources for the main key queries.
In Google, enter the phrase: "Related: URL of your online store" in the search bar. The search engine will return a list of sites that are as similar as possible to yours.

Then, write the keywords used for promotion, the name of products similar to yours and go through several pages of search results. There is a high probability that your competitors will be among them. In order not to lose sight of anyone, use alternative search methods.

In order not to lose sight of anyone, use alternative search methods:

visiting specialized events (exhibitions, forums, seminars);
study of business directories, catalogs of enterprises and thematic magazines;
work with the sales department. They communicate closely with customers, so the news and names of competitors are the first to know;
communicate with loyal customers. A very effective strategy, although quite straightforward.
In addition to finding out who works in your niche, you will also find out why buyers go to them. What do competitors have and what do you lack (range, service, quality of service, free delivery);
Explore reviews, discounts, and coupon sites.

Tools and services for competitive analysis

Competitor price analysis service is a specially developed software package for providing services for collecting and conducting a comparative comparison of prices for goods of partners and competitors.
To conduct a deeper analysis of competitors, you cannot do without special tools and services. They will help you find out exactly what methods competitors use to advance on the network.

SpyFu

Collects hidden information about opponents:

register of competitors;
list and effectiveness of backlinks;
keywords in organic search;
keywords in paid search results;
the number of clicks in paid and organic search and their comparison;
organic traffic volume.

SEMrush

It can collect the following information:

SEO data - analytics of positions in backlinks and search engines, general audit and suggestions to increase organic traffic;
paid traffic analytics (advertising keywords);
PR and content - trending topics, the best channel for promoting the brand and mentioning it;
SMM - list of top publications, audience response, competitive comparison.

SiteWorthTraffic

Free service that provides:

the overall cost estimate of the resource;
the number of daily views and visitors;
resource profitability (month/year);
detailed traffic statistics (information from the Alexa resource);
list of fresh links on Facebook;
IP address and geographic location of the web server.

You will also get access and links to resources with which you can:

check the reputation of the site;
find out the number of links indexed in Google;
measure page speed - Google PageSpeed Insights;
find more keywords - Google AdWords;
study what users said in a day, 7 days, a month or a year when searching on Google.

Ahrefs

ahrefs

Helping service:

improve search traffic;
improve the quality of niche monitoring;
identify the reasons for the high positions of competitors;
form a plan of action to “overtake” opponents.

The following criteria will also be analyzed:

content: determining the most effective type of content to promote in the sector and a list of articles with your keywords.
exact keywords (their identification, a list of relevant ones, a study of the amount of traffic brought in, trends and rating of user search queries over the past year);
organic search;
back links (the ability to customize the extended form of reports using filters).

Serpstat

serpstat The service helps to solve such problems

analysis of the market segment occupied in a niche;
text analytics;
deep search analytics;
automatic clustering.

This data will prove invaluable to internet marketers and SEO professionals. Based on it, they will be able to:

identify keywords for which competing resources are visible in Yandex and Google searches and contextual advertising;
to compare the semantic cores of domains and individual pages among 3 competing resources;
improve the existing structure of the site by dividing the semantic core into thematic clusters of words;
based on a specific phrase, determine the position, market share and resource traffic among competitors in the top 100 search results.

ChangeDetect

A free service, great for monitoring landing pages. When changes are detected on the resource, it sends a report to e-mail.

Services for monitoring and analyzing competitors in social networks

In addition to search results, follow the posts and activity of competitors in social networks and blogs:

Meltwater
Mention,
Google Alerts,
Brand24,
Popster,
IQbuzz.

By working with competitors' keywords, you can attract more traffic, and by adapting someone else's content to suit your tasks, fill your own blog or pages on social networks with it.

Want to learn more or book a consultation with a specialist? Contact us!

Why Choose Price Control for Competitor Price Analysis

1. Automation and Time-Saving

Price Control offers automated tools for price monitoring, eliminating the need for manual data collection, which can be time-consuming. You get real-time competitor pricing data, allowing you to focus on making strategic decisions.

2. Accuracy and Real-Time Data

The Price Control system ensures high accuracy and up-to-date information, which is crucial in markets with rapidly changing prices. This keeps you one step ahead of the competition.

3. Advanced Analytics

Price Control provides not only data collection but also robust analytical tools to help you:

Compare prices at the product level.
Identify pricing trends.
Determine the optimal pricing strategy for your business.

4. Flexibility and Customization

The service is tailored to meet the specific needs of your business. You can select which markets, product categories, and competitors to monitor, ensuring you get the most relevant data.

5. Enhanced Competitiveness

With Price Control, you can:

Maintain competitive pricing to remain attractive to customers.
React quickly to competitors’ price changes.
Optimize promotions and discounts based on market data.

6. Transparency and Ease of Use

The user-friendly interface ensures that even those without technical expertise can quickly adapt to using the platform. Clear and structured reports make data easy to analyze.

7. Support and Expert Assistance

The Price Control team provides consultations and assistance at every stage of using the service. This guarantees that you’ll maximize the value of your price monitoring system.

8. Suitable for Businesses of Any Size

Price Control is beneficial for small and medium-sized businesses as well as large corporations. Its scalability allows it to be configured for tasks of any complexity.

By choosing Price Control, you invest in a modern solution that helps your business compete effectively, increase profitability, and refine pricing strategies.

Sergey Kokoulin

Marketing Director of the Price Control project

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