Monitoring competitors’ prices: 10 effective techniques Author: PriceCop Saturday February 10th, 2018 • Category: Blog • Updated: Monday April 7th, 2025 The growth of e-commerce continues to intensify competition. Every day, at least one new online store opens, competitors implement new technologies and strategies, and buyers gain more options, making them increasingly demanding. As a result, pricing has become the key factor in determining a business’s competitiveness. These 10 techniques will help you conduct accurate competitor price monitoring and develop a competitive pricing strategy for your products. Content List Prepare Your Product Assortment Minimize Human Error Collect Prices from All Sales Channels Anticipate Potential Errors Use Data Visualization Develop Pricing Rules Automate Price Adjustments Set Up Automated Alerts Categorize Your Products Identify Competitor Price Update Patterns 1. Prepare Your Product Assortment Before conducting price analysis, prepare your product assortment. It is recommended to use simple, memorable names and provide clear product descriptions and specifications. 2. Minimize Human Error Price monitoring involves multiple variables. If even half of them depend on human input, you risk introducing errors instead of collecting accurate, valuable data. For example, manually entering competitor prices into a shared spreadsheet can lead to inconsistencies. Even minor mistakes can compromise the accuracy of your pricing analysis, which can directly impact profitability. The solution? Automate as many variables as possible in the analysis process. 3. Collect Prices from All Sales Channels One common mistake is relying solely on price aggregator platforms for price data. Many retailers make this error. While many businesses sell on both their own websites and marketplaces, in 9 out of 10 cases, marketplace pricing differs significantly from direct retail pricing. This happens because each sales channel has different pricing goals and strategies. Since marketplace customers prioritize price over brand loyalty, many businesses use these platforms to clear excess inventory at discounted rates. 4. Anticipate Potential Errors Many businesses develop their own price tracking systems, but it’s crucial to anticipate potential errors early in the development stage. A simpler approach is to use a pre-developed solution. This allows you to focus on optimizing your pricing strategy based on collected data rather than spending time troubleshooting system errors. 5. Use Data Visualization Infographics and visual data representation are gaining popularity for a reason—visualization allows you to process large amounts of information quickly. In price monitoring, visualization is crucial. A single graph can display competitor price changes, your retail sales trends, and overall market price trends. With this data, you can generate a **Price Index Report**, which helps identify which competitor has the most significant impact on your sales volume. 6. Develop Pricing Rules It’s not enough to collect data—you must also use it effectively. Adjust your pricing strategy based on the insights gained to improve and optimize your pricing policies. Whether your goal is to increase revenue or expand your customer base, pricing adjustments will open up new growth opportunities. 7. Automate Price Adjustments To save time, automate the repricing process, especially if you manage a large online store with over 10,000 products. Manually adjusting prices without errors is nearly impossible, especially if price updates are needed multiple times a day to remain competitive. The best solution is a **SaaS-based automated pricing system**. In addition to saving time, this approach minimizes human errors and improves efficiency. 8. Set Up Automated Alerts To respond promptly to market changes and errors, enable automated notifications. Customize these alerts based on key parameters such as price changes, promotions, or inventory levels. Timely reactions to competitor pricing changes and errors allow you to refine your pricing strategy and maintain your competitive edge. 9. Categorize Your Products Categorization makes it easier to compare your products with competitor offerings. Additionally, it allows you to monitor the effectiveness of your pricing strategy. For better categorization, go beyond standard groupings and use **ABC or KVI (Key Value Items) analysis**. This approach helps you track price sensitivity for specific products and optimize pricing accordingly. 10. Identify Competitor Price Update Patterns The most effective pricing strategy involves **understanding when competitors update their prices**. By monitoring competitor price adjustments, you can ensure that your pricing remains competitive before implementing changes. If you ignore this step, competitors may use your prices as a reference to improve their own pricing while you risk losing profitability. To succeed in retail, you must launch a well-structured pricing process. And the first step to achieving this is collecting accurate price data effectively.