Competitive Analysis
How much time does someone on your team spend checking competitor websites, writing down prices in a spreadsheet? That can be done automatically. Every day if you want.
The problem with manual monitoring
Companies that do competitive analysis usually do it sporadically: once a quarter someone reviews competitor websites, notes down prices, and puts together a comparative spreadsheet.
Three problems with that:
You find out late
If the competition dropped prices two months ago, you've already lost customers before even realizing it.
It's tedious and nobody wants to do it
Checking 50 products across 5 websites is boring. It gets done poorly, incompletely, or not at all.
There's no historical data
You know where prices are today, but not how they've evolved. You can't see patterns.
What we can automate
Price monitoring
Automatic price extraction from competitor websites. Can run daily, weekly, or at whatever frequency you need. Historical data is stored to track trends.
Product catalog tracking
We detect when competitors add or remove products. Useful for identifying new product lines or discontinued items before the market does.
Promotions and discounts
Alerts when a competitor launches a promotion. You can react the same day instead of hearing about it from your salespeople weeks later.
Comparative dashboard
Visualization of your price position vs. competitors. By product, by category, with evolution over time.
How it works technically
We use web scraping: programs that automatically visit your competitors' websites, read the information, and store it in a database.
Define what to monitor
We identify the relevant competitors, the products you want to compare, and what information you need (price, stock, promotions, etc.).
Build the scraper
We develop a custom program that extracts data from each site. Each site is different, so each scraper is custom-built.
Schedule the execution
The scraper runs automatically at whatever frequency you define. Data is stored with timestamps to maintain history.
Visualize and alert
We create a dashboard where you can see all the information. We configure alerts for important changes (e.g., "notify me if X drops more than 10%").
Legal note: Web scraping of public information is legal. We extract data that anyone can see by browsing the website. We don't access protected areas or violate terms of service.
A concrete example
The context
Hardware store chain with 8 locations. They competed with big-box retailers and local hardware stores. The commercial manager checked prices "when he could," but there was no system.
What we implemented
- • Scraper for 200 key products across 4 competitors
- • Daily execution at 6am
- • Dashboard with price position by category
- • Alerts when a competitor dropped more than 5%
Result
They discovered they were 15% more expensive than the market in a category they thought was competitive. They adjusted prices and recovered market share. They also detected a price war from a local competitor before losing customers.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work with any website?
With most, yes. Some sites have anti-scraping protections that make it more difficult or impossible. We evaluate each case before starting.
Is web scraping legal?
Extracting public information is legal. We don't access protected areas, we don't hack anything, we don't violate terms of service. It's the same as someone viewing the site and writing down prices, but automated.
What happens if a competitor's site changes?
The scraper stops working and needs to be adjusted. That's why I offer monthly maintenance: we monitor that everything keeps working and fix things when they break.
How much does it cost?
Initial development depends on how many sites and products. Starting from $6,000 for something simple (1-2 competitors, 50 products) up to $25-30K for something more complex. Monthly maintenance is typically 10-15% of the development cost.
Want to monitor your competition?
Tell me who your competitors are and what you'd like to know about them. We'll evaluate if it's feasible and how it would work.