Decide what you’re tracking first
You don’t need every price on a competitor’s store. You need the prices that sit next to yours when a shopper is choosing. Start with two short lists:
- Your top five products, and the closest product to each one on the competitor’s store
- Their best sellers, even where you don’t have a direct match
For each product, three numbers are worth recording: the price, the crossed-out “was” price if there is one, and whether it’s in stock.
Method 1: check by hand
Open each product page once a week and type the price into a spreadsheet, with one row per product and one column per week.
| Product (Luna Skin) | Sep 28 | Oct 5 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily cleanser, 150ml | $24 | $24 | None |
| Vitamin C serum, 30ml | $42 | $36 | Down $6 |
| Night cream, 50ml | $38 | $38 | None |
| Starter set | $79 | Sold out | Out of stock |
This works for one or two competitors and a dozen products. It stops working when the list grows, or in the weeks when you’re too busy to do it, which are usually the weeks when prices move.
Method 2: read the store’s public product list
Many Shopify stores publish their whole product list at a public address. It has every product, each size or color, its price, its crossed-out price and whether it’s in stock. Add this ending to the store’s address:
lunaskin.com/products.jsonThe page is written for programs, so it’s hard to read by eye, and it shows 30 products at a time unless you ask for more. To get up to 250 at once, and then the next 250:
lunaskin.com/products.json?limit=250&page=2Not every store leaves this list open, and it only exists on Shopify. Our free Shopify store checker tells you whether a store is on Shopify and whether its list is public. For a readable summary of the catalog, with product count, sale share and price range, use the store snapshot:
Store snapshot
See any store’s catalog size, sale share and prices. Free, no sign-up.
Tip
The product list shows today’s prices only. To see a change, you have to save a copy and compare it with the next one.
Method 3: get alerts
The first two methods share a weakness: you only find out when you look. A tracking tool does the looking on a schedule, keeps every copy and tells you what changed.
Trailwatch does this for Shopify competitors. It reads each catalog every few hours and compares it with the last copy. A sale of 20% or more reaches you as an alert within hours. Smaller price changes are collected in your Monday briefing, each with the price before and after.
Sale started: Vitamin C serum, $42 to $32
24% off their best seller. It now sits $8 below your closest product.
Which method to choose
| Method | Good for | Weekly time | Main weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| By hand | 1 to 2 competitors, a dozen products | 30 to 60 minutes | Gets skipped when you’re busy |
| Public product list | A one-off look at a whole catalog | Varies | No history unless you save copies |
| Alerts and a weekly briefing | 3 or more competitors, all year | A few minutes | Works for Shopify stores only |
What to do when a price changes
- Check whether it’s a real cut. Compare with the price last week, not the crossed-out price.
- Check which product it is. A cut on something that competes with your best seller matters more than one on a slow product.
- Wait a few days before matching. Short promotions often end on their own.
- Notice price rises too. When a competitor puts prices up, you may have room to do the same.