Competitor price tracking: A beginner’s step-by-step guide

Your ecommerce pricing strategy requires more than intuition — it demands data-driven strategies. Tracking your competitors' pricing eliminates guesswork and allows you to make informed pricing decisions.

In this step-by-step guide, we’ll show you how to effectively monitor competitor prices. 

You’ll learn how to:

• Identify key competitors
• Decide which pricing data to track
• Choose an effective price monitoring method
• Set up automated monitoring using SOAX tools
• Analyze the data you collect
• Take action based on insights

By the end, you’ll have an actionable process to use your competitors’ pricing data to strengthen your competitive position.

Step 1: Identify your key competitors

The first step in competitor price tracking is to figure out who your direct and indirect competitors are. 

• A direct competitor is a business that sells the same product as you. 
• An indirect competitor is a business that sells a different product than you, but still addresses your target audience's specific need.

For example, if you’re an airline, your direct competitors are other airlines. Your indirect competitors are rental cars, buses, and trains.

Knowing who you're up against helps focus your time and resources on business rivals that matter.

Search engines and keywords

You can find your competitors by conducting thorough research using industry-specific keywords on major search engines. AI-powered web tools like Perplexity, ChatGPT Search, and DeepSeek can also be helpful in this case.

Analyze search engine results and product listings on marketplaces to pinpoint overlapping vendors. Review their product pages or websites to understand their market positioning and offerings.

Social media

Social media is another platform where you can pinpoint competitors using relevant keywords. Note their engagement levels and audience interactions to gauge the competition they pose to your business.

Market intelligence tools

Consider using market intelligence tools like SEMrush or SimilarWeb to gather insights about your competitors. You’ll be able to view top product pages that drive more traffic to their websites compared to yours.

Create a table

We recommend clustering your competitors on a table alongside the products you want to monitor. Ideally, the table should have several columns with hypothetical placeholders for clarity. 

Here’s an example:

Clustering your competitors helps prioritize threats for strategic budgeting and planning. This lays the groundwork for accurate tracking and more informed pricing decisions in the future.

Step 2: Determine what pricing data to track

Successful competitor price monitoring means more than just checking the product’s listed price. Other pricing elements also influence buyer decisions so you should include them in your analysis.

Here are data points to consider.

Regular price vs. sale price

Monitoring both regular and discounted prices helps uncover how often competitors run promotions. This data reveals whether discounts are occasional or form part of a broader pricing strategy.

Regular prices show a product’s typical value, while sale prices reveal aggressive or temporary tactics. Keeping track of both gives you insight into how competitors influence buyer urgency and loyalty.

Discounts and promotions

Discounts, such as percentage cuts, coupons, or buy-one-get-one deals, can alter customer purchasing behavior. Track them to identify how aggressively competitors are competing for price-sensitive consumers.

This data also supports better timing of your own promotions to stay competitive in the market.

Bundle deals

Bundles combine multiple products at a discounted price, which increases the perceived value for customers. Monitor these to understand how competitors increase their average order values.

This approach masks the costs of individual items, making pricing comparisons more complex. However, it’s important if you want to evaluate your rival’s absolute pricing competitiveness.

Seasonal pricing

Prices can change depending on the time of year, especially during holidays or sales seasons. Tracking seasonal pricing helps you recognize specific times of the year when your competitors adjust prices. 

Use this data to strategically plan for your own inventory, marketing, and pricing campaigns.

Geographical pricing

Some ecommerce businesses adjust prices based on customer location, market demand, or local taxes. This is known as geographical or location-based pricing.

You need to track prices from different regions to avoid getting undercut in key markets.

Shipping costs

Shipping fees can significantly affect the overall cost a customer pays at checkout. If you ignore these, you’ll form incomplete conclusions about a competitor’s pricing strategy.

Evaluate whether competitors use free or low-cost shipping as a competitive advantage.

These are just the most common data points to include in your competitor price analysis. As you develop your competitor price tracking, you may notice other important data points that you want to include.

Step 3: Price monitoring methods

In this section, we’re going to break down the methods you can choose from to implement your competitor price monitoring. 

We’ll briefly touch on manual monitoring, but since that isn’t suitable for most businesses, we’ll mainly focus on automated options. 

Manual price checks

Manual price checks involve physically reviewing competitor websites and recording product prices on a regular basis. It can work for small-scale efforts, but it becomes inefficient as product lines and the number of competitors increase.

The method also lacks consistency, and even minor errors can lead to an inaccurate analysis of competitor prices. It's also not sustainable for businesses tracking hundreds of products across different regions.

Price comparison websites

Price comparison websites automatically gather product listings and prices from multiple online retailers. They offer a centralized way to observe trends and detect pricing differences across competitors.

However, these websites may not cover every competitor or update prices in real time. Customization options are limited, and data accuracy depends on the aggregator’s update frequency.

Price alerts (if available)

Some platforms or services let you create alerts when competitor prices change. These alerts help you respond quickly to market shifts without having to check manually every day.

The downside is that alerts usually only cover a few products or retailers at a time. That makes it impossible for you to build a full competitor price monitor.

Dedicated price monitoring software

Dedicated software automates the tracking of competitors’ prices using advanced features like real-time updates and analytics. These tools make it easy to organize data, track trends, and create detailed reports.

They're ideal for ecommerce businesses that need ongoing monitoring of rivals on a larger scale. The insights gained improve pricing strategy and help maintain competitive positioning.

Custom solution with web scraping

You might want more than the cookie cutter option that a dedicated price monitoring software can bring. 

Building a custom scraping system gives you complete control over collecting competitor pricing data. You can fine-tune your scrapers to extract exactly the data your business needs to track.

This approach supports flexibility, especially for companies with specific requirements or extensive product catalogs. It also reduces reliance on third-party tools that may not cover all competitors or pricing variations.

The SOAX Web Unblocker lets you create this custom solution.

SOAX Web Unblocker

SOAX Web Unblocker is a tool designed for web scraping at scale without restrictions. 

It uses SOAX’s 155 million ethically sourced residential IPs across 195+ countries to avoid IP bans, CAPTCHAs, and browser fingerprint checks.

By routing each request through a real-user proxy, the Web Unblocker makes your scraper appear like a regular browser. This allows you to gather pricing data without triggering anti-bot systems or facing access issues.

Web Unblocker manages cookies and sessions out of the box, so your scraper can handle cookie-based sessions over multiple requests. This enables you to navigate multi-step flows, such as carts or dashboards, without writing extra code.

You can also use Web Unblocker to track specific data points that matter most to your pricing strategy with complete accuracy. SOAX Web Unblocker delivers data in both raw HTML and JSON formats, making it easy to integrate. (You can also output data as XHR responses, Markdown, or browser-quality screenshots - but you'll likely only need JSON or HTML for price monitoring.)

This combination of smart routing and flexible output makes it ideal for monitoring competitor prices on a large scale.

Step 4: Set up automated price monitoring with SOAX

Now that we’ve reviewed the different competitor price tracking methods, we’ll cover how to implement it. Since there are so many, we’ll just focus on how to implement SOAX methods.

Using SOAX Ecommerce Scraper APIs

SOAX Ecommerce Scraper APIs are purpose-built to extract structured price data from top platforms. We’ve built APIs for Amazon, eBay, Walmart, AliExpress, and dozens more. 

Start by selecting the appropriate API based on your target platform. Then, use the provided API endpoints to fetch real-time product pricing and related metadata.

These APIs return pricing data in pre-structured JSON format, making integration with your system seamless. They also handle platform-specific data structures, reducing your workload when tracking multiple sources.

It’s very straightforward. Here’s a code snippet on how to make a request using the SOAX Ecommerce Scraper API with Amazon as the target.

curl --location 'https://scraping.soax.com/v2/scraper/fetch' \
--header 'X-SOAX-API-Secret: your_api_key_here' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
  "platform": "amazon",
  "product_id": "B08XXXXXXX"
}'

The above snippet sends a POST request to SOAX’s API, targeting the Amazon scraper endpoint. It includes your API key for authentication and specifies the product you want to track using its ID.

Here’s a sample output format:

{
  "status": "ok",
  "response": {
    "json": {
      "product": {
        "title": "Wireless Gaming Mouse",
        "price": 39.99,
        "currency": "USD",
        "availability": "In Stock"
      }
    }
  }
}

The API response directly provides the relevant pricing information in a clean, structured JSON format. You’ll receive real-time data that’s ready for immediate analysis, reporting, or integration into your pricing tools.

Option 2: Using SOAX Web Unblocker for any domain

SOAX Web Unblocker is the best choice when your competitor’s platform lacks a dedicated API. As mentioned earlier, it can bypass CAPTCHAs, IP bans, and browser fingerprinting by routing requests through real-user residential proxies.

This tool manages sessions and multi-step flows, such as shopping carts, without requiring additional code. It delivers content in raw HTML or JSON format, depending on your response configuration.

When you don’t have a dedicated ecommerce scraper API, point your scraper at any product page and let Web Unblocker handle the rest. Here’s a sample code snippet:

curl --location 'https://scraping.soax.com/v2/unblocker/fetch-content' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'X-SOAX-API-Secret: your_api_key_here' \
--data '{
"url": "https://competitor.com/product/12345",
"response": { "body": true },
"proxy_settings": {
"country": "us",
"type": 1
},
"request": {
"filters": {
"url_patterns": ["/api/price/"]
}
}
}'

The "response": { "body": true } field returns the full HTML content for custom parsing. If you want to capture structured data from XHR requests or background APIs, use:

• "response": { "xhr": true } to extract dynamic data calls.
• "response": { "json": true } to receive clean, structured JSON directly.

Proxy settings let you choose your targeting preferences, such as:

• "country": choose from locations like "us", "uk", etc.
• "type": use 1 for residential IPs or 2 for mobile IPs

Once you receive the response payload, your scraper simply selects the relevant price element. Whether from the HTML DOM or a JSON graph, you can actively push the data directly into your system.

This setup scales effortlessly to thousands of product URL targets with no additional anti-bot logic needed.

Verification notes:

• All bypass and proxy details match the “Advanced Anti-Detection Technology,” “Session Management & Persistence,” and “Ethically Sourced IP Network” features.
• The cURL example and request/response parameters reflect the current API spec (base URL, headers, JSON structure, proxy, and filter options).

Option 3: Using proxies to build a custom scraper

If you have an in-house development team, building custom scrapers might be the right option for you. You can define exactly what data to collect, the frequency of extraction, and where to store it.

SOAX’s ethically sourced proxy network will keep your proprietary scrapers reliable and undetectable. 

By masking your real IP address, the proxies prevent bans and allow uninterrupted access to competitor websites.

With SOAX’s proxies, you can target specific regions and gather data from different market segments. This widens your scope for market intelligence, enabling you to make informed decisions about price adjustments.

Most importantly, SOAX’s rotating proxy sessions let you scrape data at scale. The auto-ration of IPs reduces the risk of detection, blocklisting, and request throttling by your competitors’ websites.

Whether you use pre-built APIs, SOAX Web Unblocker, or custom proxy solutions, SOAX supports every stage of data extraction. You’ll get flexible, scalable, and accurate insights into competitor pricing. 

Step 5: Store and analyze the collected pricing data

Once you’ve extracted pricing data, you need to store it in a structured format. 

Organized storage lets you query, compare, and analyze the data over time with consistency. Structured data formats make it easier to integrate with reporting tools and analytics dashboards.

Use spreadsheets, CSV files, or databases depending on the scale of your tracking operation.

Design the organization of your stored data based on how you plan to analyze it. To get you started, here are four data analyses that are typical in competitor price tracking.

Identify pricing trends

Real time data is important, but so are long term trends. Analyzing trends can help you notice patterns like seasonal discounts or regular price drops from specific competitors.

Tracking pricing trends lets you plan smarter and stay ahead of any sudden market shifts. Over time, it builds a clearer view of how competitors manage their pricing strategies.

Compare your pricing against competitors

Your potential customers are comparing your prices side-by-side with your competitors in real time. You should too. 

Monitor prices to see if you're matching the market, leading, or falling behind.

This kind of visibility lets you decide when to adjust pricing to stay competitive. When the data is up to date, you can respond quickly and confidently.

Detect promotional activities

Sudden price changes usually signal that a competitor is running a promotion or special offer. By spotting those early, you can decide whether to react or stay the course.

Over time, tracking these patterns also shows how often your competitors run promotions. It gives you a better idea of their overall marketing strategy.

Understand competitor strategies by product

Looking at pricing across different products can reveal how your competitors prioritize their catalog. They might price some items aggressively to attract attention, while setting others at a premium.

Armed with this information, you can figure out which products to focus on or promote in response. You can also make precise decisions around bundling, discounting, or repositioning your pricing approach.

Step 6: Take action based on your findings

Once you’ve organized and analyzed the data, use it. Your price monitoring efforts will drive real business impact.

Here are some common actions you can take once you start analyzing data from your competitor price tracking.

Adjust your pricing strategies

If your prices sit consistently higher than your competitors', consider adjusting to stay competitive. Bringing your pricing in line with the market can improve conversions and customer retention.

However, if you already offer the lowest price, highlight that advantage in your marketing. Position your product as the best-value option and turn pricing into a selling point.

Plan smarter promotions

Use your pricing data to identify when and how often competitors run discounts. With that insight, schedule your promotions to stand out, rather than simply reacting.

Stay one step ahead and protect your margins. By doing this, you take control of your promotional calendar instead of letting others set the pace.

Track how competitors react to market changes

Watch how competitors change their prices during seasonal peaks or new product launches. You’ll understand who adjusts quickly and who stays consistent under pressure.

Refine your product positioning

Look closely at how your competitors price similar products and what that says about their strategy. Use that context to decide how to position your product for better impact.

Reframe messaging, adjust value propositions, or explore bundling strategies when needed. These moves strengthen your competitive edge while aligning pricing with perceived value.

Best practices for ethical competitor price monitoring

While monitoring competitor prices is legal and valuable, it’s important to follow ethical principles. Respecting boundaries keeps your tracking efforts compliant and sustainable over the long term.

Respect robots.txt files

Always check the robots.txt file on a competitor’s website before scraping. This file outlines parts of the site that automated tools can scrape.

Ignoring these rules may lead to access restrictions or even legal pushback. Following them shows that your business values responsible competitor price monitoring practices.

Avoid excessive scraping

Sending too many requests in a short time can overload your competitor’s server and cause disruptions. Maintain a reasonable request rate to avoid unnecessary strain on their infrastructure.

Use proxy rotation, delays, and scheduling to keep your scraping discreet. Responsible data collection can mean long-term access without raising red flags.

Be mindful of the terms of service

Always review the terms of service of the websites you monitor. Some platforms include specific clauses about automation or data usage.

If you go against those terms, you risk getting blocked or facing legal consequences. Staying informed protects your business and builds trust in your practices.

Conclusion

Monitoring competitor prices helps you stay ahead in ecommerce. When done right, it empowers you to make better decisions, adjust quickly, and compete more effectively.

With tools like SOAX Web Unblocker, Scraper APIs, and our proprietary pool of ethically sourced proxies, you can streamline competitor price tracking effortlessly. These solutions help you collect accurate data, stay undetected, and scale your tracking without friction.

From identifying key competitors to extracting and analyzing pricing data, every step brings you closer to stronger pricing strategies. Using SOAX gives you the control, flexibility, and insights you need to stay competitive in a fast-moving market.

Ready to take the next step? Explore SOAX's solutions for price monitoring and start building your own powerful pricing intelligence system today.