Competitor watch report - and how to build one (with or without AI)
What a solid competitor watch report tracks each week, and the exact steps to compile it, by hand or with AI, so nothing slips past you.
What a good competitor watch report covers
A useful weekly report tracks four changeable levers competitors adjust most: price, promos, products, and messaging.
- 1.
Pricing changes - Catch price drops or hikes on comparable SKUs before customers do
- 2.
Promo and discount activity - Flags new sales, bundles, or coupon codes that could pull your traffic
- 3.
New product launches - Shows what's added to competitor catalogs, signaling category moves
- 4.
Out-of-stock or discontinued items - Reveals gaps you could fill with your own inventory
- 5.
Messaging and positioning shifts - Tracks homepage and ad copy changes that hint at new strategy
- 6.
Site and UX changes - Highlights checkout, shipping, or navigation updates worth copying
Takeaway: Run this check weekly on a fixed day so pricing and promo shifts don't sit unnoticed for a full sales cycle.
How e-commerce teams run a weekly competitor watch report
Time per report
Popular tools
- Spreadsheets - Log competitor prices and promos manually each week
- Browser bookmarks - Revisit competitor sites and screenshot changes
- Shopify admin - Compare your own pricing and stock against tracked competitors
- Google Alerts - Catch competitor press mentions and new launches
Time to set up
3-4 hrs per run
Cadence: Ad-hoc, whenever someone remembers to check
Who does it: Analyst plus marketer manually browsing sites
Coverage: Spot checks on 2-3 known competitors
Delivered as: Spreadsheet shared on request
Implement it with AI
Schedule
Integrations
ShopifyChannel