9 Easy Steps for Ecommerce Competitor Analysis & 31 Best Tools to Use

Stay ahead by following these 9 easy steps for ecommerce competitor analysis and using 31 top-rated tools to boost your strategy.

Sep 2, 2024

Justin Gabriel

Founder of Shophunter & Brandwise

Table of Contents

9 Easy Steps for Ecommerce Competitor Analysis & 31 Best Tools to Use

Do not index

Your ecommerce business is up and running, but it’s not enough to just have a website. Sales aren't coming as quickly as you'd hoped, which is frustrating. You wonder what your competitors are doing differently to drive traffic and boost sales. An analysis of e-commerce competitors can help you uncover this information. You can discover ways to improve your online store and boost sales by analyzing your competitors. In this article, we'll walk you through conducting an ecommerce competitor analysis and highlight tools to help you get the job done.

One tool that can help you uncover your competitors' strategies is Shophunter.io's Shopify sales tracker. This tool allows you to identify the sources driving your competitors' sales so you can make informed decisions to improve your business performance.

What is Eommerce Competitor Analysis?

Ecommerce competitor analysis involves studying competitors:

Strategies

Strengths

Weaknesses

Overall market position

Every market has more than one company pitching similar products or services to the same category of buyers. Competitive analysis helps identify the main market players, determine their strategies to succeed and identify resources your company could use to dominate the market.

The Market-Based View: Understanding Your Competition

In economics, two primary theories exist about businesses' attainment of a competitive advantage. The Market-Based View (MBV) strategic framework states that a company’s performance is solely determined by the industry's structure and competitive dynamics.

Out of that is Porter’s five forces model, which shows five main forces that add competitive pressure to your industry. Analyzing these forces will help you better understand the target markets and prepare for launch.

Barriers to Entry: Who’s Already Winning?

High entry barriers mean lower inter-industry competition but can also signify a monopoly. An industry that’s hard to break into will likely have several established players holding a large market share.

For example, online furniture sales are challenging to penetrate due to shipping costs. Big-chain players such as:

Ikea

West Elm

Wayfair

Holds the ground, but as DTC retailer Burrow proved, there is still room for more entrants.

Supplier Power: The Importance of Your Vendors

Top suppliers (merchants) can control prices, reduce the quality of products, and set benchmarks for other participants.

For example, Amazon popularized the concept of free shipping and next-day delivery, effectively forcing other players to follow suit.

Buyer Power: Understanding Your Customers

Vice versa, powerful buyer demographics can impact the markets by demanding better product quality, driving down prices, or forcing the industry players to compete with one another.

For example, sustainability has become a major issue among consumers. Some are boycotting companies using palm oil in foods or rallying against cosmetic brands using synthetic fragrances. Such buyer groups spend money with brands that better align with their values and prompt wider changes in the industry.

Threat of Substitution: Are Your Products Obsolete?

Some products risk becoming redundant or substituted with cheaper, more sustainable, or trendier alternatives.

For example, in 2016, Apple removed the headphone jack from new iPhone models, effectively launching the market for wireless headphones (that they also happened to produce). This impacted headphone sellers, who previously targeted iPhone owners.

The Resource-Based View: Understanding Your Assets

The second popular theory of competition is the Resource-Based View (RBV) strategic framework. This paradigm analyzes how internal resources may contribute to the company’s competitive advantage.

When conducting competitor research using RBV, you aim to determine how each company uses its resources to secure or improve its market position.

The two types of resources RBV analyzes are:

Tangible assets: All the company's physical assets, such as equipment, capital, brick-and-mortar locations, e-commerce website, mobile application, etc. Physical assets provide a lower competitive advantage since competitors can buy identical assets.

Intangible assets: All types of intellectual property, brand positioning, customer experience, work culture, and other intangible assets the business has developed over the years. Intangible resources are more challenging to replicate. Thus, they provide a long-term competitive advantage.

RBV breaks down the resources by types:

Heterogeneous resources: Every business possesses different skills, capabilities, and core competencies. Even companies in the same niche start with a different mix of resources. Consequently, this allows businesses to differentiate themselves by pursuing competitive strategies based on their strengths. Per RBV, heterogeneous resources help businesses attain a competitive advantage even if they sell similar products.

Here’s a quick competition analysis example to illustrate the point:

Apple, Sony, and Skullcandy sell headphones. Each company uses its tangible and intangible assets differently to secure a market share. Apple has strong brand equity and focuses on building long-term relationships with each customer through upselling different gadgets.

Sony leverages its vast distribution network and economies of scale to sell various cheap and high-end products across markets. Skullcandy is a niche player that sells statement and limited-edition accessories to music fans.

Immobile resources: Certain business resources cannot be easily transferred to another company in the short term. For example, you cannot copy Skullcandy’s brand and e-commerce experience and paste it on your store to get the same results.

Most intangible business resources are immobile, internal knowledge, product development process, branding, etc. You should evaluate how your intangible immobile resources can be leveraged to outperform the competition rather than simply trying to copy what others are doing.

The Key Focuses of Ecommerce Competitor Analysis

To sum up, competition analysis is a multi-facet process aimed at exploring:

Who are the main movers and shakers on the market?

What external and internal forces shape the competitive landscape?

What types of resources do different players have?

How do they use their assets to stand out?

Where are the gaps in competitors’ capabilities?

Which resources do you have to fill in those gaps?

5 Ecommerce Competitive Analysis Benefits

1. Identify Market Trends Like a Pro

Analyzing your eCommerce competitors can help you identify market trends to stay ahead. By keeping tabs on your rivals, you can discover insights into emerging trends, changing customer behaviors, and evolving preferences to adapt your business accordingly.

2. Get to Know Your Competitive Environment

Competitor analysis helps you get a firm grasp of your industry’s competitive environment. You can identify direct and indirect competitors, learn about their products or services, uncover their pricing strategies, and analyze their marketing tactics. You can also understand their strengths and weaknesses to differentiate your brand.

3. Benchmark Your Performance

Competitor analysis helps you establish benchmarks for your eCommerce business. By analyzing your rivals’ performance, you can compare their:

Sales

Market share

Customer satisfaction

Online presence

Against your own. This process allows you to identify your strengths and weaknesses, improve your operations, and grow your business.

4. Uncover New Opportunities

Digging into your eCommerce competitors can uncover new opportunities to grow your business. Studying their customer feedback, reviews, and social media presence can reveal gaps in the market, areas where they fall short, and customer pain points you can address. This process can uncover untapped growth opportunities that you may have otherwise overlooked.

5. Enhance Marketing Strategies

Competitor analysis can help improve your marketing and advertising strategies. By assessing your rivals’ marketing efforts, you can identify successful campaigns, learn about their messaging tactics, and uncover target audience segments to reach. This information will help you refine your marketing strategies and optimize your messaging to better resonate with your target audience.

Leveraging ShopHunter for Advanced Sales Tracking and Product Validation

ShopHunter's Shopify sales tracker offers a unique tool for ecom founders, particularly those in the Shopify ecosystem. At its core, it is a custom algorithm that estimates sales for entire stores and specific products, helping users quickly validate product potential. The platform goes beyond basic sales tracking, featuring an ad spy tool that monitors advertising activity across stores.

This combination lets users spot trending products and successful marketing strategies early on. Whether you're:

Drop shipper

Shopify store owner

Someone looking

To enter the e-commerce space, ShopHunter aims to streamline product research and reduce the risk of investing in low-performing items.

Sign up for a free trial of our Shopify sales tracker tool, with no credit card required, to find your next e-commerce opportunity or to level up your current e-commerce store by learning from your competitors.

High Ticket Dropshipping Products

Ecommerce Ideas

High Demand Products To Sell

Most Profitable Products To Sell Online

Product Ideas

Best Ecommerce Products

How To Find Winning Products On Aliexpress

How To Find Trending Products

How To Find Trending Products On Tiktok

How To Find Winning Products

Who Should Conduct an Ecommerce Competitive Analysis?

Understanding the competitive landscape of ecommerce can provide valuable insights into all types of online businesses, from established retailers to new startups. Everyone can benefit from this research, including:

Business owners

Marketers

Product managers

Sales teams

Here is a closer look at who can benefit from ecommerce competitor analysis and how it can help them.

Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

Competitor analysis is a valuable tool for company owners and entrepreneurs to gain deeper insights into their industry. It allows them to identify competitors, study their strategies, and pinpoint opportunities to differentiate themselves.

Marketing Professionals

Marketers may use competition analysis to learn more about their target audience and market trends. By studying their competitors:

Strategies

Messages

Consumer interaction approaches

They may improve their marketing plans, fill in the gaps in their coverage, and create more compelling campaigns.

Product Managers

Product managers may use competitive analysis to detect:

Market product gaps

Assess emerging trends

Acquire information on competing products

Having this data allows businesses to enhance their product development plans, add desirable features, and meet the needs of their target audience.

Sales Teams

For sales teams, competitor analysis provides a competitive edge by helping them understand competitors:

Strengths

Weaknesses

Pricing strategies

This knowledge enables them to position their products effectively, address customer concerns, and highlight unique selling points.

Startups and New Market Entrants

Startups and new market entrants can gain valuable insights from competitor analysis to understand the competitive landscape, evaluate market viability, and develop strategies for effectively entering the market.

9 Easy Steps for a Comprehensive Ecommerce Competitive Analysis

1. Identify Your Competitors

Analyze three types of competitors:

Direct competition

It is an ecommerce business providing similar products to the same target market (both geographically and demographically) at a comparable price point. Think Xbox vs Sony PlayStation. Direct competition is the first contender you should analyze for my own brand. Why? Because doing so helps fulfill two purposes:

Evaluate product viability: this type of good is probably in demand if someone else sells it.

Estimate entry barriers: direct competition sets the bar for entering a market.

For example, if a competitor’s product costs $10, you won’t be able to charge $25 for it unless you add another twist to it. Here’s how to identify direct competition:

Analyze search engine results (SERPs) for similar product queries.

Look at market share statistics using Statista or a similar source.

See who’s sourcing products from the same suppliers/wholesalers you plan to use.

Note the brands your target buyers use or mention the most during interviews.

Direct competitors are easy to notice, but indirect competitors can be hard to miss. Indirect competition is an online seller offering products that differ in some way but could satisfy the same customer demand.

Indirect competitor

Research may be interesting for more established e-commerce brands as it evaluates new product ideas and new markets. For example, suppose a skincare brand wants to launch a new CBD product line. In that case, it should analyze other CBD businesses' actions to identify which intangible assets it could leverage to compete with them.

There’s replacement competition, a company with the potential to replace your product with something different altogether. Such disruptive brands try to bite into the existing profits of more established competitors by offering a better product or experience. Here are a couple of examples you’ll recognize:

Uber replaced standard taxis

Airbnb eroded the hotel market

Choosing the replacement route may be challenging, especially if you are up against bigger competitors. You must validate your product viability to avoid investing in your product that no one else needs. Higher rewards offset the higher risks. Bumping a large competitor, especially one with a monopoly on the market, can generate rapid growth for your business.

2. Perform a Competitor SWOT Analysis

This is a great tool to visualize how you stack up against other businesses. Once you’ve lined up several direct competitors, analyze their business from the perspective of:

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

Your analysis should cover the following areas:

Brand positioning Ecommerce website

Customer experience

Sales strategy

Pricing strategy

Marketing strategy

Content strategy

Shipping Strategy

Discounts/Promo strategy

To get answers for each section, ask the following questions:

In which areas does this brand excel?

Can you identify any intangible assets (e.g., memorable branding) that give them an advantage?

Which processes or experiences need improvements (i.e., in terms of online shopping experience)?

What areas do they neglect/miss (e.g., do they invest enough in search engine optimization to get organic traffic)?

What can your company do better, based on my resources (e.g., can you come up with better messaging for or new types of content for my website)?

Can this competitor substitute you?

Can they threaten you another way (e.g., by offering faster shipping)?

Contrast the competitors’ weaknesses against your strengths.

Pay attention to the opportunities they are missing. Could I capitalize on them? Strengths and threats, on the other hand, will help me better gauge the overall market conditions and entry barriers and prepare me to conquer them.

3. Examine Your Competitors’ Websites and Customer Experiences

Customer experience is one of the decisive factors in ecommerce. 59% of US consumers will abandon a brand after several bad experiences, and 17% will tolerate only one strike.

Treat competitor research as an opportunity to close your ecommerce website design roadmap gaps. To effectively assess my competitors’ UX and CX, use this 5-step UX research framework developed by Erin Sanders from the Research Learning Spiral:

Set the objectives: What knowledge do I need to obtain? At the very basics, you should analyze the competitor’s navigation, product catalog, product listing, checkout experience, shipping policy, on-site marketing tools (such as discounts, coupons, upsells, etc.)

Create research hypotheses: Using my earlier knowledge about the competitor’s strengths or weaknesses, I created a set of assumptions about their customers. For example, does the competitor’s content help shoppers decide on the product?

Select your research methods: These will depend on my resources. I will use quantitative (benchmarks, user testing data, performance metrics, etc.) and qualitative methods (surveys, focus group interviews, customer reviews, etc.) to evaluate their UX/CX.

Conduct the evaluation: I will collect as much data as possible during the set research timeframe.

Synthesize the findings: I will use the information to fill the knowledge gaps, challenge or confirm my hypotheses, and evaluate alternative design opportunities.

4. Determine Your Competitors’ Market Positioning

Competitive positioning is your core differentiator from others. This information is easy to uncover when you evaluate indirect competition—their solution will be somewhat different from mine.

That difference stands for their unique value proposition — a factor attracting new customers. Every brand needs one if they gear up for success. To map which position competitive brands hold on the market, do the following:

Identify the primary group of customer needs that I plan to address.

Choose a geographic region I want to study.

Decide if I want to track the entire market for a product or only a specific segment.

Select a price range I want to analyze (cheap/low-end products, mid-market, luxury).

Identify what primary benefit the customer receives at different price point.

Organize competitors by product price and its level of primary benefit on the map.

5. Look at Your Competitors’ Pricing and Current Offers

Perceptual mapping helps identify how competitors price their products and where I could fit in. This data gives me some baseline figures on how much people are willing to pay for different types of goods. Not just objective factors such as quality or feature range impact consumers’ price sensitivity.

For example, 43% of all consumers are ready to pay more for greater convenience, such as faster shipping or low-hassle delivery. 71% are prepared to pay a premium for brands that provide full product traceability. As I analyze the competitors’ prices, I pay attention to such add-ons and try to determine how they tie extra value to their prices to avoid competing on dollar value alone.

6. Learn About the Technology Your Competitors Are Using

Technology is a tangible asset any brand could acquire. But we often forget that

technology is an enabler, so it’s less about the technology than how it’s used. Competing businesses can rely on the same ecommerce platform but configure and extend it to create a unique brand experience (intangible asset). Thus, when doing my analysis pay attention to the following:

What ecommerce solution does the company use, open source, SaaS or headless commerce?

Do they rely on any custom extensions/plugins?

What supporting systems do they use, e.g., payment processors, email marketing service providers, 3PL integrations, etc.?

Are they using innovative technologies such as AI, chatbots, AR or VR to deliver an immersive shopping experience?

Can I offer a better online shopping experience by choosing another technology stack or implementing custom integrations?

An easy way to learn about the competitor’s tech stack is to analyze their website with BuiltWith.

7. Ensure You Are Being Competitive with Shipping

Shipping is a determinant purchase driver for most consumers; according to Baymard Institute, shipping costs are one of the top reasons for cart abandonment. Determine what your competition charges for:

Same/next day delivery

2-day shipping

Standard shipping

International shipping

I analyze different logistics providers to estimate if I can offer similar rates. Ecommerce brands can negotiate bulk discounts for shipping/long-term contracts. I can mark up the prices to offset some of the shopping costs for bulkier items. If I have brick-and-mortar operations, consider BOPIS or curbside pickups. Both can help reduce fulfillment costs.

Social networks are a goldmine for the voice of customer (VOC) data I can leverage for product development and brand positioning. Here’s how to conduct a competitor analysis using social media:

Twitter: Analyze how the company responds to support queries, check how they respond to product questions, and browse mentions and hashtags to evaluate overall conversations.

Facebook: Read the latest reviews. These help identify weaknesses I could improve upon. Use the Pages to Watch feature to monitor how similar pages engage with their audiences. I can also see what other brands my fans like by typing pages liked by people who like [my page name] in the Graph Search box.

Instagram: Check the competitor aesthetics and content calendar. What types of visuals do they use? Are they leveraging new Instagram features such as Reels or Shoppable posts? Estimate their engagement levels per post. Is it authentic? What is their comments-to-like ratio? Are they partnering with influencers? Who are they working with? Why?

Reddit: Popular brands with a cult following have dedicated subreddits to street interactions with their community. Check these out to get a better sense of the audience preferences, needs and missed opportunities. General subreddits (e.g., covering skincare or gaming) also have active and brutally honest discussions around different brands. Look for those threads to understand what fuels the competitor’s customer sentiment and drives purchasing decisions.

If I have the budget, I invest in social listening and sentiment analysis tools. Some good options are Brandwatch (premium), Social Searcher (free), and Critical Mention (premium).

8. Use Tools and Methods for Staying Aware of Competitors

The above sounds like a lot, right? To keep my competitor research structured and easy to re-visit in the future, use the following competitive analysis frameworks:

Porter’s Five Forces model

Resource-Based View (RBV) framework

SWOT template Perceptual mapping template

To always have up-to-date competitive intelligence, I monitor their social media using Pages to Watch features or adding them to my social media analytics tool. Search engine results (SERPs). Tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush are great for analyzing which keywords my competition ranks for and how they acquire backlinks to their website and online coverage.

I can set Google alerts for their brand name to learn when they get mentioned by the media/influencers and in what context. Traffic volume and sources. SimilarWeb provides free website traffic analytics, plus an overview of the main referrals.

Ecommerce Niches

How To Find Ecommerce Trending Keywords

How To Find Products To Sell

Best Ecommerce Tools

Ecommerce Product Research

Product Research Tools

Dropshipping Apps

Dropshipping Product Finder

Ecommerce Categories

Best Product Research Tool

Best Ecommerce Tools

7 Essential Platforms & Websites for Competitor Analysis

1. Google: Your Starting Point for Competitor Analysis

There is no better place to find information on a topic than Google. With the right keyword, it’s possible to find useful insights that will help you perform a better competitor analysis.

Social media is the new television for advertisements, except it's even better! You need to understand how different social media platforms work to perform better competitor analysis.

You can use social media to gather valuable information on your competitors. You can discover who their followers are, what content they engage with the most, and the ads they run to reach their target audience.

3. YouTube: Analyze Your Competitors' Video Content

YouTube is another crucial platform that you need to get a hold of for competitor analysis. It can provide insights that you will have a hard time finding on any other platform.

Many ecommerce businesses use YouTube to promote their products, educate their audiences, and improve their SEO. Analyzing their channels and videos can uncover a treasure trove of information about your competitors.

4. Indeed or a Similar Job Site: Find Out What Your Competitors Are Lacking

You can use job sites for better competitor analysis. How? We'll explain later! ecommerce sites are always hiring to find the right talent to help grow their business.

By looking at their job openings, you can uncover insights about their organizational structure, and what products or services they are trying to improve (which may be hurting their business). This can give you a better understanding of how to compete with them.

5. Quora: Use This Q&A Site to Find Competitors and Product Ideas

If appropriately used, Quora can be one of the best tools for finding potential competitors, new products, and much more! Quora is a Q&A site that helps users find information on just about any topic.

Ecommerce businesses can use the platform to market their products by answering questions related to their niche and incorporating their items into the replies. You can find competitors and potential affiliate partners by looking at who the top contributors are on relevant topics.

6. SimilarWeb: The Best Tool for Website Analysis

SimilarWeb can effectively present and compare your market share with your competitors, one of the most essential parts of competitor analysis. The platform allows you to analyze any website's traffic and performance, giving you insight into how your business compares.

With SimilarWeb, you can discover how much traffic your competitors get, where their visitors are located, what sites they were referred from, and their audience demographics. You can also look at competitors' audience interests and get a detailed breakdown of the keywords they rank for and the ads they are running.

7. Moz, SEMrush, or Similar: Uncover SEO and Content Strategies

Content is king. Keyword research tools can provide you with important data on your competitors and can tell you if it's time to move on! Even if you don't plan on competing with them, looking at their organic and paid strategies can help you develop your own.

31 Best Ecommerce Competitor Analysis Tools for 2024

1. ShopHunter

This combination lets users spot trending products and successful marketing strategies early on. Whether you're:

Drop shipper

Shopify store owner

Someone looking

To enter the e-commerce space, ShopHunter aims to streamline product research and reduce the risk of investing in low-performing items.

Sign up for a free trial (no credit card required) of our Shopify sales tracker tool to find your next e-commerce opportunity or to level up your current e-commerce store by learning from your competitors.

2. Similarweb

Similarweb is an all-in-one competitive analysis software that makes competitor research unbelievably simple and fast. It harnesses the world’s most up-to-date data (including from the last 28 days), delivering rich insight into your industry landscape while analyzing website traffic and performance. Stand-outs Similarweb is the only competitive analysis tool that shows you what’s happening in your/your rivals’ digital world. It reveals:

Traffic data

Detailed visitor behavior

Paid advertising

Affiliate

Social

SEO content strategies

With Similarweb, you can:

Review your competitors’ website performance and see what channel mix delivers the most traffic to their sites.

Hone in on actionable keyword insights thanks to a wide range of filters, including organic and paid, branded and non-branded, and search by keyword difficulty, search intent, or topic.

Harvest fresh insights on your traffic and keywords vs. your rivals’ with competitor keyword reports.

Access geographic and demographic data to discover your competitor’s audience and understand how and where to meet them.

Spark fresh PPC and Display creative ideas by spying on your competitors’ most successful search/product ads and landing pages

3. SpyFu

SpyFu is an SEO and PPC research and analytics tool that lets you, as the name suggests, spy on competitor behavior at a detailed level. Put a domain into the tool, and you’ll see every place they’ve shown up on:

Google

Bing

Yahoo

Stand-outs:

Hyper-clear picture of the organic and paid status of any of your competitors, as well as broad keyword metrics.

Advanced SEO and PPC reports give you a full picture of each channel, allowing you to improve your organic and paid strategies.

Through keyword and content analysis, plus backlink research, you see every keyword your competitor has bought on Google Ads, every organic rank, and every ad variation from the last 16 years.

Special shout out to the Kombat feature, which reveals details on how you’re working differently from competitors

4. Surfer

Surfer is a powerhouse in the field of optimizing content for search engines. This tool analyzes and compares your content with top-ranking pages in real time, providing actionable insights for on-page optimization.

Stand-outs:

Advanced content editor that suggests real-time changes for SEO improvements

A unique scoring system that rates your content against competitors, giving clear guidance on what to tweak for better rankings.

Detailed analysis of keyword usage, structure, and other on-page elements to outperform competitors in search engine results.

A comprehensive audit feature that identifies SEO issues on your website, offering suggestions to fix them and improve overall site performance

5. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a content analysis tool that detects what competitor content within your market is performing well. Discover the best:

Engagement

Content

Outreach gaps

Across social media and search.

Stand-outs:

Easy to discover what content (competitors’ and your own) resonates with your target audience online.

These insights can elevate your social media storytelling and search strategy.

Content Alerts point you to keyword mentions and relevant influencers.

Data on content going viral in your industry through insights on high-performing posts, niche keywords, trending stories, and customer questions.

A clearer view of your content opportunities to increase social engagement Segmentation of influencers makes discovering effective influencer strategies used by competitors easy

6. Feedly

Feedly, another purpose-specific tool stands out as the best option for automated web content and insights tracking. It’s a content aggregator that uses machine learning (AI Feeds) to read through millions of content pieces across the web and determine if they’re relevant to your tracking topics.

Stand-outs:

Features An expansive content utilizing AI to scan and filter relevant articles, blogs, research journals, and social media updates.

A streamlined search and tracking interface that eliminates the need for manual keyword list updates, ensuring the delivery of highly relevant content directly to you.

The ability to centralize and organize content related to your topics in one place.

An advanced understanding of keyword context, where the AI recognizes and delivers updates on topics in your industry, even when an exact phrase isn’t mentioned – invaluable for uncovering new competitors and industry trends with minimal effort.

A comprehensive yet precise overview of my competitors’ digital movements, empowering me to refine my strategies based on up-to-date, relevant market intelligence

7. Competitive Intelligence Alliance

Something different, the Competitive Intelligence Alliance is a comprehensive platform that offers a wide range of tools and resources to support competitive intelligence professionals. Its community brings experts from many industries together to foster collaboration, knowledge sharing, and professional development.

Stand-outs:

Tailored membership packages that give access to exclusive content, learning resources, and career development tools.

Curated insights and regularly updated resources like podcasts, newsletters, and in-depth industry reports to keep members abreast of industry trends and new competitive intelligence strategies.

Global summits and networking events that offer opportunities for face-to-face interactions and professional networking.

Professional development courses that cover a range of topics relevant to competitive intelligence and strategic intelligence, designed to boost career growth

8. Owletter

Signed up for hundreds of competitor email lists? We feel you. When you’re drowning in a sea of competitor emails, Owletter will be your lifeboat. This tool is specifically designed to streamline the monitoring of competitor email strategies, transforming a cluttered inbox into a source of valuable marketing insights.

Stand-outs:

Automatically captures, monitors, and stores newsletters from countless sources, organizing them into a comprehensive and accessible database.

Sophisticated analytics for email content, providing in-depth insights into what works (and what doesn’t) in your competitors’ email marketing.

Includes unlimited alerts based on custom keyword filters, ensuring you’re always current on relevant topics and trends.

Refined keyword filters and seasonality and trend analytics help you stay abreast of the most pressing email topics, allowing you to tailor your content more effectively.

The star of the show: it’s the ability to declutter your inbox by storing every competitor’s email in a neatly organized collection, freeing up your time and mental space for more strategic tasks

9. SE Ranking

SE Ranking is an SEO platform for agencies and in-house professionals that provides website optimization data and includes a competitor research tool. Simply enter any of your competitor’s domains, and you’ll get intel into their SEO and PPC strategy, including keywords, backlinks, rankings, traffic, and more.

Stand-outs:

An overview of competitor website visits with traffic distribution by country and continent and the primary traffic sources.

A complete list of competitors’ search queries and rankings, essential keyword metrics like difficulty, search volume, SERP features in which the analyzed competitor’s website appears, and more.

A comparison feature where you can analyze your keywords and traffic against two competitors to find content gaps.

PPC competitor research to see which keywords your competitors were targeting in their campaigns and which messages they were using in ads.

Historical data feature that allows you to access detailed competitors’ research reports from previous months dating back to February 2020.

10. Brandly360

A set of flexible tools rather than an answer to one specific problem, Brandly360 puts forward an impressive collection of solutions. Whether your business needs a price tracking tool or software capable of measuring the success of your marketing strategy, this all-in-one e-commerce monitoring solution is up for the task.

Exploring the full extent of its functionalities is an excellent way to improve your company’s performance. Brandly360 delivers practical data points by monitoring advertising banners.

Stand-outs:

Businesses can use this information to ensure their banner ads have the desired effect. It allows them to gain insights into what their competitors are doing and fix burning issues, adjusting their strategies on the go.

Product description analysis can help companies reevaluate their content marketing efforts.

They can replace a faulty content strategy with a brand-new approach, attracting more website traffic.

Another noteworthy feature is price monitoring and tracking.

It revolves around providing marketing specialists with the results of a robust competitor analysis. Thanks to it, they can immediately take action in case of any price changes.

11. Competitor Monitor

Competitor Monitor is an e-commerce competitor analysis tool with many advantages. The crux of its competitive analysis is monitoring and analyzing market changes to provide brands and retailers with detailed information. Besides market monitoring, the tool is a significant help in several other endeavors, such as:

Progress tracking

Boosting sales

Offer expansion

Receiving alerts on product availability and competitors’ prices is advantageous for retailers. It is an excellent way to get actionable data that any company needs to gain an upper hand over the competition.

12. Wiser

Another entry on the list of the best competitor analysis tools, Wiser dazzles with easy-to-understand graphs and actionable insights. It is an e-commerce tool designed for marketing teams, perfect for establishing an accurate portrayal of the retail landscape and uncovering emerging trends in the market. Its online and in-store solutions cover many potential issues, from brand intelligence and consumer experience to shopper insights and store operation.

Wiser is one of the most reliable tools for seeing how a company’s products and prices stack up against its key competitors. Since the software excels at collecting data and consolidating it, the insights it delivers are concise and easy to act upon. If you are looking for a way to put your visitors in a spending mood, Wiser can help you achieve this goal. The developers offer outstanding customer support. It ensures you can handle all the problems that may come your way.

13. PriceManager

A one-of-its-kind e-commerce price monitoring software, PriceManager utilizes fully integrated reporting tools and cutting-edge technology to deliver outstanding results. This website competitor analysis tool is a viable choice for distributors, retailers, and brand manufacturers. It can help you streamline your tasks, making your job more manageable. Its top features include:

Competitor price tracking

Repricing engine

Custom pricing rules

Elasticity-based pricing

Market data analysis

The tool is also perfect for monitoring minimum advertised pricing (MAP). It can help companies protect themselves from price erosion, preserve brand integrity, and reduce bad consumer experiences.

14. Pricefy

Pricefy is a competitor analysis tool known for its powerful API and customer-friendly pricing model. The former allows you to supercharge your marketing strategy by easily integrating Pricefy’s data into your website. Thanks to it, you can take your competitor research to the next level, monitoring your closest rivals in any country, currency, or marketplace.

The latter is a welcome addition to a product already packed with features. Whether you engage in organic or paid search campaigns to contend with your e-commerce rivals, this tool can help you discover how well your competitors rank and how you can overcome them in organic search results. It works like a browser extension and has an extensive knowledge base. You won’t get overwhelmed by its features. Pricefy’s integration list includes:

Magento

Shopify

BigCommerce

WooCommerce

PrestaShop

Storeden

15. Prisync

The company that made Prisync was founded in 2013. Over the last decade, it has refined its approach toward competitor analysis. Its efforts culminated in creating one of the best competitive analysis tools on the market. In large measure, Prisync stands out among e-commerce competitor analysis tools due to its ease of use and excellent value for money. The tool collects the required data. It does so by looking at every competitor’s product price and stock availability information available.

Prisync gathers all these valuable insights on a simple dashboard. Thanks to it, you can see what areas need your attention and how you stack up against your competitors. You can use Prisync’s dynamic pricing tool to make much-needed changes. Whether you have to level up your ads on social media platforms or resolve issues on your site that prevent it from ranking high in search engines, it can help you get your business strategy in place and achieve your goals.

16. InSiteTrack

A powerful tool for tapping into the true potential that business intelligence offers, InSiteTrack delivers a raft of market insights companies can use to meet their marketing goals. The tool allows for competitive research in numerous niches, including:

Automotive

DIY and home improvement

Home and Garden

Health and beauty

Pharmaceuticals

Fitness equipment

Music Industry

Hi-Fi and audio

Office Supplies

Supermarkets

Manufacturers

Distributors

InSiteTrack allows you to check on your competitors’ traffic and effortlessly adjust your marketing campaigns. Through machine learning and human intelligence, it compares the products on your competitors’ websites that match yours. Thanks to automating the complex data collection and market analysis process, InSiteTrack can help businesses of all shapes and sizes track and engage in online conversations in real time.

17. Price2Spy

Another useful competitive intelligence tool, Price2Spy, delivers outstanding results in two areas: online price monitoring and price comparison. Both are pivotal for keeping your company competitive and ensuring your marketing efforts:

Paid ads

Social media campaigns

SEO strategies, etc

Price2Spy offers a feature called Price Change Alerts. It informs you whenever your competitors change the prices of their products. Thanks to it, you can address the situation almost immediately and swiftly implement the necessary changes in your business. It works similarly to tools that help people who engage in content marketing stay ahead of the curve.

These tools send an alert each time a company’s competitor publishes new content, allowing marketers to stay on top of their game. Price2Spy also works exceptionally well as a repricing service. With it, keeping track of pricing trends becomes virtually effortless. While a limited range of visualizations is available and no option to import a CSV file with product URLs is available, it is still one of the best competitor analysis tools on the market.

18. Intelligence Node

Intelligence Node is a comprehensive competitor analysis tool aiming to streamline your business operations in three main areas:

Brand Intelligence

Retailer intelligence

Data Intelligence

Each category includes detailed analyses, providing the insights required to make informed decisions. The tool also offers real-time data updates and insights into customer behavior, allowing you to respond quickly and keep up with market trends. It is an invaluable asset for small and large businesses looking for ways to dominate their competition.

The Retailer Intelligence module is particularly useful for e-commerce businesses. It gives you access to everything from pricing and promotions to inventory and assortment in easy-to-read visuals. This, complemented with competitor analysis in the Brand Intelligence package, enables businesses to ensure their pricing and marketing strategies are on the right track.

19. Competera

When some apps strive for an all-in-one approach, Competera takes a different path, focusing on price intelligence and optimization. The tool gathers insights from different areas and boils them down to a unified platform with only three packages:

Competitive Data

Pricing Automation

Price Optimization

The main principle behind these packages is quite straightforward. Instead of providing a multitude of competitor intelligence and analysis tools and having you figure out which ones to use, Competera provides a flexible and automated solution that does the job for you.

Businesses can easily monitor competitors’ prices and ensure their products remain competitive. Competera ensures your business takes full advantage of price optimization opportunities. The holistic approach turns your competition-based pricing strategy into a well-oiled machine, allowing you to maximize profits by automating the entire process.

20. Netrivals

Netrivals offers competitor analysis tools for two main target groups, namely retailers and brands, both of which focus on providing a comprehensive view of the market – and, with that, helping you boost your profits. Regarding retail-oriented tools, Netrivals provides several features related to competitive analysis and pricing intelligence. These include:

Tracking Google and Amazon price changes

Price and product attribute monitoring

Dynamic pricing management

Testimonial and review analysis

The brand-oriented suite of features offers analysis tools associated with product discovery and performance, from stock availability and market research to ratings and competitive benchmarks. Netrivals boasts a powerful API that enables businesses to integrate their analytics into existing systems and data, allowing for a seamless flow of information across all platforms.

21. Minderest

The last entry on our list, Minderest, is a set of cloud-based competitor analysis tools allowing e-commerce businesses to understand their market space better. The software lets users:

Compare prices

Monitor analytics

Track pricing trends

It provides insights into competitors' activities and performance compared to your business. The platform is divided into two sections: solutions for retailers and solutions for brands and manufacturers.

Solutions for retailers include:

Price intelligence: gives you a thorough overview of historical and trend data highlighting the price positioning of your offering compared to your competitors.

Competitor price monitoring: provides insights into competitor pricing strategies and their performance in specific markets.

InStore: price and stock monitoring of your brick-and-mortar competitors.

Catalog Intelligence: comprehensive analysis of competitors offering, including valuable product information.

Repricing: A rule-based repricing engine is designed always to maintain the best pricing position for your products.

Dynamic pricing: AI-driven pricing recommendations enabling you to adjust real-time pricing.

Solutions for brands and manufacturers include:

MAP and MSRP Monitoring: monitoring vendors’ compliance with pricing policies and ensuring your products are correctly priced.

MSRP inStore: Check for your market positioning policy violations in physical distribution channels.

Distribution Channel Analysis: exploring competitors’ positioning on the market and specific channels.

With social media ranked the No. 1 channel for connecting with customers, there’s no better starting point for competitive analysis. Sprout Social enables you to understand competitor performance on social media from multiple angles and data points. You can use Sprout’s suite of competitive reports to assess and optimize your social strategy with rich data points you can track across:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Whether you want to get a sneak peek at what your competitors are posting or benchmark your growth against the average of the profiles being compared, it’s all a click away, minus the tedious manual research and messy spreadsheets, up your analytics game with Sprout’s premium analytics tool that offers deeper insights into your social platforms and interactive charts and graphs that you can customize to align with your goals.

23. Phlanx

This Instagram engagement calculator tells you how active an account’s followers are. It is an awesome resource for analyzing your competitor’s Instagram presence and determining whether an influencer has a legitimate following. Phlanx’s engagement ratio is calculated based on the number of followers an account has versus the rate at which followers interact with content.

For example, Trader Joe's has an engagement rate of 2.56%. This is a fair score for a larger brand that posts consistently. But compare that to Denny’s, well known for its cult-like social following and rabid fans: This score isn’t the be-all and end-all of a brand’s Instagram presence, but it offers some much-needed perspective.

Social Blade is a fun tool for checking out bigger brands. It assesses follower counts on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, among other services. Although often used to assess the popularity of celebrities and YouTubers, there are some interesting insights here for marketers.

For example, their Twitter competitor analysis applies a grade based on their average number of retweets and likes. Perhaps most notably, Social Blade provides a day-by-day follower update and a live follower count. Another cool feature is the ability to stack brands’ social presences against each other.

25. Kompyte

Kompyte is a competitive intelligence tool that automatically pulls competitor updates into a single, easy-to-monitor dashboard. This includes:

Updates from their website

Review site

Content

Social media

Job opening and more

Easily monitor competitor updates so you can keep a clear eye out on what other brands in your industry are doing online. Kompyte helps put together sales battle cards based on your competitive findings that your team can use to close sales.

26. Crayon

Crayon is an artificial intelligence tool for competitor analysis and intelligence. It helps users create a dashboard of automatically compiled and organized competitor updates so brands can always be in the know about what their competitors are doing.

Crayon also has collaboration features, ensuring teams can manage and monitor competitive insights. Crayon also offers the ability to create sales battle cards and customizable reports and dashboards.

27. Ahrefs (Web)

If Sprout Social is the industry standard for social monitoring, Ahrefs is the gold standard of SEO competitor analysis. It's my go-to tool, the product that came up most when I surveyed industry professionals. One of those professionals was Ben Poulton, SEO consultant and founder of Intellar, who told me that Ahrefs is my go-to software for SEO, and their functionalities for competitor analyses are super helpful right out of the gate.

I can create detailed reports on competitive benchmarking by keyword and category. These help clients and I quickly spot gaps, underperforming areas, or highly competitive terms we do well on but want to ensure we maintain.

Why Ahrefs Stands Out in SEO Competitor Analysis

Can other software, such as SEO audit tools, do similar things? Sure. As Poulton pointed out, Ahrefs's edge over its competitors is its bigger keyword database and more detailed backlink metrics. I've tried dozens of others myself, and I still come back to Ahrefs for competitor analysis for the same reasons.

I use the Competitive Analysis tool to find new content opportunities and optimize current content, the Site Explorer to dive deep into competitor content performance, and the Ahrefs browser extension to get real-time performance data directly in the SERP. Put simply: Ahrefs offers the richest, most accessible suite of data for performing SEO competitor analysis.

28. Earnest Analytics (Web)

For some occasions, a pie from Costco (seeing a theme emerge

here) is perfect. It's time to pull out that complicated NYT recipe that'll take a day to get wrong. For some use cases, pre-packaged third-party competitor reporting is enough.

For others, you'll need to piece it together with raw data. Earnest Analytics isn't for the faint of heart. The platform enables you to compile your competitor's financial analyses and projections by offering access to credit card data.

The Comprehensive Insights Offered by Earnest Analytics

As NicheMerch Founder James Riso puts it, the benefit is that it lets you:

Reliably estimate revenue growth

Transaction size

Retention rates

These consumer spending trends are available across many companies so that you can track transaction trends dating back to 2016 for multiple competitors. With real spending data, you can compile high-leverage reporting for more accurate purchase volume and revenue growth based on historical data, not just conjecture. If my pie analogy isn't for you, it's worth noting that Earnest Analytics does more than just present raw data. With its:

AI-fueled benchmarking

Market share calculations

Consumer behavior analysis

Macro-level economic context

It's a complete hub for alternative data insights you won't get from any other products on this list. Pricing is by request, so I can't guess at the price. But if you can afford this, James noted, it is an excellent way to put your metrics in context. You can test limited access to Earnest Analytics for free, so if rich consumer spending data piques your interest like Swiss meringue, it's worth checking out.

29. Morning Consult (Web)

So far, this list has been focused on quantitative data, but numbers only have some fun regarding data analysis. That's where the decision intelligence platform Morning Consult comes in. Morning Consult offers high-frequency survey data, meaning users get the most powerful, most relevant, updated qualitative user data.

As James described, this is useful for giving analytics professionals insights on attitudes relevant to your and others' brand and trends in your market, with quite useful contextual data on the respondents. Morning Consult offers this data through its intuitive Intelligence interface to promote seamless collaboration and actionability.

Utilizing Morning Consult's API for Enhanced Data Integration and Predictive Analysis

Those who want to integrate the intel into other software solutions can use its proprietary API. This dashboard provides survey data vetted and analyzed by internal data scientists to establish clear trend narratives that translate to deployable strategies.

This exceptionally rich data and analysis results in deeper customer understanding and more accurate predictive analysis. If actionable, recent user survey data is invaluable to your work, then so is Morning Consult.

30. Wappalyzer (Web)

While the other products on this list have been dedicated to researching competitors' performance, this one shows you how competitors do what they're doing. More specifically, Wappalyzer shows you the technology they use to do it.

Wappalyzer is an application that instantly pulls up the tech stack that powers your competitor's websites. Look up a competitor chewing up real estate in your market and see everything from their payment processing software to their CMS. As you develop your business, you can look behind the curtain to see how to build a rival online presence. Beyond software recommendations, you can also use this data to create website and contact lists filtered by:

Software type

Social media presence

Contact information

Even common industry keywords

For example, you can look up WordPress to see which websites use it, then target each to market a premium WordPress application. Be advised that the broader the search, the longer reports can take. And they can take quite a while—one of mine took upwards of an hour.

Maximizing Wappalyzer for Market Research and Workflow Automation

Need more than software specs? Wappalyzer offers additional insights like market research, competitor analysis, data enrichment, and website monitoring.

You can connect the platform by a browser extension, API, or direct integration and apply workflow automations to streamline searches. This is one of the more unique offerings on the list, but it could be extremely valuable for some people.

31. RivalFlow AI

RivalFlow AI is a content optimization tool that fits seamlessly into your AI SEO workflow. It identifies gaps between your pages and those outranking you. It recommends improvements and provides a GPT-generated copy to fill those gaps.

Whether you use an AI writing tool or not, RivalFlow AI helps you create more complete content that wins for users and Google. With no setup required, it's an easy addition to boost the performance of your existing pages.

10 Effective Tips to Conduct a Winning Eommerce Competitor Analysis

1. Identify Your Direct and Indirect Competitors

You can only analyze your competitors by knowing who they are. Identifying your competitors can be tricky, but we're here to help! There are several ways you can find your competitors. Everybody knows most of their direct competitors. But it's hard to keep track with more players entering the market. Here are some ways to do that:

Google Search: Google Search is the easiest and most effective way to find your competitors. Simply search for the product you sell. Unless you use a VPN, most results will show local companies that sell the product. This way, you can easily get an idea of your direct competitors. The top results are the most established players in the market. Keep track of everyone within the first three pages, at least.

Facebook: Facebook is not a traditional search engine. Yet you can get so much information from its search results. That's because of its vast user base. Every business has a Facebook page, and if you search using the product name or keywords like Buy Product Name, you're likely to get some page that also sells the same product you sell.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn has gained enormous popularity among professionals. There's a good chance your competitors have also joined LinkedIn. LinkedIn groups and answers can be a great resource for anyone looking to identify potential competitors.

YouTube: YouTube, the most popular video publishing platform, can also help you find competitors. The enormous popularity of YouTube has brought a lot of business here. You can search for your product on YouTube and find more than one competitor easily!

Quora: Quora is mainly a knowledge-sharing platform. The way it works is very simple. Someone asks a question, and those who know the answer respond. But because this site allows sharing links along with the answer, many people find and answer questions related to their product and indirectly encourage people to visit their website. You'll get many answers if you search on Quora using your product name. If you read closely, among the answers, many will contain a link to their website. Find yourself some more competitors!

2. Research the Products Your Competitors Are Offering

Now you have a list of your competitors. It's time to research their products. You'll need to note

down answers to the following questions:

What are their products?

Did they launch any new products?

How many of the products are similar to yours?

Does your product lack any features compared to theirs?

What is the pricing of their products compared to yours?

Do they have a discount ongoing?

What are the products that they lack compared to yours?

Create a table using all these answers. The product analysis section of your competitor research is likely to be the most time-consuming, but it can yield great results. Product analysis often helps to decide how to present your products and what areas to improve. You can also get an idea of whether any scopes on the market are still untouched.

3. Keep an Eye on Your Competitors' Budgets

The eCommerce competition has become fiercer. To succeed, you need to have a comprehensive long-term strategy. Formulating a strategy can be easier if you get to know the financial condition of your competitors. But is it possible? Most small eCommerce websites are private. You can't know their finances.

But there is a way. Some websites publish news on startup funding, such as TechCrunch and Crunchbase. If you follow them regularly, you can get news on the funding your competitors are getting. That way, you will know what you're dealing with and do your company budgeting accordingly.

4. Analyze Your Competitors' Content Strategy, Quality, and Reach

Content has always been an important way to connect with customers. Most websites have a blog, and so should you. Analyzing your competitors' content marketing strategy is crucial to understanding their overall marketing strategy. If your competitors are attracting more visitors than yours, it's time to upgrade the quality of your content and tweak your content strategy! Subscribe to competitors' blogs and follow them regularly.

Compare them against your content. If your content quality still needs to improve, it's time to focus more on what you circulate to your customers! It's also smart to track how many visitors your competitors' websites get. More visitors mean more chances to convert them into buyers. Similarweb is an excellent website for knowing the number of visitors to your competitors' websites. You can also know how many of them are paid and how many are organic.

5. Measure Your Competitors' Brand Positioning

Content your competitors publish, be it blog, website slider, PR, or paid ad can tell about how they are trying to portray their business as a brand and what message they are trying to give customers. By reviewing their messaging, you can get an idea of the following:

What phrases are your competitors highlighting most?

How are they attracting their customers? Better pricing, product, or better experience?

What are the USPs of your competitors?

If you were to write one sentence about every one of your competitors, what would that be?

Answers to these questions give you a clear picture of what your competitors are trying to convey to the customers. It will also help you find your voice in the crowd. If your website has something that distinguishes you from your competitors, you will retain customers. A strong USP (Unique Selling Point) is your ticket to survive in today's market, especially in eCommerce.

Do you follow your competitors' social media channels? If you still need to, you should. Social media is an integral part of eCommerce. It's the place where customers can directly connect with businesses. Comments on social media posts can reveal customers' feelings toward a certain company.

You should also examine social media ads closely. They often generate more direct sales than other forms of advertising, and judging the results of your competitor's social media campaigns is easier. Even if you don't see engagement, the number of likes, comments, and shares can tell a lot!

7. Find out Your Competitors' Mediums for Advertising

The more they see you, the more they remember you. This is how human psychology works. Modern businesses do it efficiently by diversifying their presence. There are:

Email marketing

Search engines

Social media

YouTube and many more platforms

Where one can advertise, you should closely monitor which media your competitors use to reach customers and note them down. Competitor analysis for eCommerce is more about finding your strengths and weaknesses than that of your competitors. To be in a strong position, you should find out which channels they advertise on and match them with better offers and visuals.

8. Get a Clear Picture of Your Competitors' Marketing Strategy and Growth

A better strategy means better results. A competitor's marketing strategy should be clearer to you than theirs. You need to keep track of every move they make, every content they publish, every ad they post, and every discount they offer. A marketing strategy consists of a lot of things like:

Good content strategy

Social media presence

Brand positioning combines into a good marketing strategy

To get an idea of their overall marketing strategy, you should use websites like SEMrush or Moz.

These websites can give you significant insights into your competitors' keywords to attract customers.

While it's relatively easier to track your competitor's marketing strategy, it takes time to track how much they are growing. But regular news on your competitors and their PR statements can give you an idea of their growth. Their website visitors and social media followers are other indicators to consider while measuring their growth.

9. Conduct a SWOT Analysis of Competitors

After evaluating all the competitors thoroughly, you'll have an overall idea of all the competitors. It will then pave the way for you to conduct a SWOT analysis on individual competitors. SWOT analysis is a strategic planning technique to help a person or organization identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to business competition or project planning. You need to know the answer to four questions before performing a SWOT analysis.

What are the strengths of your competitor? This answer must include things your competitor is known for or good at.

What are your competitor's weaknesses? You'll have to find out what their clients complain about the most. It can be customer service, slow shipping, overpricing, or anything else that a customer has a problem with.

What are the opportunities your competitors create for you? In this case, you'll have to find out what opportunities your competitors create for you. For instance, look out for any sudden change, a price increase, something you can exploit.

What threats are our competitors posing to your business? The question is rather self-explanatory. Identify the threat your competitor poses to your business.

After performing the SWOT analysis, you'll find some real gems of insights. SWOT analysis uncovers very useful data. You can then use that data efficiently to enhance your strategies accordingly.

10. Create a Competitor Analysis Framework

A Competitor Analysis framework is a model to present data you gather through an eCommerce competitive analysis. It helps you represent data in an easily understandable way. Below is a picture of a Competitor analysis framework. You can follow this competitor analysis framework to gather all the information you have collected for your eCommerce business.

This combination lets users spot trending products and successful marketing strategies early on. Whether you're: