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ToolDeck

Ecommerce

Competitor Price Watcher

Tracks competitor product prices and alerts you the moment something undercuts you.

Saves about ~2 hrs per week

What it does

  • Crawls competitor product pages for prices
  • Compares against your price list
  • Alerts you when someone undercuts a key product
  • Builds a weekly price-positioning report

How it works

  1. Competitor URLs configured
  2. Prices scraped on a schedule
  3. Drops past your price trigger an alert
  4. Weekly report summarizes positioning

What's included

  • Competitor crawl
  • Price matching
  • Undercut alerts

Set it up yourself

Follow these 4 steps in order. You will need accounts for: OpenCrawl.

Step 1: Add competitor URLs

  1. For each of your 3-5 main products, find the competitor's matching product URL.
  2. Create a sheet 'Price Watch': Product, My Price, Competitor URL, Competitor Name, Last Scraped Price.
  3. Verify each URL renders the price in HTML (some are JS-rendered).
  4. Test the crawl extracts the price correctly.
  5. Keep the mapping product-accurate.

Watch out: Mapping competitor SKU to your SKU is the actual work — one product per row, no lumping.

Step 2: Map to your products

  1. Ensure every row links your product identifier to the competitor URL.
  2. Add a 'Considered match' note if products aren't identical (same function, different specs).
  3. Input your price from your live catalog.
  4. Test the comparison math.
  5. Keep the map updated when products change.

Watch out: Use your live price (from the catalog), not a manual column — stale manual prices create false alerts.

Step 3: Set the undercut rule

  1. Define the alert: competitor price < my price → notify; deeper than 10% below → escalate.
  2. Add a noise guard: only alert on changes (compare to last scraped).
  3. Post alerts to Slack with both prices.
  4. Test by manually setting a competitor's fake price.
  5. Add a daily crawl schedule.

Watch out: Alert on changes only — a daily alert for every 'same price' row is exactly the noise that kills the channel.

Step 4: Schedule the crawl

  1. Crawl daily at 9am.
  2. Build the weekly report on Mondays: how many products undercut, average gap, trends.
  3. Keep a price-history tab so you see patterns (pre-holiday drops etc.).
  4. Review the weekly report for pricing decisions.
  5. Re-audit the URL list monthly.

Watch out: Price history is strategy fuel — react to the trend line, not a single day's dip.

Frequently asked questions

What does the Competitor Price Watcher automation do?

Tracks competitor product prices and alerts you the moment something undercuts you. Crawls competitor product pages for prices

How much time does Competitor Price Watcher save?

It is estimated to save ~2 hrs per week. Actual savings depend on your volume.

Which tools does Competitor Price Watcher use?

It works with OpenCrawl.

What does Competitor Price Watcher include?

Competitor crawl, Price matching, Undercut alerts.

Can I set up Competitor Price Watcher myself?

Yes. The do-it-yourself guide on this page walks through 4 steps, from getting access to testing the finished automation.