In the day-to-day work of pricing and category management teams, analysis of the competitive catalog is no longer an option – it’s a strategic reflex. Margins are being squeezed, one promotion follows another, and sometimes the decision to buy is down to a few cents. In this ultra-competitive environment, raising prices is no longer enough. We need to understand what each brand is promoting, how it structures its offer, and what signals it is sending to its customers.
In the field, this means going beyond the Excel spreadsheet: observing highlights, deciphering assortment logic, spotting discontinuities, exclusivities and dominant formats. It’s this detailed reading of the competitor’s catalog that enables us to steer our own positioning, adjust our prices appropriately, and build a coherent offer to the market.
Beyond the question: ” How do I conduct a competitive price analysis? “you also need to know what data to collect. Prices, promotions, formats, brands, range levels, frequency of updates… every detail counts. It’s these elements that fuel decisions, refine strategies, and enable us to remain competitive without sacrificing profitability. We take a closer look at the subject in this article.
Why analyze a competitor's catalog?
The aim is not simply to monitor competitors’ prices or promotions. What counts is to extract real commercial intelligence, which can be exploited and acted upon, to refine your own decisions. Competitive catalog analysis thus becomes a strategic tool that goes far beyond price surveys.
In the field, this allows :
- Identify the strengths and weaknesses of competitor ranges, spotting gaps, duplications or bold choices that can inspire or alert.
- Detect emerging trends and implicit customer expectations, by observing what is being promoted, preferred formats and rising brands.
- Optimize its own assortment-pricing-merchandising mix, by adjusting range levels, price positioning and product enhancement logic.
- Anticipate strategic shifts in the market, whether it’s the arrival of new entrants, the repositioning of an existing player, or a private label offensive in a key segment.
By analyzing a competitor’s catalog, you can better understand your environment, react more quickly and, above all, make better decisions.
Competitor catalog analysis: what data to collect
1. Offer structure
A catalog reveals a player’s strategy: depth of range, breadth of assortment, frequency of innovation and share of exclusive products. A player that rapidly renews its offering signals a desire to capture early adopters; another, focused on breadth of range, seeks to maximize market coverage.
2. Price positioning
Price data, including VAT, promotions and discounts, provide a snapshot in time, but expert analysis must include the price curve over time. Understanding the mechanics of price variations, the logic of anchoring (crossed-out prices, psychological prices) and segmentation (entry-level, premium) enables us to decipher a competitor’s profitability and attractiveness strategy.
3. Merchandising and showcasing
The organization of the catalog, the hierarchical structure of product universes, the promotion of top sellers or “favorites” all reflect structuring marketing choices. Qualitative analysis of visuals, sales pitches and storytelling enables us to understand how value is perceived and amplified beyond the face price.
4. Brands and suppliers
The respective weighting of national brands, private labels and exclusivities provides information on the balance of power between distributors and suppliers. Product origin (local, organic, eco-responsible, imported) is another strong indicator of alignment with consumer trends.
5. Distribution channels
Omnichannel presence (store, e-commerce, marketplaces) radically alters the perception of value. For example, a low-price offer available via click & collect can capture a local customer base that would not have been acquired solely online.
6. Performance indicators
When available, customer reviews, best-seller rankings and social network popularity are proxies for sales traction. They enable us to link pricing and assortment strategy to the real impact on demand.
How do you collect data on your competitors?
Competitor data collection is based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative sources. To automate price and assortment surveys, many retailers rely on specialized web scraping tools or price monitoring software. These technologies enable real-time monitoring of changes in the online competitive catalog, with fine granularity on prices, promotions and availability.
But monitoring isn’t limited to the online world. In the field, investigators equipped with PDAs or mobile applications such as Scan In Store carry out in-store surveys, capturing data directly on the shelves: product positioning, formats, highlights, stock-outs… These observations are essential to complement the digital vision with a concrete reading of the customer experience.
The richness of the analysis comes above all from the combination of quantitative data and qualitative insights. In-store visits, newsletter analysis, advertising benchmarks and point-of-purchase (POP) surveys help to decipher the strategic intentions behind assortment choices. Finally, web traffic analysis platforms enrich this vision by integrating visibility, digital performance and user behavior indicators.
By combining these different sources, pricing and category management teams have a solid basis for adjusting their positioning, anticipating market movements and fine-tuning their sales strategy.
Best practices
Relevant competitive analysis requires a structured, dynamic database. Information must be regularly updated and integrated into a cross-functional approach: marketing, pricing, category management and purchasing.
The key lies in interpretation: transforming raw figures into strategic insights to adjust margins, reposition your offering and anticipate the next steps in the market.
Analyzing a competitor's catalog: a strategic tool
Analyzing a competitor’s catalog means getting to the heart of the other’s strategy. It’s a steering tool that reveals the players’ logic, their trade-offs and their choices for differentiation.
For a pricing expert, every reference, every price, every promotion tells a story: a strategic market map to be deciphered. Reading these signals with acuity means staying one step ahead, and transforming competitive intelligence into a real competitive advantage.
