Competitor price surveys are an essential strategic tool for any company wishing to remain competitive.rrentielle. In a context where price wars are raging, particularly in the e-commerce and mass retail sectors, having a price monitoring tool becomes essential. Because when differentiation isn’t enough, it’s often the selling price that makes the decision in the consumer’s mind.
Competitive intelligence enables you to track price trends, identify purchase prices and psychological prices, and understand the pricing policies of your direct and indirect competitors. By observing the pricing strategies of your direct or indirect competitors, you canalign your prices if necessary, or on the contrary, adopt a strategy of differentiation through perceived value. It’s not a question of always offering the lowest price, but of justifying your price according to your price positioning, your cost of goods sold and your overall pricing policy.
In this article, we’ll look at what price recording really means, why and how to set it up effectively, and the rules you need to follow to make it a legal and profitable asset.
What is a competitive price quote?
Competitive price research simply means collecting prices charged by other players on the same or comparable products. This can be done online, directly in store, or via more or less automated data collection tools.
In practical terms, this means documenting the displayed price, any discounts or promotions, availability, and sometimes even the product presentation.
It’s a strategic marketing approach that enables us to better position ourselves and adjust our prices to the market offer.
How important is it to collect data from your competitors?
Without information on prices elsewhere, you’re going in blind. A price survey allows you to situate your offer within the market ecosystem. It helps you to adjust your prices consistently, to identify gaps in positioning, to understand the commercial strategies of others, and to detect changes in rhythm (promotions, decreases, increases, discontinuations, etc.).
It’s also invaluable for measuring the elasticity of your prices: how much is a customer willing to pay based on what they see elsewhere? Far from being a simple monitoring exercise, the price survey is a decision-making tool.
Why use a PDA to check prices in-store?
The PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) is a professional mobile tool designed to make point-of-sale data collection easier and more reliable. As part of a price survey, it enables your field teams to quickly scan barcodes, enter pricing and promotional information, and transmit it in real time to your central database.
Thanks to its robustness, ergonomics and dedicated functions, the PDA ensures :
Fast, error-free price entry on the shelf,
Compatibility with product matching systems,
Save time in the field,
Increased reliability of collected data.
Using a PDA in your price recording operations guarantees precision, efficiency and traceability, while optimizing the productivity of your teams.
The impact of price monitoring on your profitability and margins
A pricing strategy based on concrete data prevents you from setting the selling price arbitrarily. This way, you can avoid setting prices too low, which could harm your profitability, or on the contrary, setting prices too high without any perceived justification by your customers. By understanding your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, and analyzing their price positioning, you can determine the price that supports your margins while remaining competitive.
Let’s take the example of an electricity supplier who wants to launch a green electricity offer. A survey of kWh prices charged by alternative suppliers such as Engie, Direct Energie or GDF will enable him to choose between a low-cost strategy, a premium positioning, or tariff alignment. This also applies to more traditional sectors, such as catering, retail and marketplaces, where e-tailers must constantly benchmark themselves against the competition to remain competitive.
By using this data in a pricing tool that allows you to visualize your pricing rules, such as XPA-Optimix Pricing Analyticsyou can visualize the impact of your strategies directly on margins.
Online and in-store price quotes: how does it work?
There are two main approaches: online and in-store.
Online price statement
Online price collection Online price collection: this is the collection of online prices using scraping robots capable of scanning thousands of competing sites per second. This method is fast, automated and allows frequent monitoring. However, it requires robust, well-configured tools, as sites regularly change their structures or protect their data. That’s why it’s important to rely on pricing tools like XPA Optimix pricing Analytics, which can scrape thousands of your competitors’ pricing data per second.
In-store price survey
In-store price recording In-store price collection is a more hands-on approach. It relies on agents or surveyors who physically visit points of sale to collect displayed prices. They use mobile applications or scanners, sometimes taking photos, and transmit the data to a centralized platform. This is known as “scan in store”. Although this method is more costly, it is still essential in certain sectors, such as supermarkets, DIY stores and local retailers.
The Scan in Store tool: precise pricing in the field
The Scan in Store tool is based on simple but effective technology. A mobile application is installed on a smartphone or terminal, and the interviewer visits the store to scan products or photograph labels. The data is then centralized and automatically processed for integration into tracking tables.
This method has the advantage of capturing what we don’t see online: prices actually charged on the shelves, differences between regions, local promotions, in-store stock-outs, labeling errors. It provides a level of analysis that web data alone cannot provide.
How do you define the competition in your pricing strategy?
It all starts with a good definition of competition. The mistake would be to focus only on players who sell exactly the same product. True competition is that which meets the same customer need. An item that is more basic but less expensive, or conversely more expensive but perceived as premium, can be a direct competitor.
Depending on the product category, you need to establish panels of competitors: some will be local, others national or pure players. It’s also a good idea to distinguish between your main competitors and those who only represent an occasional threat. This mapping work is essential to ensure that the price survey remains relevant.
Is competitive price recording legal?
It’s a frequently asked question, and the answer is clear: yes, it’s legalAs long as prices are public. Taking note of what is displayed on a shelf or published on a website does not in any way constitute a breach of confidentiality.
A few precautions should be taken, however. It is forbidden to access non-public information (such as prices displayed in a closed customer or B2B area), to scrape a site that expressly forbids it in its conditions of use, or to resell the data collected to third parties. Of course, the survey must not lead to a price agreement, which would be strictly forbidden under competition law.
5 pricing mistakes to avoid
A common mistake is to embark on a survey without a clear method: irregular frequency, lack of comparison criteria, partial data… The result: the analysis is flawed.
Another pitfall: comparing products that are not equivalent. Even if two items seem similar, you need to check volumes, functionalities, services included (delivery, warranty…), and the image perceived by the customer.
Many companies also neglect the frequency of readings. A one-off survey gives you a fixed view of the market, without enabling you to anticipate or react. Finally, some companies collect data… but never use it. Data is only of value if it feeds into a genuine pricing analysis. Read the full article here
How much does it cost to check a competitor's prices?
The cost of a price survey depends on the channel used, the volume of data to be collected and the number of competitors you wish to track.
Online, the use of scraping tools or specialized data collection platforms enables fast, scalable data collection. The greater the number of references to be tracked, the greater the investment required. Each collection is therefore customized to your needs.
An in-store survey is more operational, involving field work and human resources. The budget varies according to the complexity of the survey, the geographical extent of your points of sale and the number of references.
Then there’s the time and resources required to process, analyze and interpret the data. It’s not just an expense: it’s a strategic investment which, if properly exploited, strengthens competitiveness, optimizes margins and helps win market share.
For a customized offer tailored to your competitive data collection needs, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Example of a competitive price quote
Let’s imagine you’re selling a Philips coffee machine. You check the prices on three competing sites:
Amazon is offering the product at 379 euros without a promotion. Boulanger lists it at 399 euros with a 10-euro loyalty card discount. Darty is at 429 euros, but offers a deferred reimbursement of 30 euros, bringing it down to 399.
This type of survey not only gives you an immediate idea of where you stand, but also helps you to understand the sales mechanisms you use. It’s then up to you to decide whether to match the price, offer an additional service or highlight a differentiating argument.
The price list is a strategic tool
Visit price list of your competitorsis a valuable tool for understanding your market, adjusting your positioning and making informed decisions. Used properly, it helps you stay competitive, protect your margins and anticipate changes in the sector.
Whether online or in-store, the key is to rely on a structured, regular approach that is aligned with your objectives. In a fast-changing environment, having reliable, up-to-date information on market prices gives you a real competitive edge.
