Competitive Analysis: Tracking Your Competitors in E-commerce

Keeping an eye on the competition is an important part of being successful in the world of e-commerce. That’s why you need to do a competitive analysis and keep track of what your main competitors are doing.

What is a competitive analysis?

A competitive analysis is a strategic process that involves researching your main competitors. Along with identifying who your main competitors are, an effective competitive analysis also includes an evaluation of other important elements, such as pricing strategies, sales, marketing tactics and more.

Why it’s important to track your competitors

Your target audience is constantly comparing you to your competitors. This alone should convince you of the benefits of doing a competitive analysis.

By regularly analysing competitors, you can identify market trends early, spot gaps in customer experience, and avoid falling behind on industry standards such as delivery options, payment methods, or service expectations.

When you analyse the competition effectively, it shifts the focus away from price wars. When products and prices are similar, customers choose based on trust, transparency, and social proof. Understanding how competitors communicate credibility through customer reviews, guarantees, or customer service allows you to strengthen your own value proposition.

A good competitor analysis also helps you prioritise what truly matters: instead of copying competitors feature by feature, you learn how to differentiate yourself from the competition in a meaningful way.

Identifying your competitors

A common mistake in competitive analysis is focusing only on businesses that look similar to yours on the surface. In reality, your true e-commerce competitors are the shops your customers compare you with before making a purchase.

Shutterstock/aslysun

Start by distinguishing between direct and indirect competitors.

Direct competitors sell the same or very similar products to the same target audience.

Indirect competitors may offer substitute products, operate on large marketplaces, or position themselves differently. For example, they may differentiate themselves through pricing, branding, or delivery speed, but still compete for your customers’ attention and budget.

Recommended reading:
How to Stand Out When Competitors Sell the Same Products

To identify them, think like your customers. Search for your core products on Google and review both organic results and paid ads. Check marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay, where many customers compare options before buying.

Pay attention to social media ads and influencer partnerships in your niche, as these often surface emerging competitors.

Customer feedback is another valuable source. Reviews, support tickets, and focus groups frequently mention alternative shops that customers have considered.

By mapping out these competitors, you’ll gain a realistic view of the landscape you’re actually competing in.

What to analyse when tracking competitors

A structured competitive analysis looks beyond surface-level comparisons and focuses on the elements that influence customer decisions.

Product & pricing

Product and pricing are the obvious starting points. Compare product range, exclusivity, and availability, but also look at pricing logic: discounts, bundles, subscription options, and shipping costs. Customers rarely assess price in isolation. Rather, they evaluate the overall value offered.

Customer experience

When analysing the customer experience, this includes website usability, mobile performance, checkout flow, payment options, and delivery information. Small friction points, such as unclear return policies or slow-loading pages, can become decisive disadvantages in comparison shopping.

Recommended reading:
Boosting Trust in the Customer Journey to Improve Sales

Marketing & visibility

Marketing and visibility reveal how competitors attract and convert traffic. Review their SEO presence, content focus, paid ads, and email communication. Pay attention to messaging: what benefits do they emphasise, and how do they differentiate themselves?

Trust & credibility

Look at how your competitors work to build trust. How do they use customer reviews, ratings, guarantees, certifications, and buyer protections? Note where these trust signals appear (e.g. on product pages, in ads, or during checkout) and how actively competitors engage with customer feedback.

Recommended reading:
What Is Trusted Shops and How Can It Benefit My Business?

Tools and methods for tracking e-commerce competitors

You don’t necessarily need a big budget to analyse your competitors effectively. What you do need, however, is a structured approach.

Manual tracking

There are a few things you can do manually to get a deep understanding of your competition:

• Visit the website regularly: Make sure to head directly to their website and check pricing, promotions, messaging, and usability. Look for new landing pages and changes to their homepage.
  
  
• Subscribe to their newsletter: See how they communicate with customers, what offers they push, and how frequently they send out emails.
  
  
• Mystery shopping: When you actually purchase from your competition, you’ll get some great insights into the customer experience. You can discover elements like checkout friction, delivery speed, the unboxing process, and post-purchase communication.

Digital tracking

To complement your manual efforts, you can use some digital tools to take your analysis to the next level.

SEO tools can help you figure out which keywords they are ranking for and which content is driving traffic to their site. This can help you figure out opportunities that you were unaware of before.

Price monitoring tools help track changes over time, including discounts and campaign-based pricing.

Social media ad libraries provide insight into active ad creatives, targeting themes, and value propositions that competitors prioritise. The Facebook Ads Library lets you explore the ads that any company is currently running.

Source: Ahinsa Shoes

Search engine ad libraries are similar to the social media ones. In the example below, you can see that the Google Ads Transparency Centre lets you see what ads your competitors are running.

Source: Soletrader

Another key method is review and reputation monitoring. Analyse where competitors collect reviews, what their average ratings are, how many reviews they have, how recent they are, and how they respond to negative feedback. Reviews often reveal recurring customer pain points, such as delivery, service, or product quality, which aren’t really visible elsewhere.

Turning insights into action

Competitive analysis only delivers value when insights lead to clear action. The goal isn’t to copy competitors, but to make better, more customer-focused decisions based on what you’ve learned.

One of the most important lessons is knowing what not to compete on. If competitors are constantly undercutting prices, matching them may hurt margins without improving customer loyalty. Instead, use your insights to highlight areas where you can offer more value, such as clearer communication, faster support, or a smoother checkout experience.

Look for patterns in the service reviews of your competitors. Repeated complaints about delivery delays, poor service, or unclear returns indicate opportunities to optimise your own shop and/or highlight these differences.

Trust is often the strongest lever. If your analysis shows competitors relying heavily on discounts, strengthening credibility and reassurance can set you apart. This includes prominently displaying verified reviews, offering transparent guarantees, and answering customer concerns proactively. When shoppers feel confident, they’re less likely to keep comparing.

Tools like the Trusted Shops Reputation Manager help you make sure your reputation is consistent and strong across the major review platforms like Trusted Shops, Google Reviews, and Trustpilot (even if you’re not a member).

Finally, turn insights into prioritised initiatives. Not every finding requires action. Focus on changes that align with your brand, customer expectations, and long-term growth.

Competitive analysis is an ongoing process

Competitive analysis isn’t a one-time task. It’s a continuous process that evolves alongside your brand, market, customers, and competitors.

Pricing strategies change, new players enter the market, customer expectations shift, and strategies that worked yesterday may lose impact tomorrow. To stay relevant, online shops need to monitor these changes regularly.

Rather than treating competitive analysis as a large, infrequent project, it’s more effective to build it into your routine. Light monthly check-ins can focus on pricing, messaging, and promotions, while deeper quarterly reviews examine customer experience, visibility, and trust indicators in more detail. This helps you spot trends early without overwhelming your team.

Tracking the same key metrics over time, such as visibility, review volume and sentiment, or conversion-related trust elements, makes progress clearly visible and helps you set and measure your objectives.

Equally important is sharing insights across teams, from marketing to customer service, so improvements align with real customer needs.

Shutterstock/izzuanroslan

Competitive analysis FAQs

Here, we’ve summarised some of the most common FAQs when it comes to competitive analysis:

FAQ 1: What is a competitive analysis in e-commerce?

A competitive analysis in e-commerce involves researching other online shops that compete for the same customers. It looks at factors such as products, pricing, customer experience, marketing, and trust signals to understand how competitors position themselves and where you can differentiate your brand.

FAQ 2: How often should I track my competitors?

Competitive analysis should be ongoing. Light monthly checks are useful for monitoring pricing, promotions, and messaging, while more detailed quarterly reviews help assess customer experience, visibility, and trust indicators. This approach keeps your insights relevant without becoming time-consuming.

FAQ 3: Who are my real e‑commerce competitors?

Your real competitors are the shops your customers compare you with before buying. This includes direct competitors selling similar products, as well as indirect competitors such as marketplaces or alternative brands that compete on price, convenience, or trust.

FAQ 4: When considering the competition, what should I focus on besides price?

Price is only one factor. Customers also compare delivery options, checkout experience, customer service, reviews, guarantees, and overall credibility. Strong trust signals and a smooth user experience often matter more than small price differences.

FAQ 5: How do customer reviews help with competitive analysis?

Customer reviews reveal what competitors do well and where they fall short. By analysing review volume, ratings, sentiment, and recurring complaints, you can identify customer expectations, uncover gaps in the market, and use trust as a key differentiator.

Conclusion

A good competitive analysis can help you understand what your competitors are doing, but more importantly, it helps you understand what you are doing right (and wrong). By approaching your competitive analysis as an ongoing habit, you stay proactive, informed, and better equipped to stand out from the competition.