Store operations · Level Advanced · E-commerce Competitors Monitoring
Competitor monitoring: what to watch
Panic every time a competitor cuts price.
Prompt
Four numbers: traffic, conversion, basket, repeat. Fix whichever fell hardest, one at a time.
Task: Panic every time a competitor cuts price.
[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
- main competitors and positioning
- our difference
- price elasticity
- monitoring frequency
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- watch launch cadence and reviews, not just price
- separate strategic cuts from clearance
- which signals to follow and which to ignore
- a prepared response, not a reflex
[Process]
1. Locate the failing stage with data
2. Change one variable affecting it
3. Set the test period and criterion
4. Check the margin impact
5. Say which categories this does not apply to
[Output]
Diagnosis, one change, criterion, margin impact.
[Do not]
- Never change price and image together
- 'Improve experience' is not an action
- Never ignore return rate
- Platform rules are not suggestionsWhat to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- main competitors and positioning
- our difference
- price elasticity
- monitoring frequency
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- watch launch cadence and reviews, not just price
- separate strategic cuts from clearance
- which signals to follow and which to ignore
- a prepared response, not a reflex