How do I create a price tracker?

Absolutely all specialists working in the field of e-commerce, sooner or later face the need to bypass competitors on the market. The most effective tool in this case is competent price management. According to the results of market research, consumers who are ready to start purchasing industrial equipment and tools from another supplier, consider price as a decisive factor in their choice. There are quite a few services on the Internet that help to realize this task, but not all of them are suitable. In this article, we will tell you how to write a price tracker that will meet all your needs.

Ways to track competitors’ prices

The easiest and most effective way is to use already ready-made tools. For this option, you do not need to have special skills or a lot of experience in marketing. But there are quite a few limitations that do not allow you to do the job fully. For example, such tools may not have access to all websites.

You can also try to negotiate with employees of a competitor’s firm. But this method is too energy-consuming and not entirely honest, so we do not recommend using it for the purpose of business promotion.

Parsing competitors’ websites. Recently, this method is becoming more and more popular, as it is affordable and has great functionality. Next we will tell you how to create a price tracker on your own.

Why create your own system to monitor prices?

A proprietary system for price monitoring can be used for successful business promotion. This approach allows to study the competitive environment and track competitors’ pricing strategies in time. Automate this process, retailers continuously perform effective collection and analysis of price data. This is convenient for quick and informed decision-making on price changes.

Why create your own system for price monitoring?

A proprietary price monitoring system allows you to:

• Study the competitive environment.
• Quickly react to price changes.
• Automate data collection and analysis.

Platforms for creating price trackers: Excel, Google Sheets and others

For more convenient presentation of the data obtained as a result of the tracker’s work, you can use generally available platforms – Excel, Google Sheets and others. They allow to systematize prices and provide more convenient interaction due to data placement in a tabular format. In this case, the user can independently choose a more convenient option, as the functionality of such platforms is universal in most cases.

Programs and services for writing a price parser

Three meters can be used to collect competitors’ real-time pricing data.

Writing a price parser will be most beneficial in such cases:

• you have the skills to draw up a clear terms of reference and understand what information you want to receive and in what form;
• you have the opportunity to attract proven developers who are able to create, maintain the project and develop it further.

Next, we will explain how to create a price tracker on your own.

A detailed guide on how to create a price tracker

Creating a price parser is not so difficult if you have at least basic skills in this direction and experience in using such tools.

Identification of data sources

To begin with, you will need to determine which sites you are interested in. Of course, you can get a lot of different data from them:

• Product names and descriptions;
• prices;
• promotions and updates, etc.

But in this case we are only interested in prices, so it is important to choose a competitor with a similar assortment to study his site and upload the necessary data.

Customizing data collection

The created programs can work in different ways, but their principle of action schematically looks as follows.

When writing a parser, you can set the appropriate settings based on the purpose of creating the tracker.

Analyzing data and setting alerts

Once you have all the necessary information in a table format, you need to analyze it. If you are developing parsing on your own, it is worthwhile to provide tools for data processing in advance. Otherwise, you will have a long process of working with tables manually.

Writing a detailed technical specification will optimize this stage, as the information will be analyzed automatically and a report will be generated. In addition, for the convenience of the user, it is possible to connect notifications to a cell phone or in the form of a mailing to e-mail.

Using APIs to automate the price tracker

An API can help you automate your price tracker. It is a tool that acts on the principle of a communication layer or interface, thanks to which different systems can interact with each other to optimize the user experience.

Using the API, you can set tasks that will be performed without human participation. That is, the price tracker will independently collect all necessary information, analyze it and generate a report for the user.

How to set up price change alerts

Webhooks will help with instant notifications of price changes. This point is also taken into account at the development stage, where the user can connect alerts to receive quick notifications of any price changes for the products being monitored. The parser will save time on manually tracking changes by doing it for you.

How to avoid mistakes when writing a tracker for price monitoring

Properly writing a price monitoring tracker requires professional experience in this field. It is also important to take into account all the purposes for which you are creating the tool. This will save you from having to make constant adjustments.

In order to optimize your work and avoid various restrictions from websites up to blocking, you can use fast mobile proxies. Such tools encrypt your IP address and mask the performance of a large number of similar actions with minimal time intervals. No less useful tool for working with websites is SIM hosting.

Conclusion

There are more and more online stores on the vastness of the net, which create serious competition for businesses. In order to feel more confident in the market, it is important to track the activities of competitors and take action in time. A price tracker that will collect data from websites and analyze it for quick response will help you to cope with this task.

FAQ

1. What is a price tracker?

• A price tracker is a tool for automatically collecting and analyzing competitor pricing data. Price tracking helps you make informed decisions about your own pricing strategies and stay competitive in the marketplace.

2. What platforms can you use to create a price tracker?

• You can use Excel, Google Sheets and other tabular platforms to present the data.

3. What is the most effective way to track prices?

• Parsing competitors’ websites is one of the most effective ways due to its affordability and functionality.

4. How do you automate the collection of price data?

• Use APIs and webhooks to automate data collection and get instant notifications of price changes.

5. What are some mistakes to avoid when writing a price tracker?

• Avoid frequent requests to a single site, use mobile proxies, and define the goals of creating the tool in advance.

6. Can I use ready-made tools to monitor prices?

• Yes, off-the-shelf SaaS services and desktop programs can be useful, but they may have limitations in terms of data access and functionality.