PriceOtus

PriceOtus

Competitor Discovery and Management Guide

Overview

Competitor discovery is the process of finding and tracking competitors for your products. PriceOtus offers multiple methods to add competitors, from manual addition to fully automated discovery.

Methods of Adding Competitors

Method 1: Manual Addition (Single Product)

When to Use

  • You know the exact competitor product URL
  • You want immediate control over which competitors to track
  • For testing or specific competitor monitoring

How to Add

  1. Open a product detail page
  2. Click "Add competitor" button
  3. Paste the competitor product URL
  4. Optionally enable "Use AI to find price" for better extraction
  5. Click "Add"
  6. System automatically extracts price and starts tracking

Requirements

  • Valid product URL (must include full path, not just domain)
  • Competitor site must be accessible
  • Product must exist on competitor site

AI Price Finding

  • When enabled, uses AI to locate price on page
  • Helpful if default setting doesn't work well enough
  • May take slightly longer to process

Method 2: Automatic Discovery (Bulk)

When to Use

  • You want to find competitors for multiple products
  • You know competitor store domains
  • You want automated matching

How to Use

  1. Click "Discover competitors" from products list (alternatively you can select specific products from the list or do discovery from a product profile)
  2. Choose discovery mode:
    • Discover all available competitors: Discover all available competitors across Google and other marketplaces
    • Discover only in specific stores: Discover only in selected stores, useful when you know your direct competitors
      • Add competitor store domains (e.g., competitor.com)
      • Select Guided Expert Match to let our experts accurately identify your competitors for you
  3. Select Force Search by Title if the default search is not sufficiently accurate
  4. Click "Start discovery"
  5. System matches products and finds competitors

Discovery Process

  1. System analyzes your products (title, SKU, barcode)
  2. Searches competitor stores for matching products
  3. Uses multiple matching strategies:
    • Exact SKU match
    • Barcode match
    • Title similarity
    • Google Shopping (if enabled)
  4. Presents matches for confirmation
  5. Automatically confirms results with a high similarity score
  6. Starts tracking confirmed competitors

Method 3: CSV Import

When to Use

  • You have a list of competitor URLs
  • You want to import many competitors at once
  • You have competitor data in spreadsheet format

CSV Format Options

Option A: SKUs

  • Column 1: Your product SKU
  • Column 2: Corresponding competitor URL (e.g., https://competitor.com/product/123)
  • (Optionally) Column 3: Corresponding URL for another competitor
  • ...
  • An example CSV file is available for download within the dialog

Option A: Product titles

  • Column 1: Your product title
  • Column 2: Corresponding competitor URL (e.g., https://competitor.com/product/123)
  • (Optionally) Column 3: Corresponding URL for another competitor
  • ...
  • An example CSV file is available for download within the dialog

How to Import

  1. Click "Discover or import competitors"
  2. Switch to "Import via CSV File" tab
  3. Select CSV file
  4. Choose format (Title or SKU)
  5. Click "Import"
  6. System processes and matches competitors

CSV Requirements

  • CSV file format (.csv)
  • One product per row

Managing Competitor Stores

Adding Competitor Stores

Competitor stores are domains you want to search for competitors:

How to Add

  1. Go to Discover or import competitors → Discover only in specific stores → Add
  2. Enter domain (e.g., competitor.com)
  3. Click "Add"
  4. Store is added to your list

How to Add Stores to Avoid

  1. Go to Discover or import competitors → Competitor stores to avoid → Add
  2. Enter domain (e.g., competitor.com)
  3. Click "Ok"
  4. Store is added to your list to avoid

Store Adjustments

For each competitor store, you can set:

Percentage Adjustment

  • Adjust competitor prices by percentage
  • Example: +22% if competitor includes shipping in price or VAT
  • Applied to all competitors from that store

Value Adjustment

  • Adjust competitor prices by fixed amount
  • Example: +$5 if competitor charges shipping separately
  • Applied to all competitors from that store

When to Use Adjustments

  • Competitor includes shipping/taxes in price
  • Competitor uses a different package size that you may want to normalize for your needs
  • Competitor store currently has a promotional discount in effect

You can set percentage and value adjustments simultaneously, both at the product level and globally.

Competitor Management

Confirming Competitors

How to Confirm

  • Click "Confirm" next to competitor
  • Or bulk confirm multiple competitors in Manage discovered competitors (by a store domain or similarity level)

Reporting Issues

When to Report

  • Price extraction is incorrect
  • Competitor URL is wrong
  • Product doesn't match
  • Price format issues

How to Report

  • Click "Report" button on competitor
  • Provide details of the problem, such as your expected price
  • We will investigate and fix the issue

Competitor Price Tracking

Update Frequency

Competitor prices are updated:

  • Based on your update interval setting (24h, 12h, 6h)
  • When you manually click Request price update

Price History

View historical price changes:

  • Open product detail page
  • View price history chart
  • See competitor price trends
  • Identify price change patterns

Chart Features

  • Multiple competitor lines
  • Your product price line (black)
  • Hover for exact values
  • Click on competitor name to hide it

Best Practices

  1. Start with Manual Addition: Add a few competitors manually to understand the process
  2. Use Discovery for Bulk: Use automatic discovery for many products
  3. Verify Matches: Always confirm competitors are correctly matched
  4. Set Adjustments: Configure store adjustments for accurate comparisons
  5. Report Issues: Report extraction problems when you find them

Troubleshooting

Discovery Not Finding Competitors

  • Check if your products have barcodes
  • Try manual addition first
  • Enable Include Google Shopping
  • Try Force search by title

Wrong Competitors Matched

  • Review discovery scores
  • Manually confirm correct matches
  • Delete incorrect matches
  • Try Guided expert match when Discover only in specific stores is selected

Prices Not Updating

  • Check update interval settings
  • Verify competitor sites are accessible
  • Check for extraction errors
  • Manually refresh if needed

Price Extraction Issues

  • Report issue with competitor URL
  • Try toggle AI price finding
  • Check if page structure changed
  • Verify competitor site is accessible
  • Try Request price update to sync

Too Many False Matches

  • Delete wrong matches in bulk in Manage discovered competitors → Manage by similarity level
  • Add Competitor stores to avoid before new discovery
  • Try Guided expert match when Discover only in specific stores is selected

Advanced Features

Multi-Variant Competitors

For products with variants:

  • Each variant can have different competitors (multiple competitors under the same URL are supported)
  • Variant-specific price tracking
  • Variant-specific matching