In the dynamic world of e-commerce, you should always know the tools to spy on competitors and stay ahead of the competition. Understanding what your competitors are doing can provide valuable insights that help you refine your strategies, identify opportunities, and drive growth.
In this article, we’ll explore the importance of competitor analysis and share practical, free and premium tools to spy on your competitors effectively.
Why spy on your competitors in eCommerce?
Some people will say that spying on your competitors is not a great tactic and instead focus on your business. But that is not true. While you should work on improving your e-shop, the user experience, and the products you offer, how will you do that if you don’t have a clear idea of what is out there? Competition in the e-commerce landscape is fierce, with businesses vying for the attention of consumers. By keeping an eye on your competitors, you gain several advantages:
- Strategic Insights: Understanding your competitors’ strategies, tactics, and initiatives can help you identify gaps in the market and capitalize on emerging trends.
- Benchmarking Performance: Monitoring your competitors’ performance allows you to assess your own strengths and weaknesses and set realistic goals for improvement.
- Market Understanding: By analyzing your competitors’ actions, you can gain valuable insights into consumer behaviour, preferences, and market trends.
- Innovation Inspiration: Studying your competitors’ successes and failures can inspire innovation within your own business, leading to the development of new products, services, or marketing strategies.
Tools to Spy on Competitors for Free in eCommerce
Tools to spy on competitors' ads
With performance marketing in mind, we always start with what our competitors are doing in terms of Paid Social ads and advertising on search engines. The main free tools to spy on competitors’ ads are Facebook Ads Library, Google Ads Transparency Center, TikTok Ads Transparency Library.
#1 Facebook ads spy tool
- What type of content they are using in their ads
- On which platforms/placements they are running ads
- Their targeting audience
Isn’t it a great way to see competitors’ ads? OK, let’s move to the next one.
Did I mention that we achieve up to 11 ROAS for our eCommerce clients? Check out our Facebook Ads services and book a Free Meta Ads Audits.
#2 Google ads spy tool
Using this Google ads spy tool, you can identify multiple types of ads that we’re running such as Shopping Ads, Dynamic Search Ads, Performance Max & more. This is also how you view competitor display ads.
#3 Tool to spy on competitors' TikTok ads
However, we suggest using tools to spy on competitors not only in terms of ads, but also for identifying their website traffic, channels, promotions and more.
Free tools to spy on competitors' traffic
#4 How to spy on competitors' website traffic with Similarweb
Now remember, that if the competitor is quite small (less than 5K visitors per month), you might not have any insights from the tool.
There are a few alternative platforms for checking the traffic, such as:
#5 Competitors website traffic checker by Semrush
#6 Neil Patel's Competitors website traffic checker
#7 Ahrefs' competitors website traffic checker
And of course, another favorite tool to spy on the organic traffic of our competitors is no other than ahref’s website traffic tracker.
OK, but what if you want to find out which eCommerce platform a store is built on? My favourite tools to identify what eCommerce platform competitors use are Wappalyzer and BuiltWith.
#8 Wappalyzer for identifying the eCommerce platform
#9 BuiltWith for identifying the eCommerce platform
Tools to spy on competitors' organic keywords in eCommerce
How to identify what organic keywords your eCommerce competitors rank for? Nowadays, we can not only spy on what ads our competitors running but also get Organic Search Insights for free.
#10 Keywords spy with SemRush
#11 Keywords spy with Ahrefs
#12 Keywords spy with Moz
#13 Keyword spy tool SEOquake
If at some point you would like to invest more into growing organic traffic, then the SEO expert you’re gpoing to work with, will probably have installed a Chrome browser plugin called SEOquake.
#14 Keyword spy tool octoboard.com
It is a similar tool, but not so popular.
#15 Keyword spy tool webceo.com
Another alternative.
How fast is your competitors' website?
Understanding the loading speed of your competitors’ websites is crucial in the digital landscape. How to spy on competitors’s website speed? With tools like PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom. They offer invaluable insights into their site performance.
#16 Website speed checker PageSpeed Insights
For this example, in order to check site speed of okisdigital.com, we used a free tool called PageSpeed Insights.
#17 Website speed checker Pingdom
For instance, suppose you’re in the e-commerce sector, and you’re keen on analyzing the speed of “Competitor X’s” website. With Pingdom, you find that their homepage loads in 3.5 seconds, boasting a 2.5 MB page size and 50 requests. This knowledge not only sheds light on their user experience but also provides a benchmark for your own site’s optimization efforts. In a competitive market, knowing where you stand in terms of loading speed can be the key to gaining an edge in user satisfaction and search engine rankings.
Track your e-commerce competitors' email marketing strategy
Email marketing remains a highly effective channel for e-commerce businesses today. Despite the rise of social media and other digital marketing channels, email continues to deliver strong returns on investment and remains a preferred communication channel for many consumers. Shouldn’t we know what our competitors do then?
#18 Subscribe to your competitors’ newsletters
Subscribing to your competitors’ newsletters offers valuable insights into their email marketing strategies, including:
- What messages do they send?
- Do they offer exclusive promotions?
- Email frequency – How often do they send newsletters?
- Do they launch new products?
By monitoring their approach, you can gain a competitive edge, refine your own tactics, and stay informed about market trends and customer preferences.
#19 Test your competitors for Cart abandonment emails
Additionally, add products to your cart and abandon it to see if your competitors have implemented abandoned cart email campaigns. Understand their follow-up strategy for recovering lost sales. Here’s a great example by Kate Spade:
How to Spy on the Customer Experience your e-Commerce competitors offer
#20 Place on order on your competitors eshops
Ordering from your competitors provides firsthand experience of their customer journey. By immersing yourself in their purchasing process, you can identify strengths and weaknesses in their website navigation, checkout process, and post-purchase support.
Furthermore, understanding your competitors’ user experience allows you to benchmark against industry standards, pinpoint areas for improvement in your customer journey, and ultimately enhance customer satisfaction and retention.
#21 Read your competitors online reviews
Go to Google reviews, facebook page reviews and comments on social media. Read what customers love and hate about their products. Then, go to your website and emphasize the advantages that customers would love based on the reviews you read. By reading our competitors reviews, we came up with this creative for Paid Social ads:
#22 Google Trends
Get ahead of the compeitirion by utilizing Google Trends. Spot emerging trends and assess the popularity of products or services in your niche. One of the best selling products right now in Australia in the sporting industry is… resistance bands. Now, depending on where you competitors are located geographically and can use an in-store pickup option.
Conclusion
Spying on your competitors in e-commerce is not about copying their strategies but about gaining insights to refine your approach. By leveraging free tools and techniques, you can stay informed about your rivals’ activities, make informed decisions, and ultimately, gain a competitive edge in the market.
