How Do I Compare Prices When Competitors Don't Sell My Exact Product?
Compare against the closest comparable product, label it as comparable, and compare the price per item. A practical method for specialist shops whose competitors sell other makers' versions.
Compare your product with the closest comparable one: the same type of product, in the same size or capacity and the same quality tier, from another maker, and label it clearly as comparable rather than the same. Then compare the price per item (or per kilogram or litre for goods sold by weight or volume), so a pack of 12 is never judged against a case of 50 on the sticker price.
That is the whole method. The rest of this post is about doing each step well, because most of the mistakes in competitor price tracking happen when a comparable product is treated as if it were the same one.
Why This Is the Normal Case for Specialist Shops
Price tracking tools were built for shops that sell the same branded products as everyone else. Search a barcode or a model number, find the same item at five retailers, compare. That works for electronics and big consumer brands.
Specialist shops are different. A catering equipment dealer, a tile shop, a building supplier, a packaging wholesaler or a shop with its own label often has competitors who sell the same kind of product from a different maker. Your 60 x 60 cm porcelain tile has no twin at the shop down the road, but it has three tiles of the same size, finish and grade. Your two-tray convection oven is not in their catalogue, but another maker's two-tray oven is.
If you only compare identical products, you compare almost nothing. If you compare everything that looks similar, you compare the wrong things. The answer is in between, and it has rules.
What Makes a Product Comparable
A comparable product is one your customer could buy instead of yours for the same job. In practice that means it matches on the things that decide the price, and differs only on the maker and the details that don't:
- The same type. A fridge is not a freezer, even when the cabinets look alike: if the temperature ranges they keep don't overlap, they do different jobs. A floor tile is not a wall tile. A stand-up pouch is not a flat pouch.
- The same key size. The size that decides what the product fits or holds: GN 1/1 against GN 1/1, not GN 1/2; 60 x 60 cm against 60 x 60 cm, not 30 x 60; 500 ml against 500 ml.
- The same capacity or count. Two trays against two trays, a 10-litre fryer against a 10-litre fryer, 100 bags against 100 bags (or, if the counts differ, compare per item, below).
- The same tier. A light-duty product and a heavy-duty one in the same size are not comparable. Neither are a budget line and a premium one.
What may differ: the maker, the model name, the colour where colour doesn't change the price, and small details a buyer would not pay for.
When you can't confirm the key size or type from the product name, look at the competitor's product page. The specification table there often settles it: a capacity, a temperature range, a tray count.
Compare the Price per Item, Not the Sticker Price
Pack sizes rarely line up between shops. One sells a pack of 12, another a case of 50, and the sticker prices tell you nothing on their own.
Divide each price by the number of items in the pack:
- Your listing: a pack of 12 for €18.00, so €1.50 per item.
- Competitor's listing: a case of 50 for €60.00, so €1.20 per item.
On the sticker, the competitor looks more than three times as expensive. Per item, they are 20% cheaper. That is the number that matters to a buyer who orders by the case.
For goods sold by weight or volume, the same logic uses a price per kilogram or per litre: a 750 g bag against a 1 kg bag only compares once both are turned into a price per kilogram. For a fuller walk-through with examples, see price per unit comparison.
Keep "Same" and "Comparable" Apart
The most useful habit is also the simplest: never mix the two in one figure.
A competitor selling the same product cheaper is a direct price question: the customer can buy your exact item elsewhere for less. A competitor selling a comparable product cheaper is a positioning question: the customer is choosing between two makers, and quality, brand, service and delivery all play a part.
If you average the two together, a cheaper comparable product makes you look overpriced on an item nobody else sells. Keep a label on every comparison, decide on comparable products with your judgement, and let only the comparisons you have checked count in any summary.
When Nothing Is Comparable
Sometimes a competitor has nothing that matches on type, size and tier. Say so and leave it out. Taking the least bad candidate (a smaller size, a different tier, the only product in the same category) produces a comparison that looks precise and is wrong. A product with no comparable at a competitor is useful information too: on that item, that competitor is not your competition.
Doing It by Hand
For a handful of products, a spreadsheet works:
Past about twenty products and three competitors, the rechecking becomes the job.
Where VantageDash Fits
VantageDash does these steps for you. Add a competitor's store and it finds the same product where they sell it and the closest comparable one where they don't, and labels every match as one or the other. A comparable product waits for you to approve it, and your figures count approved matches only. Where the pack sizes differ, it reads them from both listings and compares the price per item. It sends an alert when a competitor changes a price you track, and it never changes your prices. It is free for 3 competitors and 50 products, and AI matching starts on the $19 plan. See the plans.