How to Track Competitors' Promotions and Discounts on Marketplaces: 5 Effective Methods

Monitoring competitor promotions is a critically important task for marketplace sellers and online store owners. If you don’t know when a competitor lowers prices or launches a sale, you lose sales and positions in search results. In this article, we will explore five proven methods to automate tracking promotions on Wildberries, Ozon, Yandex.Market, and other platforms — from simple solutions to professional monitoring systems.

Why It’s Important to Track Competitor Promotions

Marketplaces operate on an auction principle: the more attractive your offer in terms of price and conditions, the higher your position in the search results. If a competitor launches a promotion with a 30% discount and you are unaware, your products instantly lose visibility in search. According to statistics, 78% of buyers on Wildberries and Ozon choose products from the first page of search results, where the best offers are displayed.

Regular monitoring of competitor promotions provides several critically important advantages:

• Maintaining Positions in Search Results: You can quickly adjust prices to avoid losing your place in the top of the category.
• Planning Your Own Promotions: Knowing when competitors lower prices allows you to choose the optimal time for your sales.
• Analyzing Pricing Strategies: By tracking discount dynamics, you understand the real margins of competitors and their strategies.
• Protection Against Dumping: If a competitor artificially lowers prices to drive you out, you see it immediately and can take action.
• Optimizing Purchases: Understanding the seasonality of promotions allows you to plan product purchases considering upcoming sales.

A real example: a sports nutrition seller on Wildberries tracked 45 competitors in their niche. When a major player launched a "3 for the price of 2" promotion, the seller saw it within the first hour and quickly launched a similar mechanic. The result — instead of an expected 40% drop in sales, he only lost 12%, and after three days returned to his previous level.

Method 1: Manual Monitoring via Spreadsheets

The simplest way to start tracking competitor promotions is to create a spreadsheet in Google Sheets or Excel and regularly enter data manually. This method is suitable if you have a small niche with 5-10 competitors and are just starting to work on marketplaces.

Step-by-step setup for manual monitoring:

1. Create a spreadsheet with columns: Date, Competitor Product Name, SKU, Regular Price, Discounted Price, Discount Percentage, Promotion Type (promo code/sale/coupon), Promotion Duration, Product Link. Add a "Your Price" column for quick comparison.
2. Compile a list of competitors: Find the top 10 sellers in your category by sales volume. On Wildberries, look at the number of reviews (more than 500 reviews = major player), on Ozon — the seller rating and the number of items in stock.
3. Set a regular check frequency: At least twice a week (Monday and Friday). Ideally — every day at the same time, preferably in the morning before 10:00 AM, when most promotions are launched.
4. Record all changes: Note not only discounts but also the appearance of badges like "Super Price," "Sale," changes in search position, participation in marketplace promotions (e.g., "Black Friday").
5. Analyze patterns: After a month, you will have enough data to see trends: when competitors most often launch promotions, which products participate in sales, what the average discount percentage is in the niche.

Advantages of manual monitoring: free, does not require technical skills, full control over data, can add any additional parameters.

Disadvantages: takes 1-2 hours daily, high risk of missing important changes, cannot track more than 15-20 products, no immediate notifications about new promotions.

Method 2: Browser Extensions for Price Tracking

Browser extensions are an intermediate option between manual monitoring and professional tools. They automatically track prices on the products you add and send notifications about changes. Most extensions work for free for a limited number of products (usually up to 50-100 items).

Popular extensions for price monitoring:

How to set up an extension for monitoring promotions:

1. Install the extension: Download the chosen extension from the Chrome Web Store or your browser's extension store. Register by providing your email for notifications.
2. Add competitor products: Open the competitor's product page on Wildberries or Ozon. Click on the extension icon in your browser and select "Add Product" or "Track Price." The extension will automatically save the current price and SKU.
3. Set notification conditions: Specify what price changes you want to be notified about. It is recommended to set a threshold of 5-10% — this way, you will only receive alerts about significant promotions, not minor price fluctuations.
4. Choose check frequency: Most extensions check prices every 6-24 hours. For active niches with frequent promotions, choose the maximum check frequency (every 6 hours).
5. Organize products by categories: Create folders or tags for different groups of products: "Direct Competitors," "Related Products," "Major Brands." This will simplify data analysis.

Advantages of extensions: easy setup in 15 minutes, automatic notifications, price history graphs, ability to track 50-100 products for free, work in the background without user involvement.

Disadvantages: limited number of products in the free version, no deep analytics, do not show all types of promotions (e.g., promo codes or hidden discounts for new customers), work only on one computer.

Method 3: Ready-made Marketplace Monitoring Services

Specialized monitoring services are professional tools for sellers that track not only prices but also a full range of data: product stock, positions in search results, ratings, reviews, participation in marketplace promotions. These platforms are specifically designed to work with Russian marketplaces and take into account all their features.

Main services for monitoring Wildberries and Ozon:

Step-by-step setup for monitoring in MPSTATS (the most popular service):

1. Registration and tariff selection: Register on the MPSTATS website and choose a tariff. For monitoring promotions, the basic tariff is sufficient. Most services offer a trial period of 3-7 days — use it to test the functionality.
2. Creating a tracking list: In the "Monitoring" section, create a new list and name it, for example, "Competitors - Main." Add the SKUs of competitor products manually or upload a list via CSV file (if you already have a table with SKUs).
3. Setting tracking parameters: Choose which metrics to track: price, discounted price, discount percentage, position in category, number of reviews, rating. To monitor promotions, be sure to include "Discounted Price" and "Participation in WB/Ozon Promotions."
4. Setting notifications: In the notification settings, specify conditions for alerts: "Price drop of more than 10%," "Appearance of Super Price badge," "Change in top-100 position by more than 20 points." Choose the notification channel — email, Telegram bot, or push in the mobile app.
5. Setting up the dashboard: Create a personal dashboard with widgets: graph of competitor price dynamics, table of current promotions, top-10 products with the highest discounts. This will give you a complete picture of the situation in the niche in 30 seconds.
6. Automating reports: Set up weekly reports that will be automatically sent to your email. The report should include: all price changes over the week, new competitor promotions, changes in search positions, average discount levels in the category.

Advantages of professional services: tracking an unlimited number of products, deep analytics and forecasts, automatic reports, mobile applications, integration with your accounting systems, technical support, historical data for several months.

Disadvantages: paid subscription from 500₽ to 5000₽ per month, requires time to learn the interface (1-2 days), excessive functionality for small stores with 5-10 products.

Method 4: Setting Up Your Own Parser with Proxies

If ready-made services do not cover your specific needs or you want complete control over the data collection process, you can set up your own parser. This method requires basic technical skills (or hiring a specialist), but it provides maximum flexibility: you decide what data to collect, how often, and in what format to store it.

Ready-made tools for creating a parser without programming:

• Octoparse: a visual parser builder with a drag-and-drop interface. Supports Wildberries, Ozon, Yandex.Market. Built-in proxy rotation. Cost from $75/month.
• ParseHub: a free tool for parsing up to 200 pages. Works through the cloud, does not load your computer. Requires manual proxy setup.
• WebHarvy: a Windows application for parsing with a simple interface. One-time purchase of $139, no subscription. Supports export to Excel and Google Sheets.
• Scrapy Cloud: a cloud platform for running ready-made parsers. Requires basic knowledge of Python, but there are ready-made templates for marketplaces.

Step-by-step setup of a parser in Octoparse:

1. Installation and registration: Download Octoparse from the official website and install it on your computer. Register and choose a tariff — the free version with a limit of 10,000 records per month is suitable for testing.
2. Creating a parsing task: Click "New Task" and paste the URL of the category page on Wildberries or Ozon where the competitor's products are located. Octoparse will automatically load the page in the built-in browser.
3. Setting data selectors: Click on the product price on the page — Octoparse will highlight this element. Click "Extract Text" and name the field "Price." Repeat for other data: product name, SKU, old price (if there is a discount), rating, number of reviews, product link.
4. Setting pagination: If there are many competitors and they are on different pages of the category, set up page navigation. Click on the "Next Page" button and select "Go through this link until the end." Octoparse will automatically go through all pages.
5. Connecting proxies: In the task settings, open the "IP Addresses and Proxies" section. Select "Use Proxy Server" and enter the details of your residential proxies: IP address, port, username, and password. Enable the "IP Rotation" option to change proxies every 5-10 requests.
6. Setting a schedule: In the "Schedule" section, choose the frequency of the parser's launch. For monitoring promotions, it is recommended to run the parser 2-4 times a day: in the morning (8:00 AM), afternoon (2:00 PM), evening (8:00 PM), and at night (2:00 AM) — this is when prices on marketplaces are often updated.
7. Exporting data: Set up automatic export of results to Google Sheets or Excel. Octoparse can add new data to the end of the table, keeping a history of changes. You can also set up sending data to a database or via webhook to your CRM system.

Why proxies are critically important for parsing:

Wildberries and Ozon actively combat automated data collection. Their security systems track several parameters: the number of requests from one IP, page viewing speed, absence of user actions (scrolling, clicks). If you run a parser without proxies, your IP address will be blocked after 50-100 requests.

Residential proxies solve this problem: they use real IP addresses of home users, which marketplaces cannot distinguish from regular customers. With proper rotation setup (changing IP every 5-10 requests) and delays between requests (2-5 seconds), you can parse tens of thousands of products a day without the risk of being blocked.

Advantages of your own parser: complete control over data, ability to collect any parameters, no limits on the number of products, data is stored with you, can be integrated with any systems, one-time setup costs.

Disadvantages: requires time for setup (1-3 days), needs technical skills or budget for a specialist, proxies need to be purchased, requires support and updates when the structure of marketplace websites changes.

Method 5: Professional API Solutions

API solutions are the most advanced way to monitor promotions for large sellers and agencies managing dozens of stores. Instead of parsing HTML pages, you receive structured data directly through APIs, ensuring stability and high speed of information processing.

Types of APIs for monitoring marketplaces:

• Official marketplace APIs: Wildberries and Ozon provide APIs for sellers, but they only give access to your own products. Competitor data cannot be obtained through official APIs — this is prohibited by the platform rules.
• Third-party analytics service APIs: MPSTATS, Seller.tools, and other platforms provide API access to the data they have collected. You pay for a subscription and receive ready-made data on prices, promotions, and competitor sales.
• Parsing service APIs: ScraperAPI, Bright Data, Oxylabs provide APIs for parsing any websites. You send the product URL, and they return HTML or JSON with the data. Proxies and bypassing protection are included in the cost.

How to work with analytics service APIs (using MPSTATS API as an example):

1. Obtaining an API key: In your MPSTATS personal account, go to the "API" section and generate an access key. API is available on tariffs from "Professional" (from 4990₽/month). Save the key — you will need it for all requests.
2. Studying the documentation: Familiarize yourself with the API documentation on the service's website. Main endpoints for monitoring promotions: getting the current product price, price change history, list of products in promotions, positions in category.
3. Creating a request script: Write a simple script (or hire a developer) that will regularly query the API. The script should: get competitor price data every 4-6 hours, compare it with previous values, save changes to your database, send notifications for significant changes.
4. Automating data processing: Set up automatic processing of the received data: calculating the average price in the category, identifying products with the highest discounts, detecting promotion patterns (e.g., "Competitor A always lowers prices on Fridays").
5. Integrating with your systems: Connect the API to your price management system. For example, if a competitor lowers their price by 15%, your system automatically lowers your price by 10% to maintain competitiveness.

Advantages of API solutions: maximum speed of data retrieval (seconds instead of minutes), structured data without the need for parsing, high stability (not dependent on website design changes), easily scalable to thousands of products, can fully automate responses to competitor promotions.

Disadvantages: high cost (from 5000₽/month), requires programming skills or budget for a developer, excessive for small businesses with 10-20 products, dependence on a third-party service.

How to Set Up Proxies for Safe Parsing

Proper proxy setup is a key factor for successful monitoring of competitor promotions. Even the most sophisticated parser is useless if your IP is blocked by the marketplace. Let’s consider how to choose the type of proxy and configure them for maximum effectiveness and security.

Which type of proxy to choose for monitoring marketplaces:

Recommendation: For monitoring Wildberries and Ozon, use residential proxies. This is the optimal balance of price and reliability. Mobile proxies are only needed if you encounter blocks when using residential ones, which is rare.

Step-by-step setup of proxies for parsing:

1. Choosing a proxy provider: Choose a reliable provider of residential proxies with a pool of IPs in Russia (geolocation is critically important for Russian marketplaces). Pay attention to the size of the IP pool (at least 10,000 addresses), availability of an API for rotation, and technical support in Russian.
2. Purchasing proxies: For monitoring 100-500 products, a tariff with 5-10 GB of traffic per month is sufficient. If you plan to parse thousands of products daily, take from 50 GB. Most providers offer a trial period or money-back guarantee — use this to check quality.
3. Obtaining access data: After payment, you will receive: proxy server address (e.g., proxy.example.com), port (usually 8080 or 9000), username and password for authentication, instructions for setting up IP rotation.
4. Setting up IP rotation: Set up automatic IP address changes. The optimal rotation frequency for marketplaces is every 5-10 requests or every 2-3 minutes. Too frequent changes (every request) look suspicious, while too rare changes (once an hour) increase the risk of blocking.
5. Setting delays between requests: Add random delays between requests to the marketplace: from 2 to 5 seconds. This mimics the behavior of a real user who reads information on the page. A parser without delays makes 10-20 requests per second — this instantly raises suspicion.
6. Setting User-Agent: Use realistic User-Agent headers from popular browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari). Change the User-Agent with each IP rotation — this enhances the simulation of different users. Most parsing tools support automatic User-Agent rotation.
7. Testing the setup: Before launching full parsing, test the settings: run data collection for 10-20 products and check for blocks or CAPTCHAs. Check the parser logs for errors 403 (access denied) or 429 (too many requests).
8. Monitoring traffic consumption: Monitor traffic consumption through your proxy provider's personal account. If traffic runs out faster than expected, the parser may be collecting unnecessary data (e.g., loading images) — optimize the settings.

Common Mistakes in Monitoring Promotions

Even with properly configured tools, many sellers make mistakes that reduce monitoring effectiveness or lead to incorrect conclusions. Let’s look at the most common problems and how to avoid them.

Mistake 1: Monitoring Only Direct Competitors

Many sellers track only products identical to their own. However, buyers often choose between different brands and models in the same price category. If you sell wireless headphones for 3000₽, alternatives for the buyer might include not only other headphones for 3000₽ but also premium wired headphones for 2500₽ or budget TWS for 3500₽.

Solution: Track the entire price category in which you operate. Add products that are 20-30% cheaper and more expensive than yours to your monitoring. Analyze where buyers go when they see promotions in adjacent segments.

Mistake 2: Reacting to Every Price Change

Beginners often panic at any price drop by competitors and start undercutting in response. This leads to price wars where all participants lose margin, and only the marketplace benefits from increased turnover commissions.

Solution: Set response thresholds. For example: a competitor's price drop of 5-10% — just record it in the table, 10-20% — analyze how critical it is for your positions, over 20% — decide whether to adjust your prices. Not all competitor promotions require your reaction.

Mistake 3: Ignoring the Context of Promotions

Numbers in the table do not always reflect the real picture. A competitor might have lowered their price by 30% because they have a defective batch or are running out of stock. Or they are clearing out inventory before closing the store. Blindly copying such promotions can harm your business.

Solution: Analyze the reasons for promotions. Look at competitor customer reviews (there may be complaints about quality), check product stock (if it’s low, it’s liquidation, not strategy), monitor overall store activity (if a competitor lowers prices on all products at once, they may be closing).

Mistake 4: Tracking Only Prices, Ignoring Other Factors

Price is an important but not the only factor in choice. Buyers also look at: seller rating, number and quality of reviews, delivery speed, availability of products in local warehouses, quality of photos and descriptions. A competitor may sell at a higher price but lead in sales due to a high rating.

Solution: Expand monitoring to comprehensive metrics: track changes in competitor ratings, appearance of new reviews, updates to product photos, changes in descriptions. Use professional analytics services that automatically collect this data.

Mistake 5: Lack of Historical Data

Many sellers start monitoring but do not save change history. After a month, they see the current price of a competitor but do not remember how it changed, when there were peaks and troughs. Without historical data, it is impossible to identify seasonal patterns and forecast future promotions.

Solution: Save all data in a database or spreadsheet with the date and time of collection. The minimum period for accumulating data for analysis is 3 months. After a quarter, you will see recurring patterns: for example, competitors often lower prices before holidays or during sales events.

Conclusion: Effective monitoring of competitor promotions is essential for maintaining competitiveness in the marketplace. By using the methods outlined in this article, you can automate your monitoring process, make informed pricing decisions, and ultimately improve your sales performance.