Gathering intelligence about competitors?

[jsinger]

I'm sure we all look at competitive sites. We keep a spreadsheet of common product prices from about 20 competitors. We glance at Alexa from time to time, but it is hopelessly inaccurate for smaller sites. We also have a spreadsheet of Overture's suggested keywords in our field. That can be very useful in finding new hot products.

We try to learn from our suppliers how much business they do with web retailers.

Got any tips? How do you keep tabs on your competitors?

[jmccormac]

Be better than them so that they are forced to keep tabs on you. Don't get too tied up in the whole field of competitive business intelligence as you may spend more time trying to find out what your competition is up to and neglect developing your own business. And if there are any journalists covering your particular market, cultivate them as information sources. You can often get very valuable information for the price of a few pints of beer. :)

Regards...jmcc

[Kevin French]

it's hard to be better than someone if you don't know what they're doing. Competitive intelligence is imperative to success. I understand what you're saying about being better, but intelligence must first be gathered to determine what "better" is, and thus a benchmark is established.

I don't know if this is a topic that we should go into too much detail on, because we may be direct competitors here. :) Last thing I want to do is divulge my espionage tactics to my #1 competitor...lol.

Anyway, one thing that I do keep close tabs on is PPC advertising. Not just what keywords, what ad copy and what placement is being achieved, but I keep tabs on the times of day in which ads don't display. I look for a pattern to see whether or not campaigns have been set to shut off at certain times or if they are being taken off line because budget has been depleted.

Kevin French