"We are in a price-sensitive market, and my competition keeps beating me. They claim the best prices in the market. We lower prices, they add a free shipping promotion. Then we find out they aren’t carrying inventory at the special price they’re advertising. Sometimes it feels that my whole product line is made up of loss leaders. Traditional market research is just too slow. Scanner data, shelf space analysis, pricing reports — this gets to me too late to make revenue-impacting decisions.

I want to know how my prices compare to the competition on a daily basis. What is the overall price-band picture. On how many products are we over or under 10% higher or lower? How often do our competitors change prices, and how do they do it? Item by item? When they refresh their catalog? When the manufacturers increase prices to the channel? Some other way? What is their “click-to-see price” price, and what is the shipping cost?  What patterns do we see over time?"