Price monitoring software: six competitors, every day

Competitor Intelligence is $299 per location per month, month to month, with no setup fee. That covers six tracked competitors and up to 2,000 matched products, refreshed daily, and an additional competitor set is $9 a month. Esplanda POS is free.

Scope, frequency and whose numbers sit behind it. The free price check compares 5 products with up to five similar stores near you, once, using only published prices and no connection to your register. Competitor Intelligence tracks six competitors across up to 2,000 matched products every day and reads your own cost, margin floor and sell-through, so it can tell you what to change and what each move is worth in dollars.

Six local competitors you choose, across up to 2,000 matched products, refreshed daily, with minimum-pricing rules checked in every state you trade in. Every price carries the source it was read from and the date it was seen, and an uncertain product match is left out and counted for you instead.

Through margin. On a store doing about $1.5M a year, one point of blended margin is roughly $14,900, and $299 a month is $3,588 a year. So the line pays for itself at about a quarter of one margin point, and returns a little over four times its cost if a full point is recovered. That is arithmetic you can run on your own sales before you buy.

No. Your first invoice arrives with the repricing decisions already staged, each with what it is worth and what it risks. You approve or reject each one with a click, and nothing changes a price without your OK.

Never below your own margin floor. Where a competitor prices under your cost, Esplanda puts a number on not matching so you decide with a figure in front of you, and offers alternatives: a comparable item you can be competitive on, a bundle, or holding the loss on one item while protecting the basket around it.

Yes. Observing publicly published prices is ordinary competitive research, and businesses have always done it. Agreeing prices with competitors is unlawful, so Esplanda observes public information and recommends your own independent pricing. It never shares your prices with competitors and never coordinates prices between businesses, including between two Esplanda customers on the same street.

Stores with a deep priced catalog and neighbors who publish prices online: liquor and wine stores, grocery and convenience stores, hardware, parts and general retailers, and restaurants, where the comparison is menu by menu. If your free price check shows a small gap, the free check may be all you need, and we'll say so.