Store Competitor Analysis: From Comparing Offers to Testing Your Own Decisions

Competitor analysis helps a store owner choose a specific change: add a product customers need, reduce order waiting time, improve consultations, or test a new price. Start with the decision you need to make, identify the real alternatives available to the customer, and compare the full cost of the same purchase. Then test one change in your store and assess sales alongside costs.

For your first study, we recommend choosing one product category, a few important items, and a short list of competitors. Keep links and observation dates, and separate confirmed facts from customer comments and your own assumptions. This will help you explain why you decided to change your offer, how much you are willing to spend on testing it, and what results would lead you to continue.

Define the decision before collecting data

Write down one question the analysis should answer. For example: “Should we add inexpensive children’s raincoats?”, “Do customers need to reserve a size until the evening?” or “Could clearer delivery information reduce the number of uncompleted orders?” The question will determine which products, competitors, and terms you compare.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) methodology combines research into demand, where customers are located, what alternatives are available to them, and prices. It recommends identifying competitors by product lines and customer segments, while also considering indirect competitors. For a Ukrainian store, these questions can serve as the basis for your own working spreadsheet.

The workflow below is a practical recommendation for retail businesses in Ukraine. The U.S. methodology serves here as a source for the research approach. The applicable Ukrainian legislation determines the trading terms and customer rights in your store; a competitor’s published rules do not, by themselves, establish that those rules are lawful.

Before you begin, fill in a short brief for yourself or an employee:

• Decision: what change you are considering and which customer problem it should solve.
• Scope: a specific category, customer type, area, or delivery route.
• Evidence needed: which prices, terms, and customer responses will help you make the decision.
• Resources: who will collect the information, how much time they can spend, and when they will report back to the owner.

Find alternatives the customer can actually use

Make a list based on a specific need. If someone is looking for children’s rubber boots for tomorrow, the right size, the chance to try them on, and when the customer can receive them all matter. A store with a large range that delivers later may not meet that need.

• Direct competitors sell comparable products to the same type of customer. For a children’s shoe store, these might include a nearby shop, a specialist online store, and a seller on a marketplace.
• Indirect competitors meet the same need with a different product or approach. For example, a customer might choose another type of waterproof footwear if it suits the intended use.
• Other customer choices are worth recording too: postpone the purchase, use an item they already own, or repair it. This can help explain why some enquiries do not result in a purchase at all.

For a physical store, define the area a customer is willing to travel to for this purchase. Consider the route, entrance access, opening hours, and whether the customer can pick up the item on the way somewhere else. For an online offer, specify the town or city and the fulfilment method: delivery price and time can change the choice.

We recommend starting with three to five relevant alternatives. Ask a few of your customers where else they looked for the product, then add options that come up repeatedly. If a seller does not carry the category or cannot deliver within the required time, note why that offer is not relevant to this comparison.

Compare the same product and the full purchase cost

First define what makes products comparable: manufacturer and model, material, size, volume, included items, or other features that matter in use. If the exact same model is unavailable, create a separate group of similar products and record their differences. This helps show whether a price difference is explained by other product features.

Check whether the required option is in stock. The price of a model with only one size left, when that size is not useful to the customer, does not describe a purchase available to them. “Listed on the site,” “the page shows it in stock,” and “the seller confirmed the customer can receive it” have different levels of certainty, so record exactly what you observed.

Calculate the full monetary cost for one scenario: the product price after any discount available to this customer, plus mandatory extra charges, delivery, and payment fees the customer pays. If a discount depends on a card, first order, or minimum basket value, record the condition. Describe travel time, waiting, and the need for an extra visit alongside the monetary cost; do not assign them an arbitrary cash value.

Illustrative example. At one store, the product costs UAH 800 and delivery costs UAH 80, with no other charges in the chosen scenario. The customer will spend UAH 880 in total. At another store, the price is UAH 850 and in-store pickup is available at no extra charge. If both options are equally convenient for the customer and the product is in stock, pickup costs UAH 30 less. For a customer who cannot travel to the store, compare the delivery terms of both sellers.

Fill in an observation table with sources

Create a separate entry for each product, seller, and fulfilment scenario. You can copy the template below into a spreadsheet. Include the date checked and a direct link to the page in every entry so another employee can reproduce the comparison.

A confirmed fact might be that a particular price or term is published on a page. Publication alone does not confirm that the seller will honour it in every situation. Likewise, contact details and reviews help assess how complete the information is, but do not justify guaranteeing that a seller is reliable.

Use three clear labels:

• Confirmed fact: “The product page shows in-store pickup at no extra charge.” Add the link and date.
• Customer comment: “The customer said they chose another store because they could get the item sooner.” This describes their experience and should not be generalized to all customers.
• Hypothesis: “Reserving an item until the evening may increase purchases after a consultation.” Record the in-store test you will use to check it.

If delivery is listed only as “at the carrier’s rates” and no amount is available, do not enter a made-up figure. Mark the full cost as undetermined. Before deciding to change your own price, recheck the offers behind your comparison: availability, a promotion, or the fulfilment method may have changed.

Find out why customers choose or switch stores

Among its direct research methods, the SBA lists customer surveys, questionnaires, and interviews. For a small shop, we recommend a short, voluntary conversation after a purchase or consultation. Explain that you want to improve your own offer, and let the customer decline to answer.

Ask about a specific recent experience to learn why they chose what they did:

1. What were you looking for this product for, and when did you need it?
2. What other ways of buying it did you consider, and what did you compare?
3. What had the biggest influence on your final choice?
4. What was missing from our offer, or what made the purchase more difficult?
5. If you switched from your usual store, what exactly prompted the change?

Do not suggest an answer by asking, “Did you leave because the price was too high?” The customer may not have found their size, may have been unable to arrive before closing, or may not have understood the delivery time. First record their explanation, then group it by topic: product range, price, availability, consultation, fulfilment, or another reason.

Keep aggregated notes without names, phone numbers, or other private details that are unnecessary for this decision. Do not pretend to be someone else, a supplier representative, or a competitor’s employee. Use public pages, terms available to visitors, and honest enquiries; do not ask another seller’s staff to disclose internal figures.

Summarize responses alongside the number of conversations. “Four of the twelve people we interviewed mentioned that their size was unavailable” describes your notes. It does not mean the same share of all customers has this problem. Include people who made an enquiry but did not buy, if they voluntarily agreed to explain why.

Use public reviews to find topics that need checking. Record the substance of the complaint, date, product, and the seller’s response, if any. Do not use a single negative experience to draw a general conclusion about a competitor. In your research summary, describe the customer’s need and a possible action of your own, so that a list of other sellers’ strengths helps you make your decision.

Do not infer competitors’ sales from public activity

Follower, view, or website visitor counts are not enough to calculate a competitor’s sales. To calculate its conversion rate—the share of visits that resulted in a purchase—you need comparable data on visits and actual purchases for the same period. If you do not have that data, leave the figure unknown.

Likewise, do not calculate market share from the number of stores on a list or the visibility of advertising. That requires consistent market boundaries and relevant data on the market’s total size and the participant’s sales. For a decision about reserving stock or changing your product range, it is usually more useful to check specific offers available to customers.

Do not try to explain every competitor discount. Without internal data, you do not know their purchase costs, expenses, or the purpose of the promotion. Record the observable terms and assess whether you can offer the value customers need within your own business economics.

Calculate an acceptable price before testing

Before offering a discount, determine how much of each sale remains after the costs incurred with that sale. For a practical calculation, include the product’s purchase cost, packaging, payment fees, delivery paid by the store, and other variable costs for your scenario. If any costs depend on the price, recalculate them for each option.

Illustrative calculation. A store sells a product for UAH 1,000. The purchase cost per unit is UAH 700, and the additional variable costs for the sale are UAH 100. In this example, that consists of UAH 40 for packaging, UAH 30 in payment costs, and UAH 30 for delivery paid by the store. All amounts are illustrative; the additional costs are assumed to remain the same at the prices being compared.

• Gross profit before additional variable costs: 1,000 − 700 = UAH 300.
• Gross margin: 300 ÷ 1,000 × 100% = 30%. The basis is the selling price.
• Markup on purchase cost: 300 ÷ 700 × 100% ≈ 42.86%. The basis is the purchase cost.
• Sales contribution toward fixed costs and profit: 1,000 − 700 − 100 = UAH 200, or 20% of the price.

Suppose the owner sets a minimum acceptable contribution of UAH 100 per unit. Under the example’s assumptions, the lowest test price is 700 + 100 + 100 = UAH 900. At a price of UAH 800, the contribution would be zero, leaving nothing toward fixed costs. The UAH 900 threshold applies only to the assumed costs and the owner’s requirement; it does not establish the profitability of the store as a whole.

Also check the volume required. At the original price, 20 sales yield 20 × 200 = UAH 4,000 in contribution. At the reduced price of UAH 900, 30 sales yield 30 × 100 = UAH 3,000. You would need 40 sales to reach the same UAH 4,000, assuming unit costs remain the same and the promotion creates no extra costs.

In your own calculation, include payments applicable to your business, returns, and test costs, without counting any amount twice. Then decide what to test: price, a different product, a bundle, or service. Seeing a competitor’s lower-priced offer is not, by itself, a reason to lower your price.

Turn observations into a limited test

For each important conclusion, specify one action, an owner, a time frame, and a spending limit. Where possible, change one significant element at a time so the result is easier to explain. The options below are illustrative planning examples.

Illustrative test plan: From November 4 to 17, the administrator offers to reserve shoes until closing time on the next business day. The owner caps spending on messages and materials at UAH 500. Employees record reservations, purchases, and no-shows. Before launch, the owner sets an acceptable result and conditions for ending the test early, including if reservations regularly prevent other customers from buying available stock.

Compare the result with a previous period of the same length and with comparable working days. Record changes in advertising, stock availability, opening hours, and any other circumstances that may have affected purchases. If the store was closed for part of the period or the required product was unavailable, the totals need further explanation.

Use revenue, units sold, contribution after variable costs, separate test expenses, returns, and stock remaining to assess the result. Choose metrics that match the decision: for reservations, purchases and no-shows matter; for a new batch, sales and unsold stock matter. An increase during a short test does not prove that your change alone caused it.

How to assess category sales in Torgsoft

In Torgsoft, the “Comparative analysis of revenue by product type” mode shows the number of sales and revenue for two selected periods, lets you choose an accounting center, and displays product subtypes. To assess your own test, select the relevant category and comparable periods. The official help documentation separately highlights the need for periods of equal length and for accounting for days when the store was closed.

The Torgsoft analytics menu also lists modes for cost analysis, profitability of sales over a period, and the effect of selling price on profit. Use your own accounting data as inputs for assessing the test, checking that cost of goods, discounts, and returns are complete. Account separately for delivery, messaging, or other test costs that are not included in the selected calculation. A calculated forecast in comparative analysis depends on historical data and does not guarantee future sales.

Before using these modes, check that they are available in your configuration. The official description of Torgsoft licenses distinguishes basic accounting in “Start,” full accounting functionality in “Ultra,” and work by remote locations with a shared server database in the terminal version. Comparing your own categories uses your store’s data; it does not reveal competitors’ internal sales, conversion, or profit.

Record the decision and the next check

At the end of the test, the owner should decide whether to continue the change, adjust it, stop it, or collect more data. Record the result beside the original hypothesis, the actual costs, and the reason for the decision. If there were too few observations or the conditions varied significantly, identify exactly what data is missing for the next check.

Assign someone responsible and a date to update only the information that affects the next action: availability of a key product, full price, fulfilment time, or a recurring reason customers decide not to buy. This process lets you return to a specific decision with verified records and assess it based on your own store’s results.