Guide · Price intelligence
How to track a competitor’s prices on quick commerce
Matching the same pack across apps, price per 100 g, why a price differs by store on some apps and not on others, and what a change between two reads tells you.
A rival’s price on a quick commerce app is public: any shopper can see it. Tracking it well is harder than it sounds. The same product has a different name and pack description on each app. A price can differ from store to store. And a comparison is fair only when the packs really are the same. This is how to do it without fooling yourself.
1. Match the pack before you compare the price
A 400 g pack on one app and a 450 g pack on another are different products. So are a single and a two-pack. The safest join is a barcode the app publishes for the product. Where there is none, a match has to rest on brand, pack size and name together, and it should be labelled as inferred, not as exact.
Once a pack is matched, compare the price per unit as well: per 100 g, per 100 ml or per piece. It is the only way to compare a rival’s larger pack with your smaller one.
2. Know whether the app prices by store
On some apps a product shows one price in every store. On others the price varies by store. For the second kind, one store’s price is an anecdote. Use the median (the middle price) over the stores, and keep the low and the high beside it. Part of any spread is time as well as place, because stores are read on different days.
3. Keep the MRP and the selling price apart
A page shows two numbers: the printed MRP and the price a shopper pays. The gap between them is the discount shown. A rival that cuts its selling price and a rival whose MRP was revised are doing different things, and they should be counted separately.
4. Compare two reads only where both looked
“The price went down” needs two readings of the same thing. If a store was read last time and not this time, it cannot tell you about a change. Count a price move over the stores read both times, and say how many that was: “cut in 41 of 60 stores read both times” is a fact; “price dropped in Pune” is not.
5. Put the date beside the price
Apps change prices between any two readings. A tracked price is what was seen on a date, and the date belongs beside it every time it is quoted, especially in a deck that will be read a month later.
What the same products look like on two apps
Take the products matched as the same product and pack on two of the apps, and compare the median price on each: 43% were lower on one, 30% were lower on the other, and 27% were level.
That is a count of products, not a saving.
A short checklist
- Same product, same pack, matched on a barcode where one is published.
- Price per unit beside the pack price.
- The median price over the stores read, with the low and the high.
- MRP and selling price kept apart.
- Changes counted over stores read both times.
- The dates of the read on every figure.
To see this done on real packs, the price comparison pages set 80 matched packs side by side on two apps.