Competitor watch sheet: track 3–5 competitors once a week
Four sheets: who your competitors are, how you compare on seven criteria, and a log of what they change each week.
This spreadsheet is for an owner or a freelancer who wants to know what the nearest competitors are doing without turning it into a research project. You list three to five competitors, score yourself against three of them on seven criteria a customer can see, and then use one short fixed slot each week to write down what changed: a price, a new page, a new ad. Use it when you are setting prices, rewriting your site, or tired of hearing about competitors' moves from your own customers.
What is inside
- How to use: seven steps and three rules on one sheet, including how to decide who counts as a competitor
- Competitors: one row per competitor and ten columns, from what they sell to the link to their price page
- Comparison: seven criteria scored 1–5 for you and three competitors, with a column for what you actually saw
- Formulas for the average score, your gap to the best competitor and the number of criteria where you are behind
- Change log: date, competitor, what changed, source link, what it means for you, action, owner and a status dropdown
- Five sample competitors and seven sample log entries, all marked Example and meant to be deleted
How to use it
- Pick three to five competitors: the ones a customer really compares you with. Ask recent customers who else they considered and look at who appears beside you in search and on marketplaces.
- Fill in the Competitors sheet from each competitor's own site and public profiles. Write prices and terms as published, with the link, not from memory.
- On the Comparison sheet, score yourself and three competitors from 1 to 5 and write what you saw next to every score. Be as strict with yourself as with them.
- Read the three formula rows at the bottom: the averages, your gap to the best competitor and the count of criteria where someone is ahead of you.
- Book one fixed slot a week. Open each competitor's home page, price page and main channel, and add a row to the Change log for anything that is different.
- Give every log row a meaning and an action, or mark it Ignored. Score the comparison again once a month.
The weekly routine in plain steps
The sheet is only useful if the check is short and falls on the same day each week. Half an hour for five competitors is a reasonable limit: look at the same places every time and stop when the time is up.
A week with no changes is a normal result. Do not invent a row to fill the log: a quiet week tells you something too.
- Open each competitor's home page and compare the main promise with what you wrote in the Competitors sheet.
- Open the price page or listing and compare the published numbers and terms with last week's.
- Look at one channel where they get attention: their latest posts, their ads or their marketplace listing.
- Write one Change log row per change, with the date and the link where anyone can see it.
- Finish with a decision for each new row: an action with an owner, or the status Ignored.
What to look at: only what is published openly
Everything in the sheet should be something any customer could see without logging in, asking a favour or pretending to be someone else. That keeps the work clean and also checkable: every line has a link.
Write prices, delivery times and refund and return terms as published, in the competitor's own wording, with the date. What a competitor really charges or delivers may differ from the page, and the sheet does not claim to know that.
| Where to look | What to write down |
|---|---|
| Home page | The main promise, who it speaks to, the first call to action |
| Price page or listing | Published price for one typical order, minimum order, what is included |
| Delivery and terms pages | Stated turnaround, delivery cost, refund and return terms |
| Cases and reviews | What proof is shown and where it comes from |
| Ads and public posts | The offer they repeat, new products, seasonal campaigns |
| Public vacancies | Which roles they are hiring for. It is one weak sign of direction, nothing more |
What not to do
A watch sheet is for understanding your own position, not for becoming a copy of someone else. These habits spoil it quickly.
If a competitor's move worries you, write what it means for your customers first and the action second. Often the right answer is to make your own offer clearer, not to match theirs.
- Do not copy texts, photos, designs or price tables. Note the idea and answer it in your own way and your own words.
- Do not collect personal data: no names of their customers, no private profiles of their employees, no contact lists.
- Do not treat a single change as a trend. Log it, and act when you see the same direction two or three times.
- Do not go behind a login, use someone else's account or pose as a buyer to get information that is not public.
Questions
How do I decide who counts as a competitor?
Start from the customer, not from the industry. A competitor is whoever a customer actually compares you with before buying. Ask your last few customers who else they looked at, and check who shows up next to you in search, in ads and on marketplaces for your main product or service. A large brand that your customers never consider does not belong in the sheet.
Why only three to five competitors?
Because the weekly check has to stay short enough that you keep doing it. With more than five rows the routine grows, the log fills with noise and the comparison no longer fits on one screen. If a new competitor appears, replace the least relevant one.
Are the 1–5 scores objective?
No. They are your judgement, written down so that you can look at it and argue with it. That is why every score has a column for what you saw. Ask a colleague or a customer to score the same criteria and compare: the differences are often the most interesting part.
Does it work in Google Sheets and Numbers?
The formulas use only basic functions: average, maximum, rounding, a condition and counting, which Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc and Numbers all have. If the status dropdown does not appear in your app, type the status by hand: New, Decided, Done or Ignored.