Choosing which rivals to compare

Pick the rivals your customers weigh you against

Compare yourself with a household-name retailer and every finding will be “they have more of everything”, which is true and not actionable. Compare yourself with businesses that are not in your market and the findings will point you the wrong way.

Compare against the businesses your customers weigh you against, so every gap you find is one that could cost you a sale.

Three kinds of rival

The rivals you lose sales to. Similar products or services, similar price range, similar customers. When someone does not buy from you, this is where they go. These should make up most of your comparison.

The aspirational leader. The brand or firm everyone in your category looks up to. Useful as a benchmark for what good looks like, as long as you remember they may have resources you do not. Include at most one.

Search rivals. Businesses that rank or advertise for the same searches as you, even if they are not quite the same offer: a marketplace listing, a comparison site, a large generalist retailer, or a national firm competing with a local one. They compete for the click, and they shape what searchers expect.

A good set of three is usually two sales rivals plus either the aspirational leader or your toughest search rival.

A worked example: an independent cycling accessories shop lists the national chain everyone knows, two similar independents it often sees in Shopping ads, and a marketplace seller that undercuts it on popular lines. Its customers mention the two independents most often, so those two go in, plus the chain as the aspirational benchmark. The marketplace seller goes on a watch list rather than into the comparison.

A solicitors' firm doing the same exercise might find that clients compare it with two other local firms and a national online conveyancing service. If the online service is where it loses conveyancing work, that service belongs in the set, even though it is not a traditional firm.

Where to find them

Your money searches

Write down the handful of searches that bring you paying customers: product types, problems, and for service firms, service plus town. Search each one in a private browser window and note who appears in the ads, the organic results and, for local services, the map results. Do not click the ads; note the advertiser and move on. Names that come up across several money searches are strong candidates.

What your customers say

Ask your team who customers mention. Sales calls, live chat, quote follow-ups and returns reasons are full of “we also looked at…” and “the other place quoted…”. If you run a post-purchase or post-enquiry survey, add a question asking who else they considered. Customer-named rivals are the most reliable signal you have.

Marketplaces and comparison sites

If you sell on marketplaces, look at who sits next to you on the same listings and who wins the buy box for products like yours. For service firms, look at directories and review sites in your area and note who has the strongest profile. Our competitors tool can help you put a first list together.

Online shops and service firms are different

Online shops usually compete nationally, so the rival set is driven by product and price. Two shops selling similar products at similar prices to similar customers are rivals, wherever they are based. Watch for marketplace sellers and large generalists in search results, and decide deliberately whether to include one.

Service firms (solicitors, accountants, landscapers, trades, clinics, estate agents) usually compete locally or within a specialism. The right rivals are the firms that appear for your service in your area and the ones your clients mention when they say they got another quote. A national brand may appear in search but rarely be the one you lose to. See our audits for solicitors and accountants for more on how those markets look.

Why exactly three

One rival is an anecdote: you cannot tell whether a difference is a trend or a quirk. Five or more and the comparison becomes a spreadsheet nobody reads, and the effort of keeping it current grows with every name. Three is enough to see when you are the odd one out (all three rivals show delivery costs on product pages and you do not) and few enough to keep the work focused.

An Intel loop compares your store with up to three rivals you choose. You pick them: you know who you lose to.

When to swap one out

Your rival set is not permanent. Revisit it when:

• A new name keeps coming up in customer conversations or your money searches
• One of your three has moved upmarket, downmarket or out of your category
• You are launching into a new product line, service or area
• A comparison keeps showing one rival is so far ahead or behind that it teaches you nothing

Swap one at a time, so you can still compare most of the new findings with the old ones. Note the date and reason for the change. Our loop recipes include one for spotting new competitors, and the competitor website monitor, which is in build, is aimed at the same job.