Seasonal offer comparison

Why it matters

Seasonal offers are hard to compare because they use different mechanics. A headline discount, a delivery offer and a gift each look strong in isolation. Converting them to what a customer receives on the same typical basket shows which offer gives the customer most, and where yours sits.

The competitor website monitor and competitor ad watch loops are in build and not on sale; when they ship they will capture seasonal banners and ads as they appear. Until then, a structured snapshot at each seasonal moment gives you the comparison.

What you need

• - The seasonal moment you are comparing (for example the November sales peak, Christmas, spring, back to school)
• - One or two typical baskets your customers buy, with the matching products on each rival's site
• - Screenshots of each rival's offer pages, banners and terms
• - Your own planned or current offer, with its terms

Setup

1. Define one or two typical baskets that represent what your customers usually buy.
2. At the seasonal moment, record each rival's offer for that basket: the headline, the mechanic, the conditions and the terms. Add items to the basket to see the true total, without completing a purchase.
3. Check the ad libraries for each rival's seasonal ads, to see which offer they push hardest.
4. Paste your offer and the rivals' into the prompt below.
5. Keep the table with its date; next year it becomes your starting point.

The prompt

Paste this into any capable model, followed by the evidence you gathered in the setup.

You are helping a UK online shop compare seasonal offers across rivals.
Below are: one or two typical baskets (products and quantities), and for each rival and for us: the offer headline, the mechanic, the conditions, the terms, and the basket total and delivery charge seen on the site, with the date.
Do this:
1. Build a side-by-side table showing, for each basket, what a customer pays and receives from each business, using only the figures given. Show your working.
2. Rank the offers by value to the customer for each basket, and say where our offer sits.
3. Quote any condition or term that weakens an offer (minimum spend, exclusions, end dates, fees added late).
4. Note which offer each rival promotes most in its ads, if the evidence shows it.
5. Suggest up to four ways to sharpen our offer, each rated for effort (low/medium/high) and likely impact (low/medium/high), with a reason and its cost in the figures given.
Rules:
- Quote the evidence for every point, word for word, and say where it came from (which rival, which page or ad, which date I captured it).
- Label each point OBSERVATION (you can see it in the evidence) or HYPOTHESIS (your reading of why). Never present a hypothesis as a proven cause.
- Never invent a figure, a date, a price or a result. If the evidence does not show it, write "not in the evidence".
- Use British English and plain words.

Baskets and offers:
[paste here]

Doing it by hand today

Run the snapshot at the start of each seasonal moment and once more near its end, since offers often deepen as the deadline approaches.

If you later advertise that your offer beats a named rival's, the CAP Code requires the comparison to be like for like, objective and verifiable. This table, dated and backed by screenshots, is that evidence.

Pair this with the promotions calendar so you know which moments each rival always uses, and test your margin with the discount designer.