Automating Competitor Price Tracking to Protect Margin & Inform Strategy

The Challenge

The company had not conducted a structured pricing review in years. Despite expanding inventory, margins were eroding and many products were priced below cost. Pricing was inconsistent, reactive, and disconnected from market reality.

• Competitor pricing was not tracked in a structured way
• No link existed between OEM data and internal SKUs
• Manual updates led to inconsistency and risk
• Leadership lacked visibility over margin gaps

What I Did

• Built Python Web Scraper: Captured real-time competitor pricing, SKUs, pack sizes, and OEM part numbers from major competitor websites.
• Developed Excel Matching Tool: Used VBA logic to map OEM part numbers to internal SKUs, standardising and structuring incoming competitor data.
• Integrated SQL Reporting: Pushed data into SQL, built scripts to calculate variances, flag margin risks, and summarise pricing trends by brand, category, and threshold.
• Automated Monthly Reports: Scheduled scraper and delivered drill-down Excel reports to executives, summarising risks, wins, and opportunities by range.

The Result

• 📉 Identified hundreds of below-cost SKUs that had gone unnoticed
• 📈 Recovered lost margin through systematic pricing realignment
• 💼 Introduced a repeatable, automated process to monitor pricing monthly
• 🔍 Empowered strategic negotiations and rationalisation across suppliers

Why It Mattered

This system turned pricing from a guessing game into a strategic lever. Leadership no longer relied on gut feel — they had real data, updated monthly, to guide decisions and protect profitability.