Tired of
lengthy page building?
Try GemPages to create pages faster and smarter with AI-powered feature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Back to Blog List
The Ultimate Guide to Shopify Spy Techniques
Simply put, Shopify spying is where store owners analyze competitors' strategies and tactics.
Creating an online store is almost the same for most owners with the help of Shopify store-building tools like GemPages. Yet some businesses outperform in the market, and the rest want to know why. That’s when the Shopify spy tools step in.
In this article, we will learn more about Shopify spying and the best Shopify spying tools in 2024.
All About Shopify Spy
1. What Is Shopify Spy?
As mentioned, Shopify spying involves analyzing competitors’ market performance, such as business strategies, top products, marketing campaigns, sales tactics, etc. In simple words, competitor's research.
This process helps Shopify owners gain valuable insights into why their competitors are outperforming and improve on what they are behind. To do this, you must use Shopify spy tools.
2. What Makes a Good Shopify Spy Tool?
A good Shopify spy tool should meet these essential criteria:
- Comprehensive Features:
Shopify spy tools analyze specific marketing aspects of your competitors, such as ad campaigns, social media presence, website performance, or SEO efforts.
However, for a tool to be qualified, it must provide a comprehensive picture of the competitors’ performance, including real-time trend tracking and giving data-driven insights, allowing Shopify owners to stay ahead of the curve and capitalize on potential opportunities.
- User-friendly Interface:
A good Shopify store sales spy tool should offer an easy-to-navigate interface for users to quickly access the information they need without requiring much time to get used to. For example, presenting competitor data clearly through charts and graphs, helping users quickly identify patterns, trends, and opportunities without sifting through raw data.
A good Shopify spy tool should showcase its competitor analysis report in a simple, easy-to-read interface. (Source: Mention)
-
Accuracy and Reliability:
It’s pretty evident that the highest value of Shopify tools for spying lies in the accuracy and reliability of the data collected.
The chosen tool must consistently deliver up-to-date and accurate information about competitors' activities, product performance, and market trends. It should use reliable data sources and proceed through advanced algorithms to ensure the accuracy of the information it showcases.
3. How Spy Tools Can Help Shopify Merchants
It is easy to realize how Shopify spy tools support a Shopify store to analyze their competitors’ market performance. However, everything has the ups and downs, and these tools are not exceptional:
|
Pros |
Cons |
|
|
Start selling on Shopify for $1
Start with free trial, then get your first month for $1
Top Shopify Spy Tools in 2024
The 10 tools, including the Shopify spy tool free and paid you should consider in 2024 are:
- Koala Inspector
- AdSpy
- Ahrefs
- SimilarWeb
- SpyFu
- Shopify Spy
- SEMrush
- Shine Commerce Inspector
- PricingBot
- Sell The Trend
- BigSpy
Let's dive deep into each app’s features and pricing.
1. Koala Inspector
Koala Inspector Shopify spy tool. (Source: Koala Inspector)
Koala Inspector is a Shopify spy tool free as a Chrome extension in 2024.
This tool allows users to gather valuable insights about competitor stores or inspirational Shopify sites with a click, including the apps they're using, product and traffic statistics, details about their retail partners, and even information about their advertising campaigns. Once installed, Shopify owners can simply navigate to their or any Shopify store and click the Koala icon in their browser.
Pricing:
- Free plan
- Professional plan: $7.99/month
- Unlimited plan: $19.99/month
2. AdSpy
AdSpy Shopify spy tool. (Source: AdSpy)
AdSpy is a powerful Shopify product spy tool for businesses seeking insights from their competitors' advertising strategies across multiple platforms.
This tool provides comprehensive data on Facebook, Instagram, and Google ads in recent updates. What sets AdSpy apart is its advanced search functionality, allowing users to filter results using over 17 parameters. This feature will enable users to focus specifically on ads from Shopify stores, providing highly relevant insights. Moreover, the tool offers exclusive analysis on how potential your Call to Action elements are, helping Shopify owners optimize their ad copy and improve conversion rates.
Pricing:
- $144/month
3. Ahrefs
Ahrefs Shopify spy tool. (Source: Ahrefs)
Ahrefs is not simply for Shopify spying, yet it is the most multi-function tool on the market.
It is primarily known as an SEO tool with various comprehensive features, such as backlink analysis, top-page information, and the Content Gap, offering Shopify owners data-driven insights to make informed decisions. Ahrefs gives Shopify merchants an overall picture of why and how their competitors might outperform them.
Pricing:
- Lite: $99/month
- Standard: $199/month
- Advanced: $399/month
- Enterprise: $999/month
4. SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb Shopify spy tool. (Source: SimilarWeb)
SimilarWeb is another potential Shopify spy tool for businesses seeking insights on their competitors’ website performance and audience segments.
This tool is particularly effective at analyzing website traffic, audience demographics, and user behavior. Once Shopify owners input a competitor website for analysis, SimilarWeb will provide a detailed traffic overview and break it into smaller, actionable sections, allowing users to see where their competitors drive the most traction.
Pricing:
- Starter (For Individuals & Startups): $125/month
- Professional (For Individuals & Startups): $333/month
- Team (For Businesses & Enterprises): Custom Pricing
- Enterprise (For Businesses & Enterprises): Custom Pricing
5. SpyFu
SpyFu Shopify spy tool. (Source: SpyFu)
If you are looking for Shopify tools for SEO and Google Ads PPC competitor analysis, SpyFu should be the go-to. It is also the Shopify spy tool free, available for all users.
SpyFu's focus on SEO and PPC makes it particularly valuable for Shopify stores investing in comprehensive digital marketing strategies. The game-changer of SpyFu for Shopify owners must be the “Kombat" feature, which enables direct PPC keyword comparison across multiple competitors in one view. In particular, it helps identify keyword opportunities their competitors are targeting quickly but are missing, helping them refine their PPC strategy and potentially capture more market share.
Pricing:
- Free plan available
- Basic: $39/month (or $16/month billed annually)
- Professional: $79/month (or $39/month billed annually)
- Team: $299/month (or $149/month billed annually)
- 30-day money-back guarantee
6. Shopify Spy
Shopify spy tool. (Source: Shopify Spy)
As its name implies, Shopify Spy is the Shopify spy tool free designed particularly for Shopify owners to analyze their competitors.
This versatile tool functions as a scraper and analyzer, allowing Shopify store owners to collect and process data from competing stores quickly. With Shopify Spy, users can rapidly extract thousands of products from competitors' Shopify stores, saving this information in easily accessible CSV files. This feature enables store owners to swiftly analyze competitor product listings, pricing strategies, and other crucial details.
Pricing:
- Free plan: Limited to 100 products per search
- Premium plan: $29/month or $199/year
Start selling on Shopify for $1
Start with free trial, then get your first month for $1
7. SEMrush
SEMrush Shopify spy tool. (Source: SEMrush)
Similar to Ahrefs, SEMrush is a multi-functional competitor research tool that specifically outperforms in SEO and website analysis.
Features like keyword analysis, advertising research, traffic analytics, and backlink auditing enable store owners to gain valuable insights into competitors' strategies. One tip for Shopify owners when using SEMrush is to try the platform’s Organic Search feature, which breaks down all the organic metrics your competitors are outperforming without spending any budget. From that, you can refer to their tactics and implement them effortlessly in your campaign.
Pricing:
- Pro plan: $129.95/month
- Guru: $249.95/month
- Business: $499.95/month
8. Shine Commerce Inspector
Shine Commerce Inspector Shopify spy tool. (Source: Shine Commerce Inspector)
Shine Commerce Inspector is an outstanding Shopify product spy tool that allows users to spot their competitors’ best-selling products, see what apps they are using, and even track where their visitors are coming from, all packed in a free version.
The paid version is even more remarkable. It offers a feature showcasing how much money other shops make and which ads work for them. Unlike other multi-functional tools, Commerce Inspector focused specifically on eCommerce businesses only.
Pricing:
- Starter plan: $99/month
- Growth plan: $199/month
- Pro plan: $499/month
9. PricingBot
PricingBot Shopify spy tool. (Source: PricingBot)
PricingBot acts like a tireless price-watching robot on your team. This clever tool consistently analyzes your competitors' prices 24/7, giving you instant updates with any changes.
With PricingBot, Shopify owners can quickly see how your prices stack up against the competition and make quick changes if needed. It's perfect for dropshippers who want to stay ahead in the pricing game, offering features like real-time tracking, price history analysis, and even automatic price adjustments.
Pricing:
- Basic plan: $26.95/month
- Premium: $67.95/month
- Customize for enterprise
10. Sell The Trend
Sell The Trend Shopify spy tool. (Source: Sell The Trend)
Sell The Trend is an automatic AI tool that simplifies product research and store management, which are typically time-consuming tasks in dropshipping. It’s like eCommerce's ChatGPT!
The tool's innovative technology effortlessly helps users identify trending products while its automated systems streamline store operations. The most stand-out features of Sell The Trend are Product Explorers, The NEXUS, or Store Intelligence for competitors’ product research, and Shops, which allow quick dropshipping of store setups.
Pricing:
- Essential plan: $35.97/month
11. BigSpy
BigSpy Shopify spy tool. (Source: BigSpy)
Think of BigSpy as your super-smart friend who tells you all the cool tricks other stores use to sell stuff.
This tool peeks at ads all over the internet and picks out the ones that are making a splash. With BigSpy, you can:
- See what other shops are doing to get customers to buy.
- Spot the hottest trends before your competitors.
- Find out which products people are most interested in the market.
Moreover, you can use BigSpy to search for ads that are trending on the market. It even shows you which Shopify stores are crushing it and why, all of which can be accessed with a $9/month plan.
Pricing:
- Basic plan: $9/month
- Pro plan: $99/month
- Group plan: $249/month
- VIP Enterprise: $2000/year
Conclusion
Here is the list of 11 powerful Shopify spy tools, from free to paid, accessible to all business sizes and user levels. As a Shopify owner, ‘spying’ on your competitors is necessary to gain valuable insights into improving your eCommerce stores and beating the trends.
When choosing the Shopify tool, ensure that it first qualifies the basic features: in-depth competitor analysis, SEO performance, website presence, ads campaign, PPC, and other metrics tracking, or more. Good luck on your ‘spying’ journey!
Not ready to commit but still want to kick the tires?
No problem! Get started with GemPages' free plan. Explore wonderful features that can do wonders for your store.
