Automated competitor price monitoring

Purpose

1.1. Monitor competitor Alfa Romeo dealers’ vehicle prices across online channels, aggregating data for timely analytics.
1.2. Track price fluctuations daily for specific SKUs, models, and regional offers.
1.3. Generate alerts and reports on competitor undercutting, promotions, and stock changes.
1.4. Enable prompt pricing decisions, inventory strategy, and improved margin management using real-time data.
1.5. Consolidate data from websites, classifieds, APIs, and scraped data sources for comprehensive market visibility.

Trigger Conditions

2.1. Scheduled fetch (e.g., every 4 hours, daily at 7am).
2.2. Detection of new pricing or listing on competitor sites.
2.3. Significant price change threshold (e.g., >2% drop).
2.4. Stock level updates at major dealerships or platforms.
2.5. Addition of new Alfa Romeo models on competitor platforms.

Platform Variants

3.1. Google Sheets
• Google Sheets API: Auto-log new price data entries; setup: `spreadsheets.values.append`.
3.2. Microsoft Excel/Power Automate
• Excel Online (Business) Connector: Insert price data row; setup: "Add a Row into a Table".
3.3. Salesforce
• Salesforce REST API: Store competitor price records; endpoint: `/services/data/vXX.0/sobjects/CustomObject__c/`.
3.4. HubSpot
• CRM API: Update custom object with competitor pricing; endpoint: `/crm/v3/objects/{objectType}`.
3.5. Airtable
• Airtable API: Add data, configure base; endpoint: `POST /v0/{baseId}/{tableName}`.
3.6. Slack
• Incoming Webhooks: Send alert to channel; setup: `/services/{WEBHOOK_ID}`.
3.7. Telegram
• Bot API: Push price alerts; endpoint: `sendMessage`.
3.8. Discord
• Webhook Integration: Notify channel; configure webhook URL, post message object.
3.9. Twilio
• Programmable SMS API: Send SMS alert; endpoint: `/2010-04-01/Accounts/{AccountSid}/Messages.json`.
3.10. SendGrid
• Mail Send API: Dispatch email alert; endpoint: `v3/mail/send`.
3.11. Mailgun
• Messages API: Send competitor price update email; endpoint: `/v3/{domain}/messages`.
3.12. Google Data Studio
• Community Connector: Feed price data for visualization.
3.13. Tableau
• Web Data Connector: Pull/send structured data for BI dashboards.
3.14. Power BI
• API/Dataflow: Import monitored results into analytics reports.
3.15. Webhooks (Generic)
• HTTP Request: Push or pull price data between services; endpoint method: POST.
3.16. AWS Lambda
• Scheduled event: Run scraper script for target sites, output JSON data.
3.17. Azure Logic Apps
• Recurring trigger: Fetch competitor data with "HTTP" and "Parse JSON" actions.
3.18. Zapier
• "Webhooks by Zapier": Automate end-to-end trigger and actions for ingestion and alerting.
3.19. SerpApi
• Google Search API: Scrape results for Alfa Romeo dealer prices; parameter: `q=alfa romeo dealer near me`.
3.20. Scrapy Cloud (Zyte)
• Crawler: Extract structured vehicle prices; set up spider and export feed.

Benefits

4.1. Real-time intelligence on local competitor pricing strategies.
4.2. Rapid operational response to market changes for pricing and stock adjustment.
4.3. Precise, low-labor data aggregation with scheduled and event-based automation.
4.4. Integrated reporting, notifications, and visualization for management teams.
4.5. Enhanced margin retention and competitive positioning through agile, data-driven decisions.