What you can track
- Product prices, including sale prices and the crossed-out “compare at” price
- New products added to a collection page
- Products that sell out or come back into stock
- Free shipping thresholds and banner offers
- Bundle and subscription prices shown on the product page
Why Shopify stores are easy to watch
Shopify product pages are public and follow a similar layout from store to store, so prices and stock messages are usually clear to find. You don't need access to the competitor's store or any app on your own; ChangeGist simply visits the page like a shopper would.
Alerts that say what moved
Instead of a screenshot with a box drawn on it, you get a line like “Price went down from £34 to £29 (−15%)”. If a whole collection changes, you get a short list of what was added, removed or repriced, so you can decide quickly whether to react.
Watch a collection, not just one product
Adding a competitor's “Sale” or “New arrivals” collection page is a quick way to see what they're discounting or launching. Pair that with the product pages for your closest rivals to each of your best sellers.
How often to check
Every 6 hours on Starter is enough for most shops, since prices rarely change more than once a day. During big sale weekends, Pro checks every 15 minutes and Business every 5, so you can see discounts as they go live.
Ignore the noise
Shopify themes often show rotating reviews, “12 people are looking at this” counters and countdown timers. ChangeGist ignores that kind of churn, and you can watch only the price section if you want even quieter alerts.
Getting started
- List your five closest competitors and their two or three most important products.
- Add each product page and name it clearly, for example “Rival A, 1kg coffee beans”.
- Add each competitor's sale collection page too.
- After a week, look at what changed and decide which pages are worth keeping.
Good to know
We only watch public pages. Prices that appear only for logged-in wholesale customers can't be tracked, and we check politely so we don't put load on anyone's store. Prices can differ by country or currency, so ChangeGist sees what a visitor from our servers would see.