10+ Shopify Spy Tools To Get Ahead Of Your Competitors

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In this post, I’ll show you an arsenal of Shopify spy tools that will help you keep track of your Shopify competitors. Each tool will have different users to gain information on other stores’ themes, ranks, advertisements, pricing, and more. 

Best Shopify Spys - Key Takeaways

• Inspecting the Big Picture: When it comes to gaining an edge over your eCommerce competitors, utilizing Shopify spy tools is indispensable. These tools offer you a bird's-eye view of your competition, allowing you to understand their overall online presence and strategies.
• Detailed Reports: Shopify spy tools go beyond the surface. They provide detailed insights into your competitors' operations, such as their product listings, pricing strategies, and marketing efforts. This wealth of information empowers you to make informed decisions and fine-tune your own strategies.
• Optimization is Key: The data collected from these tools is not meant for mere observation. To succeed in the competitive eCommerce landscape, it's crucial to translate these insights into actionable steps. Use the information gained to optimize your Shopify store, refine your marketing strategies, and ultimately, outperform your competitors.

Step 1: Use Shopify spy tools to inspect the big picture of your eCommerce competitors

Shopify spy tools provide invaluable insights into your competition's online presence and can be a game-changer for your business. Here are three powerful tools to get you started:

01. Koala Inspector

Koala Inspector Pricing

• Free Plan: Yes, it's completely free to get started.
• Professional Plan: For those seeking more advanced features, the Professional Plan is available at $7.99 per month.
• Ultimate Plan: For power users, the Ultimate Plan offers the most comprehensive insights at $19.99 per month.

Koala Key features

Koala Inspector, a Google Chrome add-on, is a must-have tool for eCommerce entrepreneurs looking to gain a competitive advantage. It's not just an ordinary extension; it's a game-changer that sets new standards for what Google Chrome should be capable of. 

Here's what you need to know about Koala Inspector:

• Easy Installation: Adding Koala Inspector to your browser is a breeze, and it's absolutely free. Once installed, it becomes your silent ally in the world of eCommerce espionage.
• Comprehensive Insights: Koala Inspector empowers you to uncover a treasure trove of insights about your competitors. With a simple click on the Koala icon while visiting any store, you'll gain access to critical information such as the applications your competitors are using, product statistics, traffic data, and even the retailers they're collaborating with.
• Ad Campaign Intelligence: In the world of eCommerce, advertising campaigns can make or break success. Koala Inspector doesn't stop at website analysis; it also provides valuable insights into the advertising strategies your competitors are employing. This is a goldmine for optimizing your own marketing efforts.

Pros and Cons

While Koala Inspector's free plan offers ample opportunities to learn and monitor competitors, it's important to consider the limitations:

02. Alexa

Alexa Pricing: 

While Alexa's core services are available for free, you can enhance its functionality by investing in Alexa devices like the Amazon Echo Dot or Amazon Echo Show, priced between $19.99 and $299.

Alexa Key features

Alexa, recognized as the friendly voice on your home smart speakers, has an intriguing hidden talent – it moonlights as a potent website analytics tool. Here's a more in-depth look at how Alexa can become a valuable asset in your Shopify spy toolkit:

• Website Traffic Analysis: Alexa's "Site Traffic Statistics" tool opens the door to insightful website performance analysis. With a simple search of your website, you gain access to a comprehensive report detailing your traffic metrics. What truly sets Alexa apart is its unique ability to not only furnish data about your own site but also perform a side-by-side comparison with your competitors. This comparative analysis is pure gold for eCommerce businesses aiming to gain a clear perspective on their market position.
• Chrome Extension: Alexa takes things up a notch with a convenient Chrome Extension. This extension simplifies the process of rating and reviewing other Shopify stores as you browse. It's a nifty feature for effortlessly keeping tabs on your competitors and gaining deeper insights into their strengths and weaknesses.

Pros and Cons

To make an informed decision about integrating Alexa into your Shopify spying endeavors, it's essential to consider its pros and cons:

03. SimilarWeb

SimilarWeb Pricing

• Starter: $125 per user/month - Perfect for entrepreneurs delving into website traffic analysis and competitive research.
• Professional: $333 per user/month - Customized for professionals constructing marketing strategies and mapping competitive landscapes.
• Team (5 users): Custom pricing - Designed for marketing teams with multi-channel strategies aiming to enhance their online presence.
• Enterprise (10 users): Custom pricing - Tailored for mature organizations seeking to leverage data at scale for business growth and digital excellence.

SimilarWeb Key features

SimilarWeb is an indispensable addition to the toolkit of Shopify spy enthusiasts, providing in-depth insights into your competitors' Shopify stores. This versatile tool excels at delivering a comprehensive traffic overview of any website and then deconstructing it into highly informative sections. 

Here's how SimilarWeb can elevate your competitive analysis game:

• Traffic Overview: With SimilarWeb, you gain a panoramic view of your competitor's website traffic. It's like peering into their digital universe, offering a profound understanding of their online reach and influence.
• Traffic Sources: Among its standout features, SimilarWeb's capability to dissect traffic sources is particularly noteworthy. This feature allows you to precisely identify where your competitor's store generates the most traction, an invaluable insight for fine-tuning your marketing strategies.

Pros and Cons

Step 2: Use Shopify spy tools to get the detailed report of your competitors

In the second phase of your Shopify spy journey, the focus shifts from the big picture to a more granular examination of your competitors. These powerful tools will provide you with detailed insights into various aspects of your competitors' operations, allowing you to refine your strategies and gain a competitive edge.

04. Ali Hunter Chrome Extension

Ali Hunter Chrome Extension Pricing

• Free: Offers limited data but essential features.
• Basic: $29.9/month - Enhances features for more in-depth research.
• Advanced: $79.9/month - Provides comprehensive tools for serious store tracking.
• Premium: $149.9/month - Unlocks the full potential of Ali Hunter with premium features.

Ali Hunter Chrome Extension Key features

Ali Hunter Chrome Extension is a game-changing asset for eCommerce entrepreneurs and Shopify aficionados. Boasting a user base exceeding 200,000 and a multitude of positive reviews on the Chrome Store, it's undeniably a preferred app for store tracking. 

Here's an insightful look into what this Chrome Extension brings to the table:

• Effortless Dropshipping Product Sourcing: Ali Hunter streamlines the intricate process of sourcing dropshipping products from any Shopify store. It serves as your trusted companion for identifying products, suppliers, and pricing strategies with ease.
• Comprehensive Store Insights: Upon installation, Ali Hunter unveils a treasure trove of information about the Shopify stores you're monitoring. This includes intricate details about the store's themes, the apps in use direct revenue and sales records, best-selling items, and even the most recent item sold. It also offers insights into the source of their products, including whether they sell items from AliExpress or alternative platforms. Furthermore, Ali Hunter's extensions can uncover other stores peddling the same products, delivering invaluable market intelligence.

Pros and Cons

05. Xpareto

Xpareto Pricing

Xpareto is a generous Shopify spy tool that doesn't come with any price tags or subscription requirements, ensuring accessibility for all users.

Xpareto Key features

Xpareto stands as a user-friendly and straightforward solution in the world of Shopify spying, and it doesn't demand a single dollar from your pocket. Let's delve into what Xpareto brings to the table:

• Seamless Competitor Analysis: Using Xpareto couldn't be more effortless. Just input the URL of any Shopify store, and it promptly unveils the store's top-performing products. This invaluable feature empowers you to spot emerging market trends and identify the products that strike a chord with customers.
• Holistic Insights: Xpareto doesn't stop at product analysis. It goes a step further by providing vital data on daily traffic, rankings, and Facebook Campaigns for the Shopify store under your watchful eye. These insights offer a comprehensive view of the store's online presence and marketing strategies.

Pros and Cons 

06. Commerce Inspector

Commerce Inspector Pricing

• Starter: $99/month - Tailored for those keen on tracking their closest competitors.
• Growth: $199/month - Crafted to supercharge your eCommerce endeavors.
• Pro: $499/month - Offers unlimited access, ideal for businesses with scaling ambitions.
• Enterprise: No specific price provided - Promises seamless data integrations for advanced users.

Commerce Inspector Key features

Commerce Inspector stands as the ultimate companion for your Shopify spying needs, offering a wealth of insights into your competitors' strategies and performance. With diverse pricing tiers, it ensures accessibility for businesses of all sizes. 

Here's an in-depth exploration of Commerce Inspector's offerings:

• Chrome Extension: Simplify your spying experience with Commerce Inspector's seamless Chrome extension. It seamlessly integrates with your browsing activities, enabling you to effortlessly gather insights as you navigate.
• Free Version: Commerce Inspector's free version delivers comprehensive information about your Shopify competitors. It unveils valuable details such as best-selling products, order numbers, product variants, product launches, and the Shopify apps they employ. Additionally, it provides traffic analysis, traffic source monitoring, and data on monthly visits. This version also helps you identify eCommerce trends and spot the top-selling products within the platform.
• Paid Plans: Commerce Inspector's paid plans elevate your competitive analysis. They enable you to closely monitor competitor stores, offering valuable features like shop-level revenue, product-level revenue insights, and comprehensive ad reports.

Pros and Cons

07. BuiltWith

BuiltWith Pricing

• Basic: $295/month - Ideal for businesses with fixed scope requirements.
• Pro: $495/month - The fully-featured and most popular plan offering comprehensive insights.
• Team: $995/month - Provides unlimited enterprise access for businesses with diverse needs.

BuiltWith Key features

BuiltWith serves as a unique digital detective in the world of eCommerce, providing essential answers to a seemingly simple yet crucial question: What technology lies behind a particular website? It's a tool that peels back the digital curtain to reveal the technological secrets that drive your competitors' websites. 

Here's a detailed look at what BuiltWith has to offer:

• Tech Revelation: BuiltWith excels in unveiling the precise technologies powering websites. It's akin to a backstage pass, granting you access to the gears and gadgets that underpin the online presence of your competitors. This includes not only content management systems (CMS) but also plugins, analytics tools, advertising networks, and more. It's a treasure trove of information for understanding the tech stack responsible for successful websites.
• App Insights: In the dynamic world of eCommerce, apps play a pivotal role in enhancing website functionality. BuiltWith doesn't stop at identifying basic technologies; it delves deeper into the realm of apps. For Shopify stores, this means uncovering the specific apps used for various purposes, from retargeting marketing to customer journey reporting and email campaigns. This valuable insight empowers you to explore the strategies and tools contributing to your competitors' success.

Pros and Cons

08. Feedly

Feedly Pricing

• Pro: $6/month - Ideal for taking your reading and sharing to the next level.
• Pro+: $8.25/month - Enhance the relevance of your feeds with Feedly AI.
• Enterprise: Pricing not specified - Offers the ultimate industry and threat intelligence engine.

Feedly Key features

While Feedly is often recognized as a news aggregator application similar to Google News, it boasts a hidden talent that proves invaluable for content monitoring and competitive analysis. By consolidating your competitors' links into a single, unified "feed," Feedly transforms into a potent tool for real-time competitor content tracking. 

Here's an in-depth exploration of Feedly's capabilities:

• Unified Competitor Feed: Feedly's prowess lies in its ability to gather all your competitors' links and present them in one coherent feed. This feed is intelligently sorted based on popularity and chronological order. This ingenious mechanism empowers you to maintain a constant watch over your competitors' content, offering a real-time glimpse into their strategies and trending topics.

Pros and Cons

09. Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner Pricing

Available at no cost.

Google Keyword Planner Key features

Google Keyword Planner, an essential component of Google AdWords, boasts a potent keyword research tool with a two-fold mission. While its primary function involves assisting users in uncovering keywords tailored for their search ad campaigns, it possesses a lesser-known yet equally vital ability: revealing the keywords that drive traffic to your competitors' online stores. 

What truly distinguishes this tool is its accessibility, as it is entirely free to use. Let's dive deeper into the offerings of Google Keyword Planner:

• Keyword Research: Google Keyword Planner excels in guiding users towards identifying pertinent keywords for their search ad campaigns. Capitalizing on Google's vast trove of search data, it provides invaluable insights into keywords actively sought by potential customers. This resource proves invaluable when creating precisely targeted ad campaigns, thus increasing the likelihood of achieving favorable outcomes.
• Competitive Intelligence: Beyond its primary role in keyword research, Google Keyword Planner effectively transforms into a competitive intelligence tool. By scrutinizing the keywords propelling traffic to your competitors' websites, you gain a crucial competitive advantage. This invaluable insight empowers you to fine-tune your SEO and content strategies, ensuring alignment with the keywords that resonate most profoundly with your intended audience.

Pros and Cons

10. Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest Pricing

• Individual: $12/month - Tailored for solo entrepreneurs and small businesses, allowing management of a single website.
• Business: $20/month - Ideal for small and medium-sized businesses, accommodating the management of 2-7 websites.
• Enterprise: $40/month - Catering to large businesses and agencies, this option facilitates the management of 8-15 websites.

Ubersuggest Key features

For small-scale Shopify stores seeking cost-effective yet comprehensive insights, Ubersuggest emerges as the ideal choice. With its modest starting price of $12 per month, this tool delivers a treasure trove of valuable data akin to its pricier counterparts. 

Here's a glimpse into some of its standout features:

• Traffic Analyzer: Ubersuggest proves invaluable when you need to gauge the performance of your Shopify stores. It provides essential data on website visits, backlinks, and social engagement, encompassing shares on prominent platforms such as Facebook and Pinterest.
• Keyword Research: Leveraging Ubersuggest's keyword research capabilities empowers you to uncover high-potential keywords that resonate with your audience. This insight aids in crafting content strategies that align seamlessly with search trends and user intent.
• Competitor Analysis: Gain a competitive edge by delving into competitor strategies. Ubersuggest offers detailed competitor analysis, allowing you to unearth their top-performing pages, organic keywords, and backlink profiles.

Pros and Cons

11. Ahrefs

Ahrefs Pricing

• Lite: $99/month - Tailored for small businesses and hobby projects, offering essential data.
• Standard: $199/month - Ideal for freelance SEOs and marketing consultants, providing comprehensive tools.
• Advanced: $399/month - Suited for lean in-house marketing teams, offering more extensive features and data.
• Enterprise: $999/month - Designed for agencies and enterprises, delivering top-tier capabilities.

Ahrefs Key features

When it comes to comprehensive and feature-rich SEO and competitor analysis, Ahrefs takes the lead. A staple in the toolkit of digital marketers and SEO enthusiasts, Ahrefs offers an array of powerful features that enable you to delve into the nitty-gritty details of your website's performance and dissect your competitors' strategies at a microscopic level. 

Here's an in-depth look at why Ahrefs stands out:

• Keyword and Competitor Analysis: Ahrefs shines in the realm of keyword and competitor analysis. The platform provides detailed reports that offer profound insights into your website's performance and the strategies employed by your competitors. Among its standout features are backlink analysis and information on top-performing pages. This wealth of information helps you understand why and how your Shopify competitors outperform you.
• Content Gap Analysis: Ahrefs boasts a hidden gem in the form of content gap analysis. By entering your website and your competitors' URLs, you can uncover keywords where you have the potential to outrank your competition. This invaluable insight informs your content strategy, enabling you to target keywords that can give you a competitive edge.
• Backlink Insights: Ahrefs' robust backlink analysis tools empower you to explore your backlink profile and gain insights into your competitors' link-building strategies. Understanding the quality and quantity of backlinks is crucial for improving your website's authority and SEO ranking.

Pros and Cons

12. SEMrush

SEMrush Pricing

• Pro: $129.95/month - Designed for newcomers and small teams, offering essential features.
• Guru: $249.95/month - Ideal for agencies and mid-sized businesses, providing advanced capabilities.
• Business: $499.95/month - Tailored for large agencies and enterprises, offering top-tier tools and data.

SEMrush Key features

SEMrush presents itself as a compelling alternative to Ahrefs, delivering a powerful toolkit for SEO and competitor analysis. With its flexible pricing options, SEMrush accommodates businesses of various sizes. One of its standout features, the Market Explorer, empowers users with insightful competitive intelligence. 

Here's an in-depth exploration of what makes SEMrush an exceptional choice:

• Market Explorer: SEMrush's Market Explorer is a standout tool for competitive intelligence. It empowers users to gain profound market insights by delivering data on competitors, their target audience, and performance metrics. This wealth of information facilitates the identification of market trends and opportunities, enabling data-driven decision-making.
• Keyword Research: SEMrush is a frontrunner in keyword research, providing extensive insights into search queries, trends, and keyword difficulty. These insights prove invaluable for optimizing website content and fine-tuning SEO strategies.
• Backlink Analysis: In parallel with Ahrefs, SEMrush offers comprehensive backlink analysis tools. These tools enable users to dissect their backlink profile and gain deep insights into competitors' link-building strategies. This understanding is pivotal for enhancing website authority and search engine ranking.
• Content Analysis: SEMrush furnishes content analysis tools that empower users to evaluate website content comprehensively. By scrutinizing competitors' content, you can refine your own content strategy and target high-performing keywords effectively.

Pros and Cons

13. Spyfu

SpyFu Pricing

• BASIC: $39/month - Offers fundamental features for essential PPC analysis.
• PROFESSIONAL: $79/month (First month at $39) - Provides an expanded feature set, ideal for more in-depth PPC research.
• TEAM: $299/month - Tailored for collaborative efforts and extensive PPC campaigns.

SpyFu Key features

When it comes to unraveling the mysteries of your competitors' PPC campaigns, SpyFu emerges as a specialized and powerful tool. With a range of pricing options, SpyFu caters to diverse business needs. Focusing primarily on in-depth PPC analysis and reporting, it provides essential insights for businesses striving to outperform their competition. 

Here's a comprehensive overview of what SpyFu brings to the table:

• PPC Mastery: SpyFu's core strength lies in its ability to dissect PPC campaigns with precision. For businesses heavily invested in PPC marketing, this tool proves indispensable. SpyFu offers comprehensive reports and metrics, allowing users to gain insights into their competitors' PPC strategies.
• Kombat Feature: One of SpyFu's standout features is "Kombat," a convenient tool for monitoring the PPC keywords your competitors are utilizing. This enables businesses to identify lucrative keywords and tailor their PPC campaigns accordingly.
• Competitive Intelligence: SpyFu goes beyond PPC and provides essential competitive intelligence. It unveils key metrics related to competitors' websites, organic search rankings, and more, offering a holistic view of the competitive landscape.
• Universal Metrics: SpyFu offers universal metrics that businesses of all sizes can leverage, making it a versatile tool for various PPC strategies.

Pros and Cons

14. Sprout Social

Sprout Social Pricing

• Standard: $249/month - Ideal for small businesses or those starting to grow on social media.
• Professional: $399/month - Perfect for agencies and growing social media teams.
• Advanced: $499/month - Designed for teams and agencies that need robust social media tools.
• Enterprise: No specific price mentioned - Tailored for large enterprises with custom requirements.

Sprout Social Key features

Sprout Social emerges as a comprehensive all-in-one social management tool, offering an array of pricing options to cater to diverse business needs. While its primary focus is social media management, it delivers robust competitive analytics capabilities essential for eCommerce businesses. 

Here's an overview of how Sprout Social can empower your eCommerce store:

• Competitive Insights: Sprout Social empowers businesses to gain a competitive edge by allowing them to compare their social media profiles with rivals. This feature is instrumental in understanding how your social presence measures up against competitors.
• Keyword and Trends Reports: To stay ahead of the competition, Sprout Social provides Keyword and Trends Reports. These reports offer invaluable insights into the trending topics and keywords in your industry, enabling businesses to craft content that resonates with their target audience.
• 30-Day Free Trial: Sprout Social offers a 30-day free trial, allowing users to explore its features and evaluate its suitability for their needs.
• Scalability: The availability of various pricing tiers, including the Enterprise option, ensures that Sprout Social can accommodate businesses of all sizes.

Pros and Cons

15. Facebook Ads Library

Facebook Ads Library Pricing 

Free

Facebook Ads Library Key features

The Facebook Ads Library is a valuable resource for eCommerce businesses seeking to gain a competitive edge in their advertising strategies. Unlike other tools with paid pricing tiers, this one is entirely free. It offers insights into the advertising campaigns of your competitors on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. 

Here's a closer look at what Facebook Ads Library brings to the table:

• Competitor Ad Visibility: With the Facebook Ads Library, businesses can gain visibility into all the ads their competitors are currently running on Facebook's family of platforms. This visibility can provide insights into the products and promotions that competitors are actively promoting, helping businesses stay informed about current market trends.
• Ad Variation Analysis: Beyond merely seeing ads, businesses can closely examine the different variations of ads used by top Shopify stores. Analyzing these variations allows businesses to learn valuable lessons about effective ad strategies and creative elements that resonate with audiences.

Pros and Cons 

16. BigSpy

BigSpy Pricing

• Basic: $9/month - Basic ad analysis features.
• Pro: $99/month (TRY IT FOR 3 DAYS FOR JUST $1) - Advanced ad analysis capabilities.
• Group: $249/month - Designed for team collaboration and in-depth ad analysis.
• VIP Enterprise: $3600+/year - Tailored for large enterprises, offering comprehensive ad analysis tools.

BigSpy Key features

BigSpy is a powerful platform specializing in competitive ad analysis across various social media platforms, including Facebook, Pinterest, and mobile in-app ads. This tool provides a wealth of ad performance data, enabling businesses to decode the secrets to successful marketing campaigns on social media. 

Here's a closer look at what BigSpy has to offer:

• Multi-Platform Analysis: BigSpy covers a wide range of social media platforms, allowing you to monitor and analyze ads on Facebook, Pinterest, and mobile in-app ads. This comprehensive coverage provides a holistic view of your competitors' advertising strategies.
• Ad Performance Data: BigSpy offers detailed ad performance data, including engagement metrics, ad reach, and audience demographics. This data empowers businesses to gain insights into which ad strategies are resonating with their target audience.
• Ad Creative Library: The platform boasts an extensive ad creative library, allowing you to explore a vast collection of ad creatives and copywriting styles. This is valuable for gaining inspiration and understanding the design elements that drive engagement.
• Competitive Benchmarking: BigSpy enables you to benchmark your ad performance against competitors, helping you identify areas for improvement and optimization.
• Keyword and Trend Analysis: In addition to ad analysis, BigSpy offers keyword and trend analysis tools, aiding in the development of data-driven advertising strategies.

Pros and Cons

Step 3: Understand The Data From Shopify Spy Tools To Optimize Your Shopify Store

Competitive intelligence is an invaluable asset when it comes to running a successful Shopify store. Top Shopify spy tools provide a wealth of data and insights that can significantly impact your store's performance and profitability. 

In this step, we'll delve into why spying on your competitors is essential and how to make the most of the data gathered from these tools.

Why should you spy your competitors?

First, let’s see the reasons to put on a magnifier and spy on many aspects of the competitors.

Most of us don’t have a picture of our company’s differences because we don’t fully understand our competitors. Doing that may seem like a challenge, but it’s crucial if you’re an ambitious Shopify business owner with a desire to dominate the market and win more customers.

Knowing your competitors well allows you to acknowledge your competitive advantages concretely. The gained knowledge can also help your product pricing be more competitive and allow you to match your strategies to your competitors’ marketing campaigns. With this information, you will be able to develop marketing strategies that exploit your competitors’ weaknesses and boost the performance of your own strengths.

Not only that, but you can also assess any threats posed by both new players and existing competitors. Through the research, the characteristics of the market that you target are also revealed. You can then accurately determine your efforts to differentiate yourself from your competitors. This is really important to help you increase sales and adjust expenditure.

FAQs: Shopify Spy

The next step

With the top 16 Shopify spy tools, you can learn from other online stores easily and make a good growth strategy for your business. Hopefully, my guide will help you stay inspired to always take a step ahead of your competitors.

After spying and analyzing your competitors, the next step you should take is to create an active sales system. You can read more on our guide on How to build a sales strategy. Thanks for reading and best of luck!