Shopify competitor analysis: the complete 2026 playbook
Shopify competitor analysis is the shortest route to years of testing time spent by other stores in your niche. Stores with a similar business model will have done testing with different product mixes, price points, themes, copy, and applications. You can view the results of these experiments on any store in your niche that competes with you, right there on their site. The big question is, will you figure out where to look?
2-> We built the free Store Analyzer to give you the 5 main signals to measure conversion for *any* Shopify store. Simply paste in a store’s URL and you’ll get a nice and clean report in seconds. Here’s a sample:
This guide covers what you should look at / ignore, recommended tools, ethical scraping advice and basic dos and don’ts. It also briefly details some things that you should definitely copy into your spider and definitely not copy into your spider.
In this post
- How to find the right competitors
- What to analyze on each store
- Theme and app detection
- Pricing and product range
- Ethical scraping rules
- What to copy, what to avoid
- FAQ
How to find the right competitors
When examining potential competition it’s common to start with obvious direct competitors (same category, same price point, same geographical location) however it is equally important not to underestimate indirect competitors i.e. potential competitors vying for your customer’s attention / custom without directly selling the same product (e.g. in the example below – home fragrance diffusers and wax melts are indirect competitors to candle products). Both types of competitors are relevant and must be taken into consideration for effective market positioning.
Three fast ways to build the list:
- Google the head term. Top 10 organic results are your SEO competitors.
- Google Shopping. Top ads and organic product listings for your key products.
- Instagram hashtag search. Most niches have a short head hashtag that flags the active brands.
What to analyze on each competitor
| Signal | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Theme | Design investment, speed budget |
| Apps | Priorities: reviews, swatches, upsell, email |
| Product count | Catalog depth, SKU strategy |
| Price range | Positioning in the market |
| Collection structure | How they segment their catalog for SEO |
| Variant strategy | Split products or combined, color swatches on collection |
| Copy tone | Premium, playful, technical, casual |
This information is a lot pulled automatically by The Store Analyzer. Then it’s a ten minute manual browse to make sure that everything is correct.
Theme and app detection
Shopify theme names can be detected via the HTML source. Every theme has a signature embedded within the CSS filename, the Shopify.theme JavaScript object, and asset URLs. The Store Analyzer can parse out the theme name, and if it is a public theme, also the corresponding Shopify theme store ID.
Most Shopify apps insert code (like a script tag or a meta tag) into the Shopify storefront. The Store Analyzer and the App Detector basically cross reference those fingerprints against a database of 500+ known Shopify apps, and give you a good read on the competitor’s technology stack. Apps are similar to website analytics in this regard.
Why? Because if 3 of the 5 biggest competitors all use the same review app, that type of social proof is locked into the market price already. Because if nobody uses a bulk image editing tool, and all of their variant images look terrible, that is your open invitation for massive profit.
Pricing and product range
You can download product count for almost every Shopify store at /products.json. This public JSON endpoint returns up to 250 products per page, including title, price, variants and images. Many Shopify stores display this link on their store. Reading a public API is not scraping. This can be used by Shopify apps.
Make sure you have sufficient data and then perform distribution analysis on the data. Are the SKUs spread evenly over 20 heroes or is it skewed more towards 2000 SKUs across 5 categories. How is the median of the categories placed. What is the upper limit of potential upsell for top 10% of SKUs.
Ethical scraping rules
- Respect
robots.txt. If a path is disallowed, do not hit it. - Throttle requests. One per second max, ideally slower.
- Set a real user agent. Do not spoof a browser to hide.
- Never scrape behind login or checkout. That is a different legal category.
- Do not copy images, copy text, or product descriptions. That is copyright infringement.
In the end, the biggest line to keep is to not go against public code and copy private data. Checking out what apps a competitor of yours is running is perfectly fine to get inspiration, but copying out their hero image is not.
What to copy, what to avoid
| Copy | Avoid |
|---|---|
| Collection structure | Actual copy and images |
| Filter categories | Brand voice |
| App stack ideas | Exact discount structure |
| Navigation patterns | Product photos |
| Page builder sections | Product descriptions |
| Variant swatch UX | Pricing exactly (race to bottom) |
Variant image UX is a feature of Shopify themes that can easily be copied 100% from other stores. The top stores in each visual category all use per-variant images on the product page and color swatches on the collection page. Now your competitors are openly ahead of you if you don’t have this feature. Rubik Variant Images will copy the variant images UX for you in about 10 minutes.
If competitors list wrapped products by color (common in fashion and interior design), you can achieve the same user experience without re-importing and re-indexing your entire catalog.
Related free tools
Use all three Store Analyzers: Store, App and Collection- this trifecta of tools will give you insights into Theme, Apps and Collection structure all within a couple of minutes per competitor.
See the live demo store, watch the tutorial video, or read the getting started guide.
FAQ
Is it legal to analyze a competitor’s Shopify store?
Yes, public pages and public APIs on ShopZilla are also fair game. Note however that copying the copy, images or product descriptions etc constitutes copyright infringement. Note the line read vs reproduce.
Can I see what apps a competitor is running?
Yes. Most apps do something like insert a script tag or meta tag into the code of your store, and the Store Analyzer and the App Detector that we use for screening read those so apps can claim compatibility.
How often should I run competitor analysis?
For direct competitors, report quarterly. For very competitive or fast-moving markets, report monthly. Conduct spot checks when a competitor launches into a new product category.
What is the /products.json endpoint?
Shopify now has a public API for shopping in a store. It’s used internally on the site for the product browse widget and returns up to 250 products per page. It shows as JSON on most stores unless disabled by the store owner. You can use this API in your Shopify apps for integration purposes. The public API is available on most stores.
Should I copy a competitor’s pricing?
Match the price point but provide more value. When you price too closely to competition, it can cause prices to go down ultimately hurting all involved.
How do I find smaller competitors that do not show on Google?
Instagram hashtag search, Pinterest, and related niche sub-reddits. Smaller brands will spend a lot of time and effort promoting here, over their SEO efforts.
Can I block my own store from this kind of analysis?
Partially. You can disable /products.json and obfuscate theme files, but the HTML source is still visible and most of the other signatures will still leak.
Related reading
Umid
Co-Founder at Craftshift