u/Dense_Fig_697

Originally it was basically just:
“paste store → generate report”

Now I’m trying to turn it into more of an ecommerce intelligence platform with:
- competitor pricing analysis
- Shopify discount tracking
- product positioning research
- launch velocity analysis
- SEO pages/articles around competitor research

Honestly didn’t realize how important internal linking/site structure was until now.

Would appreciate feedback from people actually running Shopify brands or doing ecommerce research.

https://getstorescout.com

I’ve been researching how larger Shopify brands structure pricing/discounts and decided to break down Gymshark’s public storefront data.

A few things stood out almost immediately:

- a huge percentage of products are discounted

- newer launches are priced noticeably above the catalog median

- the store constantly refreshes products/collections

- a lot of discounts seem concentrated around lower-ticket items

One thing that was interesting is that some of the products/categories that help the brand feel more “premium” appear protected from aggressive discounting.

It made me realize a lot of smaller stores focus too much on:

“how low can I price this?”

instead of:

“how should this product feel?”

I wrote a breakdown on the patterns here if anyone’s interested:

https://getstorescout.com/blog/gymshark-pricing-strategy

At first the store just looks like normal discounts and product pricing, but after breaking down the catalog patterns, it became obvious they’re using selective discounting to protect premium perception.

A lot of smaller stores discount everything constantly, but Fenty keeps many of the products they want perceived as “premium” near full price.

I wrote a full breakdown here if anyone’s interested:

https://getstorescout.com/blog/fenty-pricing-strategy

Building something is exciting right up until it goes live.

Then it becomes:
checking analytics,
refreshing dashboards,
posting content,
waiting for traffic,
and wondering if anyone actually cares.

I officially launched my SaaS recently and it’s been a weird mix of:

• excitement because it finally works
• frustration because distribution is harder than I expected
• and constant second guessing

One day I think:
“the product is solid, I just need better marketing.”

The next day I’m thinking:
“what if the problem just isn’t important enough?”

What makes it harder is that early analytics don’t really tell a full story.

Low views could mean:

• weak hooks
• bad targeting
• poor positioning
• low demand
• or simply not enough time yet

I think a lot of early founders quietly deal with this phase where the product exists, but it still feels invisible.

Right now I’m trying to focus less on chasing instant results and more on:

• improving messaging
• testing content angles
• talking to real users
• and learning distribution instead of only building

Curious how other founders handled this stage mentally.

At what point did things start feeling “real” for you?

The more I looked into ecommerce competitor research, the more I realized how manual the workflow still is.

Most people are still:

• opening a bunch of tabs
• checking prices manually
• tracking discounts themselves
• scrolling through collections
• copying everything into spreadsheets

You can get insights that way… but it takes a ridiculous amount of time.

So I started building StoreScout to automate a lot of that process.

You paste a Shopify store URL and it instantly generates breakdowns for things like:

• pricing strategy
• discount behavior
• market positioning
• launch trends
• catalog insights

Still early, but it’s already been interesting seeing how different stores approach pricing and product strategy.

Curious how other people here currently do competitor research for ecommerce stores.