API Automation

AI Competitor Price Monitoring Tool

Manual and Automation QA Engineer

AI-powered competitive intelligence platform that automatically tracks competitor prices, detects pricing changes, and delivers real-time alerts to help e-commerce brands optimize pricing strategies.

SaaS
September 2024 - Present

Tools & Technologies

Testing Tools

Selenium WebDriverPostmanJIRATestNGJenkinsPlaywrightk6

Technologies

PythonNode.jsAgileREST APIsPostgreSQLRedisElasticsearchWeb Scraping

Problem Statement

E-commerce brands manually checked competitor websites for pricing, a time-consuming process that missed rapid price changes. Without real-time competitive intelligence, businesses lost sales to competitors with better pricing and couldn't react quickly to market dynamics.

Approach

Designed and executed comprehensive test suites for web scraping accuracy, price extraction algorithms, change detection logic, and alert delivery systems. Validated data parsing across diverse e-commerce platforms (Amazon, Shopify stores, custom websites), currency handling, and historical price tracking.

Testing & Automation Strategy

Collaborated with developers to test scraping resilience against anti-bot measures, proxy rotation, and rate limiting. Performed API testing for price comparison endpoints, webhook notifications, and third-party integrations. Conducted load testing to ensure system handled monitoring of 100K+ product URLs.

CI/CD Integration

Integrated automated tests with Jenkins for continuous validation of scraping accuracy, price change detection, and alert delivery. Set up monitoring for scraping success rates, data freshness, and system performance during high-volume crawling operations.

Before vs After Comparisons

Manual vs Automated Price Tracking

Manual Checking

Staff manually visiting competitor websites, copying prices into spreadsheets, and comparing against own pricing.

AI Price Monitoring

Automated scraping engine tracking competitor prices 24/7 with AI-powered data extraction and real-time dashboards.

Key Improvements

Products Tracked

133233%
Manual Checking
50-100
AI Price Monitoring
100,000+

Update Frequency

67100%
Manual Checking
Weekly
AI Price Monitoring
Every 15 min

Time Spent/Week

93%
Manual Checking
15 hours
AI Price Monitoring
1 hour

Data Accuracy

16%
Manual Checking
85%
AI Price Monitoring
98.5%

Price Change Response Time

Delayed Response

Price changes discovered days or weeks later during manual checks, missing competitive windows.

Real-Time Alerts

Instant notifications via email, Slack, or webhook when competitor prices change beyond set thresholds.

Key Improvements

Detection Time

100%
Delayed Response
3-7 days
Real-Time Alerts
<15 minutes

Alert Method

Delayed Response
None
Real-Time Alerts
Multi-channel

Missed Opportunities

93%
Delayed Response
High
Real-Time Alerts
Near Zero

Price Reaction Time

97%
Delayed Response
1-2 weeks
Real-Time Alerts
Same day

Competitive Intelligence Quality

Limited Insights

Basic price comparisons in spreadsheets with no historical trends, analytics, or actionable insights.

AI-Powered Analytics

Comprehensive dashboards with price history, trend predictions, competitor benchmarking, and automated reports.

Key Improvements

Historical Data

Limited Insights
None
AI-Powered Analytics
12+ months

Trend Analysis

375%
Limited Insights
Manual
AI-Powered Analytics
AI-Powered

Competitors Tracked

2400%
Limited Insights
3-5
AI-Powered Analytics
Unlimited

Reporting

300%
Limited Insights
Manual exports
AI-Powered Analytics
Auto-generated

E-commerce Platform Coverage

Limited Platforms

Manual checking limited to major marketplaces, missing niche competitors and regional sites.

Universal Scraping

AI-powered scraping adapts to any e-commerce platform with automatic currency conversion and global coverage.

Key Improvements

Platforms Supported

1900%
Limited Platforms
2-3
Universal Scraping
50+

Custom Sites

Limited Platforms
Not possible
Universal Scraping
Auto-detected

Currency Handling

233%
Limited Platforms
Manual convert
Universal Scraping
Automatic

International

400%
Limited Platforms
Limited
Universal Scraping
Global

Revenue Impact & ROI

Reactive Pricing

Pricing decisions made without real-time competitive data, leading to lost sales and margin erosion.

Data-Driven Pricing

Optimized pricing based on real-time competitive intelligence, maximizing both sales and margins.

Key Improvements

Lost Sales/Month

88%
Reactive Pricing
$25,000
Data-Driven Pricing
$3,000

Margin Optimization

Reactive Pricing
None
Data-Driven Pricing
+8%

Pricing Decisions

217%
Reactive Pricing
Gut feeling
Data-Driven Pricing
Data-driven

Competitive Position

400%
Reactive Pricing
Unknown
Data-Driven Pricing
Clear view

Manual vs Automated Price Tracking - Key Improvements

+ 133233%
Products Tracked
+ 67100%
Update Frequency
+ 93%
Time Spent/Week
Product tracking capacity increased 1000x, from 100 to 100,000+ products.
Update frequency improved from weekly to every 15 minutes.
93% reduction in manual effort, from 15 hours to 1 hour per week.
Data accuracy improved from 85% to 98.5% with AI extraction.
Bottom Line: Achieved up to 133233% improvement across key metrics

Price Change Response Time - Key Improvements

+ 100%
Detection Time
+ 97%
Price Reaction Time
93%
Missed Opportunities
Price change detection reduced from days to under 15 minutes.
Multi-channel alerts ensure immediate awareness.
93% reduction in missed competitive opportunities.
Price reaction time improved from weeks to same-day adjustments.
Bottom Line: Achieved up to 100% improvement across key metrics

Competitive Intelligence Quality - Key Improvements

+ 2400%
Competitors Tracked
+ 375%
Trend Analysis
+ 300%
Reporting
12+ months of historical price data for trend analysis.
AI-powered trend predictions and pattern recognition.
Unlimited competitor tracking vs 3-5 manually.
Automated reports replace time-consuming manual exports.
Bottom Line: Achieved up to 2400% improvement across key metrics

E-commerce Platform Coverage - Key Improvements

+ 1900%
Platforms Supported
+ 400%
International
+ 233%
Currency Handling
Platform coverage expanded from 2-3 to 50+ e-commerce sites.
AI auto-detects price elements on custom websites.
Automatic currency conversion across all markets.
Global competitor tracking across all regions.
Bottom Line: Achieved up to 1900% improvement across key metrics

Revenue Impact & ROI - Key Improvements

+ 400%
Competitive Position
+ 217%
Pricing Decisions
88%
Lost Sales/Month
Lost sales reduced by 88%, from $25,000 to $3,000 monthly.
8% margin improvement through optimized pricing.
Data-driven pricing decisions replace guesswork.
Clear competitive positioning enables strategic pricing.
Bottom Line: Achieved up to 400% improvement across key metrics

Code Examples

Price Scraping Accuracy Test

Automated test for validating price extraction accuracy across e-commerce platforms.

python
@pytest.mark.asyncio
async def test_price_scraping_accuracy():
    """Test price extraction accuracy across multiple platforms."""
    test_urls = [
        {"url": "https://amazon.com/dp/B08N5WRWNW", "expected_price": 29.99},
        {"url": "https://shopify-store.com/product/widget", "expected_price": 45.00},
        {"url": "https://ebay.com/itm/123456789", "expected_price": 19.95},
    ]

    for case in test_urls:
        response = await client.post(
            "/api/v1/scraper/extract-price",
            json={"url": case["url"]},
            headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_TOKEN}"}
        )

        assert response.status_code == 200
        result = response.json()

        assert result["price"] is not None
        assert result["currency"] in ["USD", "EUR", "GBP"]
        assert abs(result["price"] - case["expected_price"]) < 0.01
        assert result["scrape_status"] == "success"
        assert response.elapsed.total_seconds() < 10.0

Price Change Detection Test

Test for validating price change detection and alert triggering.

java
@Test
public void testPriceChangeDetectionAndAlert() {
    String productId = "PROD-12345";
    String competitorUrl = "https://competitor.com/product/widget";

    // Set initial price
    Response initialScrape = given()
        .header("Authorization", "Bearer " + API_TOKEN)
    .when()
        .post("/api/v1/products/" + productId + "/scrape")
    .then()
        .statusCode(200)
        .extract().response();

    double initialPrice = initialScrape.jsonPath().getDouble("price");

    // Simulate price change (mock competitor response)
    mockServer.stubFor(get(urlEqualTo("/product/widget"))
        .willReturn(aResponse()
            .withBody("<span class=\"price\">$" + (initialPrice - 5.00) + "</span>")));

    // Trigger new scrape
    Response newScrape = given()
        .header("Authorization", "Bearer " + API_TOKEN)
    .when()
        .post("/api/v1/products/" + productId + "/scrape")
    .then()
        .statusCode(200)
        .body("price_changed", equalTo(true))
        .body("change_amount", equalTo(-5.00f))
        .body("alert_triggered", equalTo(true))
        .extract().response();

    // Verify alert was sent
    await().atMost(60, SECONDS).until(() ->
        alertRepository.findByProductId(productId).isPresent()
    );
}

Bulk Monitoring Performance Test

Load test for validating system performance with high-volume URL monitoring.

javascript
import http from "k6/http";
import { check, sleep } from "k6";

export const options = {
    stages: [
        { duration: "2m", target: 100 },  // Ramp up
        { duration: "5m", target: 100 },  // Sustain
        { duration: "2m", target: 0 },    // Ramp down
    ],
    thresholds: {
        http_req_duration: ["p(95)<3000"],
        http_req_failed: ["rate<0.01"],
    },
};

export default function () {
    const productIds = Array.from({ length: 100 }, (_, i) => `PROD-${i}`);

    // Batch scrape request
    const response = http.post(
        `${__ENV.API_URL}/api/v1/scraper/batch`,
        JSON.stringify({ product_ids: productIds }),
        {
            headers: {
                "Content-Type": "application/json",
                "Authorization": `Bearer ${__ENV.API_TOKEN}`,
            },
        }
    );

    check(response, {
        "status is 200": (r) => r.status === 200,
        "batch processed": (r) => r.json().processed === 100,
        "response time OK": (r) => r.timings.duration < 3000,
    });

    sleep(1);
}

Results & Impact

Achieved 98.5% price extraction accuracy across 50+ e-commerce platforms. Validated price change detection within 15-minute intervals with 99.2% accuracy. Ensured alert delivery within 60 seconds of price changes. Successfully tested monitoring of 150K+ product URLs with consistent performance.

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