[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":93},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$fsV3Bi_qgCo5_qYNWXPBAQmetHF61ya75BPG9Hf9dQvw":3},{"title":4,"date":5,"dateModified":5,"datePublished":6,"dateModifiedISO":6,"image":7,"content":8,"faq":9,"metaTitle":29,"metaDescription":30,"author":31,"authorBio":32,"authorLinkedin":33,"authorTitle":34,"authorPhoto":35,"lastReviewed":32,"noindex":36,"researchBasis":37,"category":38,"readingTime":39,"related":40,"prev":56,"next":32,"toc":57,"takeaways":86,"videos":87},"Competitor Price Comparison: How to Compare Like-for-Like (Shipping, VAT, Pack Sizes, Variants)","12 Nov 2026","2026-11-12","/img/news/competitor-price-comparison-like-for-like-2026.png","\u003Cp>You open "Category X_Prices_FINAL_v3.xlsx" on a Monday. Someone pasted in competitor prices last week. One shop looks 8% cheaper than you. Before you cut your price, you need to know if that gap is real.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>A competitor price comparison only works when both sides describe the same thing. Check four points before you trust a gap: the \u003Cstrong>same product and variant\u003C/strong>, the \u003Cstrong>same quantity\u003C/strong> (or a unit price), the \u003Cstrong>same tax basis\u003C/strong> (VAT included or not) and the \u003Cstrong>same delivery terms\u003C/strong> (item price or delivered price). Miss one and the "cheaper" competitor can turn out dearer.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>This guide walks through each check with real numbers. On 12 November 2026 we read 37 shop offers for two products on idealo.de. Adding shipping changed the rank of 26 of the 37 offers.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cfigure class=\"article-figure\">\u003Cimg src=\"/img/news/competitor-price-comparison-like-for-like-2026.png\" alt=\"Competitor price comparison: sticker price rank vs delivered price rank on idealo.de\">\u003Cfigcaption>Real idealo.de offers, 12 Nov 2026: shipping reorders the list\u003C/figcaption>\u003C/figure>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"what-is-a-like-for-like-competitor-price-comparison\">What is a like-for-like competitor price comparison?\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>A like-for-like competitor price comparison puts your price next to a competitor's price for the identical product, in the same variant, the same quantity, with the same taxes and the same delivery terms. Only then does the gap show what a shopper would actually save. Anything else compares two different offers.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>When a comparison goes wrong, it's usually on one of these points, not on the arithmetic. Lengow's guide to SKU comparison puts it plainly: "\u003Ca href=\"https://www.lengow.com/get-to-know-more/how-to-compare-the-price-of-a-specific-sku-against-identical-competitor-offers\">Accurate price comparison is only valuable when the products being compared are truly identical\u003C/a>." Price2Spy's shipping guide (October 2026) adds the second half: "\u003Ca href=\"https://www.price2spy.com/blog/competitor-price-comparison-shipping-costs/\">The goal is to compare equivalent offers, accounting for the total customer cost and relevant delivery conditions\u003C/a>."\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Here are the four checks as a table. Use it as the header row of your comparison file.\u003C/p>\n\u003Ctable>\n\u003Cthead>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Cth>Check\u003C/th>\n\u003Cth>Question to ask\u003C/th>\n\u003Cth>What goes wrong if you skip it\u003C/th>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003C/thead>\n\u003Ctbody>\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Product and variant\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Is it the same model, colour, size and edition?\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>You compare a 2-pack with a single, or last year's model with this year's\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Quantity\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Is the pack size the same? If not, is there a unit price?\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>A bigger pack looks dearer when it is cheaper per kg or litre\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Tax basis\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Are both prices with VAT, or both without?\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>A B2B shop showing net prices looks cheaper by the whole VAT rate\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Delivery\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Are you comparing item prices or delivered prices?\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>A free-shipping shop ranks behind a shop that charges €5 delivery\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003C/tbody>\u003C/table>\n\u003Caside class=\"article__usecase-card\">\u003Cdiv class=\"article__usecase-label\">Related use case\u003C/div>\u003Ch3 class=\"article__usecase-title\">Competitor price tracking\u003C/h3>\u003Cp class=\"article__usecase-blurb\">Competitor prices from the shops you name, once a day at most, matched to your SKUs. Pay per page, no per-SKU fees.\u003C/p>\u003Ca class=\"article__usecase-link\" href=\"/use-cases/competitor-price-tracking\">See how it works →\u003C/a>\u003C/aside>\u003Ch2 id=\"what-did-37-real-offers-on-idealode-show-about-shipping\">What did 37 real offers on idealo.de show about shipping?\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>Shipping can change who is cheapest. In our check of two electric toothbrushes on idealo.de on 12 November 2026, 18 of 37 offers charged shipping (€2.99 to €6.99). Sorting by delivered price instead of item price changed the rank of 26 of the 37 offers.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>We searched five EAN codes with the ScrapeWise idealo offers tool. Two had an idealo page. For each, we read up to the 20 cheapest offers on the page, each with the item price, the shipping cost and the total price ("inkl. Versand"). We don't name the shops.\u003C/p>\n\u003Ctable>\n\u003Cthead>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Cth>Product (idealo.de, 12 Nov 2026)\u003C/th>\n\u003Cth>Offers read\u003C/th>\n\u003Cth>Offers charging shipping\u003C/th>\n\u003Cth>Shipping range\u003C/th>\n\u003Cth>Offers whose rank changed\u003C/th>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003C/thead>\n\u003Ctbody>\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Philips Sonicare 5300 HX7101/02\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>20 (of 36 listed)\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>11\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>€2.99–€6.99\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>18 of 20\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Philips Sonicare DiamondClean 9000 HX9914/54\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>17\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>7\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>€3.99–€6.95\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>8 of 17\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Both\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>37\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>18\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>€2.99–€6.99\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>26 of 37\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003C/tbody>\u003C/table>\n\u003Cp>Three details from the Sonicare 5300 page show why this matters:\u003C/p>\n\u003Cul>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>A €4.96 gap became €0.01.\u003C/strong> The lowest item price was €59.99, almost €5 below the next shop at €64.95. But the cheapest shop charged €4.95 shipping and the second shipped free. Delivered, it was €64.94 against €64.95.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Third place fell to sixth.\u003C/strong> One shop also listed €64.95, but added €6.99 shipping. Delivered at €71.94, it dropped from 3rd to 6th.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Free shipping moved two shops up.\u003C/strong> An offer at €68.99 with free delivery went from 11th to 5th. One at €68.20 went from 9th to 4th.\u003C/li>\n\u003C/ul>\n\u003Cp>On the DiamondClean 9000 page, the cheapest shop stayed cheapest (€174.75 + €4.99 = €179.74). But the second-lowest item price, €181.00, came with €5.90 shipping. At €186.90 delivered it fell from 2nd to 6th.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cfigure class=\"article-figure\">\u003Cimg src=\"/img/news/competitor-price-comparison-like-for-like-2026-1.png\" alt=\"Competitor price comparison by item price and by delivered price, Philips Sonicare 5300 on idealo.de\">\u003Cfigcaption>Same 20 offers, two rankings: item price vs price including shipping\u003C/figcaption>\u003C/figure>\n\u003Cp>Two products are a small sample, so read these as a worked example, not a market statistic. We also took idealo's grouping as given. Three of the 20 offers on the Sonicare 5300 page are titled HX7101/01, not /02. Leave those out and 15 of the remaining 17 offers still change rank. The lesson holds anyway. If your file holds only item prices, the shop you think is cheapest may not be the one shoppers pick.\u003C/p>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"should-you-compare-prices-with-or-without-shipping\">Should you compare prices with or without shipping?\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>Track both, in separate columns. The item price shows how shops set prices. The delivered price shows what a shopper pays for one order. For low-value products, small baskets and shops with free-shipping thresholds, the delivered price is often closer to what the shopper compares.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Comparison sites don't all show shipping the same way, which is one more reason to keep both. idealo.de shows each offer with a total "inkl. Versand", as in our data above. Prisjakt in Norway and Prisjagt in Denmark list prices excluding shipping by default, as we noted in our \u003Ca href=\"/blogs/competitor-price-index-formula-2026\">price index guide\u003C/a>. So the same kind of offer can rank differently on idealo.de and on Prisjakt.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>A few rules make delivered prices comparable:\u003C/p>\n\u003Cul>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Fix the basket.\u003C/strong> Shipping for one item and shipping for a €100 basket are different numbers. Write down which one you use.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Note thresholds.\u003C/strong> "Free delivery over €49" means the delivered price depends on what else is in the basket. Record the threshold, not only the fee.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Flag unknowns.\u003C/strong> Price2Spy's advice is sound: "\u003Ca href=\"https://www.price2spy.com/blog/competitor-price-comparison-shipping-costs/\">If the exact shipping cost cannot be established, it is better to flag it as unknown or conditional than to use an unsupported estimate\u003C/a>."\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Use the same delivery country.\u003C/strong> A shop that ships to Germany and Austria may charge different fees in each.\u003C/li>\n\u003C/ul>\n\u003Caside class=\"article__inline-cta\">\u003Cp class=\"article__inline-cta-text\">Try ScrapeWise on your own URL. \u003Cstrong>Your first 5 requests are free.\u003C/strong>\u003C/p>\u003Ca class=\"article__inline-cta-btn\" href=\"https://portal.scrapewise.ai/register\">Start Free →\u003C/a>\u003C/aside>\u003Ch2 id=\"how-do-you-handle-vat-in-a-competitor-price-comparison\">How do you handle VAT in a competitor price comparison?\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>Compare consumer prices with VAT included on both sides, because that is what EU and UK shoppers see. Directive 98/6/EC defines the selling price as the final price "including VAT and all other taxes". The risk comes from B2B shops showing net prices and from cross-border comparisons where VAT rates differ.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The definitions in \u003Ca href=\"https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudr/1998/6/article/2\">Article 2 of the Price Indication Directive\u003C/a> say the selling price is "the final price for a unit of the product, or a given quantity of the product, including VAT and all other taxes". The UK's \u003Ca href=\"https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68d15ed9c908572e81248b29/the-price-marking-order-2004-government-guidance.pdf\">Price Marking Order guidance\u003C/a> (September 2025) uses the same wording for UK shops. So two consumer shops in the same country already compare like for like on tax.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Watch three cases:\u003C/p>\n\u003Col>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>B2B and wholesale shops.\u003C/strong> Many show prices without VAT, sometimes with a toggle. Add a column "VAT included: yes/no" and convert before you compare. Price2Spy warns against "\u003Ca href=\"https://www.price2spy.com/blog/competitor-price-comparison-shipping-costs/\">comparing tax-inclusive prices with tax-exclusive prices without accounting for the difference\u003C/a>."\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Cross-border shops.\u003C/strong> If you sell in Sweden and compare with a German shop, the shelf prices carry different VAT rates. Decide whether you compare what the shopper pays (gross) or what the shop keeps (net), and use one basis for the whole file.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Deposits.\u003C/strong> Bottle deposits (pant, Pfand) are excluded from the UK selling price definition. Leave them out of both sides, or include them on both.\u003C/li>\n\u003C/ol>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"how-do-you-compare-competitor-prices-across-different-pack-s\">How do you compare competitor prices across different pack sizes?\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>Convert both sides to a unit price: price per kilogram, litre, metre or piece. The Price Indication Directive defines the unit price as the final price, including VAT, "for one kilogramme, one litre, one metre" or another common unit. Then compare unit prices, not pack prices.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The UK guidance explains the purpose in one line: "the purpose of the unit price is to enable consumers to compare the price of products per unit of measure". Shops often show the unit price already, so you can collect it as its own field.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Here is how a pack-size gap can reverse. This is an \u003Cstrong>illustrative example, not real data\u003C/strong>:\u003C/p>\n\u003Ctable>\n\u003Cthead>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Cth>\u003C/th>\n\u003Cth>Your shop\u003C/th>\n\u003Cth>Competitor\u003C/th>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003C/thead>\n\u003Ctbody>\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Pack\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>4 × 250 ml (1.0 L)\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>6 × 250 ml (1.5 L)\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Pack price, VAT incl.\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>€7.96\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>€10.74\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Price per litre\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>€7.96\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>€7.16\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Who looks cheaper by pack price\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>You, by €2.78\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Who is cheaper per litre\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Competitor, 10% below your €7.96\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003C/tbody>\u003C/table>\n\u003Cp>Your pack is €2.78 cheaper, yet you are 11.2% dearer per litre (€7.96 ÷ €7.16 × 100 = 111.2). Shoppers who look at the shelf label see that.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>We wrote a full walk-through of this problem, including multipacks and "Big pack" titles, in our guide to \u003Ca href=\"/blogs/price-per-unit-comparison-pack-sizes-2026\">price per unit comparison across pack sizes\u003C/a>.\u003C/p>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"how-do-you-handle-variants-and-different-ean-codes\">How do you handle variants and different EAN codes?\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>Match on the exact variant: model number, colour, size, edition and bundle contents. Use the EAN or GTIN when both sides carry it, then check title, brand and size. Treat a close-but-not-identical product as a separate line, not a match, or your gap will be wrong.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Variants catch teams in two ways. A competitor may list a "starter set" with an extra brush head under almost the same title. Or a fashion retailer prices one colour lower to clear stock. Both look like a price gap but aren't one.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>EAN codes help, but they aren't perfect. In our idealo.de check, we searched the DiamondClean 9000 by the EAN 8710103938040. idealo found the right product page, but the EAN it showed on that page was a different one: 8182171047199. One product can carry more than one code.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Titles on one product page don't always agree either. On the Sonicare 5300 page, three of the 20 offers were titled HX7101/01, a different model code from the /02 we searched. On the DiamondClean 9000 page, some titles said "Doppelpack" or "2er-Set" and one said "1 St". A comparison that only reads prices would treat all of them as the same item. Matching on EAN first and then on title, brand and size catches these cases. Our guide to \u003Ca href=\"/blogs/product-data-matching-ecommerce-ai-2026\">product matching for price monitoring\u003C/a> covers the methods in more depth.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Not every product will be on every site, either. Three of the five EANs we searched had no idealo.de page at all. A missing match is a gap in coverage, not a price of zero. Leave it blank and count it.\u003C/p>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"what-should-a-like-for-like-comparison-file-look-like\">What should a like-for-like comparison file look like?\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>One row per product and competitor, with the raw fields kept apart: item price, VAT basis, shipping, delivered price, pack quantity, unit price, match basis and the date checked. Keep the raw values and compute gaps in separate columns, so anyone can see how each number was made.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cfigure class=\"article-figure\">\u003Cimg src=\"/img/news/competitor-price-comparison-like-for-like-2026-2.png\" alt=\"Like-for-like competitor price comparison file layout with shipping, VAT, pack size and variant columns\">\u003Cfigcaption>The columns a comparison needs before the gap means anything\u003C/figcaption>\u003C/figure>\n\u003Cp>The columns that matter:\u003C/p>\n\u003Ctable>\n\u003Cthead>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Cth>Column\u003C/th>\n\u003Cth>Example value\u003C/th>\n\u003Cth>Why it's there\u003C/th>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003C/thead>\n\u003Ctbody>\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Your SKU and EAN\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>4006-001 / EAN\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Ties every row to your product list\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Competitor and URL\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Shop B, product page\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>So anyone can open the source\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Match basis\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>EAN / title + size / review\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Shows how sure the match is\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Item price, VAT incl.\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>€64.95\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>The price as the shop shows it\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>VAT included\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>yes\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Flags B2B net prices\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Shipping (1 item)\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>€6.99\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Fee for a one-item order\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Delivered price\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>€71.94\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Item price + shipping\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Pack quantity and unit\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>1.5 L\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Needed for the unit price\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Unit price\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>€7.16 / L\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>The fair comparison across packs\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Checked at\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>12 Nov 2026\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Prices change; stale rows mislead\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003C/tbody>\u003C/table>\n\u003Cp>In my experience, the hard part isn't the formula. It's the process around it. Files are emailed back and forth, several people add their input, and days pass before anyone can act on the numbers. In Estonia, category managers often have assistants who collect competitor prices by hand. A file with these columns at least makes each row checkable by the next person.\u003C/p>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"should-you-use-a-competitor-price-comparison-tool-or-a-sprea\">Should you use a competitor price comparison tool or a spreadsheet?\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>A spreadsheet works for a few dozen products checked now and then. Past that, a tool saves the copy-paste and keeps the dates honest. Whichever you pick, check it collects shipping, VAT basis and pack size as separate fields, and that it matches products by EAN and attributes, not by title alone.\u003C/p>\n\u003Ctable>\n\u003Cthead>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Cth>Option\u003C/th>\n\u003Cth>Good for\u003C/th>\n\u003Cth>Watch out for\u003C/th>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003C/thead>\n\u003Ctbody>\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Spreadsheet, filled by hand\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Up to a few dozen products, checked now and then\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Hours of copy-paste, prices out of date by the time the file is shared\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Comparison sites (idealo, Prisjakt, PriceRunner)\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Checking one product across many shops\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Only covers shops listed there; shipping shown differently per site\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Price monitoring software (Price2Spy, Lengow, ScrapeWise and others)\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Hundreds or thousands of products on a schedule\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Check how each tool matches products and whether it stores shipping and unit price\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003Ctr>\n\u003Ctd>Managed service\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Teams that want a finished, matched table\u003C/td>\n\u003Ctd>Higher monthly cost; you depend on the provider's setup\u003C/td>\n\u003C/tr>\n\u003C/tbody>\u003C/table>\n\u003Cp>ScrapeWise publishes this blog, so treat it as one option among these. It collects the fields you define (item price, shipping, stock, unit price) from the competitor pages you list, at most once a day. It can \u003Ca href=\"/use-cases/product-matching\">match the rows to your product list\u003C/a> by EAN first, then title, brand and size, then pictures, with unsure pairs sent to review. For a quick check of two pages, the \u003Ca href=\"/tools/free-competitor-price-checker\">free competitor price checker\u003C/a> reads both live and won't report a gap when the brand or model codes disagree.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>With every competitor's price next to yours each morning, one overnight drop doesn't need to cause panic.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cfigure class=\"article-video\">\u003Cdiv class=\"article-video__frame\">\u003Ciframe src=\"https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/6SPtDNsrb8s\" title=\"Try not to panic: pricing edition\" loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"accelerometer; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen>\u003C/iframe>\u003C/div>\u003Cfigcaption>Try not to panic: pricing edition\u003C/figcaption>\u003C/figure>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"what-should-you-do-next\">What should you do next?\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>Pick ten of your best-selling products and three competitors. Fill in the columns above for each pair, including shipping and pack size. See how many gaps survive. If the delivered-price ranking differs from the item-price ranking, as it did for 26 of 37 offers in our check, your current file is telling you the wrong story.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>When you want that table refreshed without the copy-paste, set up \u003Ca href=\"/use-cases/competitor-price-tracking\">competitor price tracking\u003C/a> on your own list. You can \u003Ca href=\"https://portal.scrapewise.ai/register\">run your own competitor URLs with shipping and unit price as fields: the first 5 requests are free, no card needed\u003C/a>.\u003C/p>\n",{"title":10,"description":11,"badge":12,"benefits":13},"Frequently asked questions","Competitor price comparison - how to compare like-for-like with shipping, VAT, pack sizes and variants","FAQ",[14,17,20,23,26],{"title":15,"description":16},"How do you compare competitor prices fairly?","Compare the identical product on both sides: the same model and variant, the same quantity or a unit price, the same tax basis and the same delivery terms. Keep item price and delivered price in separate columns. A gap only means something once all four match, because a cheaper sticker price can hide a shipping fee, a smaller pack or a net-of-VAT price.",{"title":18,"description":19},"Should competitor price comparison include shipping costs?","Track both the item price and the delivered price. Shipping can change who is cheapest. In a ScrapeWise check of 37 offers on idealo.de on 12 November 2026, 18 offers charged shipping of €2.99 to €6.99, and sorting by price including shipping changed the rank of 26 of the 37 offers. For low-value items, shipping can be a large share of what the shopper pays.",{"title":21,"description":22},"Do you compare competitor prices with or without VAT?","For consumer shops in the EU and UK, compare prices including VAT, because the Price Indication Directive and the UK Price Marking Order define the selling price as the final price including VAT and all other taxes. Convert B2B shops that show net prices before comparing, and pick one basis, gross or net, when you compare shops in countries with different VAT rates.",{"title":24,"description":25},"How do you compare prices when pack sizes are different?","Convert each price to a unit price, such as price per kilogram, litre or piece, and compare those. A 6-pack can cost more than a 4-pack on the shelf and still be cheaper per litre. Many shops show the unit price already, so collect it as its own field next to the pack price and the pack quantity.",{"title":27,"description":28},"What is the best tool for competitor price comparison?","It depends on how many products you track. A spreadsheet works for a few dozen products. Comparison sites such as idealo, Prisjakt and PriceRunner are good for checking one product across many shops. Price monitoring software or a managed service suits hundreds of products on a schedule. Whichever you pick, check that it stores shipping, VAT basis and pack size and matches by EAN, not title alone.","Competitor Price Comparison: Compare Like-for-Like","Competitor price comparison done right: shipping, VAT, pack sizes and variants. On 12 Nov 2026, 26 of 37 idealo.de offers changed rank once shipping was added.","Siim Brazier",null,"https://www.linkedin.com/in/siimbrazier/","Founder & CEO, ScrapeWise","/img/team/siim.jpg",false,"Scrapewise idealo offers check on idealo.de, 12 November 2026 (03:41 UTC): 5 EAN codes searched, 2 products found, 37 shop offers read (the 20 cheapest offers idealo shows per product page) with item price, shipping cost and total price. Run with the Scrapewise idealo offers tool. Shops are not named.","Pricing",12,[41,46,51],{"slug":42,"title":43,"image":44,"date":5,"category":38,"excerpt":45},"do-prices-rise-before-black-friday-2026","Do Prices Rise Before Black Friday? Five Weeks of Our Own Records","/img/news/do-prices-rise-before-black-friday-2026.png","We recorded 1,364 products at seven large EU shops every night from 5 October. By 11 November, 20.5% cost more than their October median and 29.9% cost less.",{"slug":47,"title":48,"image":49,"date":5,"category":38,"excerpt":50},"how-to-check-black-friday-discount-is-real-2026","How to Check Whether a Black Friday Discount Is Real","/img/news/how-to-check-black-friday-discount-is-real-2026.png","A was-now sticker shows two numbers and only one is a fact. How to read the label beside the old price, and a four-step test you can run before Black Friday 2026.",{"slug":52,"title":53,"image":54,"date":5,"category":38,"excerpt":55},"same-product-price-differences-eu-shops-2026","The Same Product, Priced Across Europe, Before Black Friday","/img/news/same-product-price-differences-eu-shops-2026.png","We matched 78 products by barcode across five large EU shops on one night. The median gap between the cheapest and dearest shop holding the same item was 37.3%.",{"slug":42,"title":43},[58,62,65,68,71,74,77,80,83],{"level":59,"text":60,"id":61},2,"What is a like-for-like competitor price comparison?","what-is-a-like-for-like-competitor-price-comparison",{"level":59,"text":63,"id":64},"What did 37 real offers on idealo.de show about shipping?","what-did-37-real-offers-on-idealode-show-about-shipping",{"level":59,"text":66,"id":67},"Should you compare prices with or without shipping?","should-you-compare-prices-with-or-without-shipping",{"level":59,"text":69,"id":70},"How do you handle VAT in a competitor price comparison?","how-do-you-handle-vat-in-a-competitor-price-comparison",{"level":59,"text":72,"id":73},"How do you compare competitor prices across different pack sizes?","how-do-you-compare-competitor-prices-across-different-pack-s",{"level":59,"text":75,"id":76},"How do you handle variants and different EAN codes?","how-do-you-handle-variants-and-different-ean-codes",{"level":59,"text":78,"id":79},"What should a like-for-like comparison file look like?","what-should-a-like-for-like-comparison-file-look-like",{"level":59,"text":81,"id":82},"Should you use a competitor price comparison tool or a spreadsheet?","should-you-use-a-competitor-price-comparison-tool-or-a-sprea",{"level":59,"text":84,"id":85},"What should you do next?","what-should-you-do-next",[],[88],{"id":89,"title":90,"description":91,"uploadDate":92},"6SPtDNsrb8s","Try not to panic: pricing edition","A short ScrapeWise film: the overnight price drop, the Monday morning and the Friday flash sale, and why every competitor's price next to yours each morning keeps you calm.","2026-11-02",1794513794620]