For FMCG suppliers, the competitive landscape at the store level changes rapidly. Prices fluctuate, product ranges shift, and promotions come and go with little notice. If competitor intelligence is gathered only through occasional store visits or monthly reports, changes are often noticed only after the fact. FMCG competitor analysis has, however, changed significantly now that e-commerce data has emerged as a reliable, daily window into the store-level situation across Finnish retail chains.
Major Finnish retail chains, such as Kesko and S-ryhmä, operate online stores whose pricing and assortment data reflect what is happening in their brick-and-mortar locations. This makes e-commerce data a valuable source for FMCG suppliers who want to understand the market more broadly than their own sales team’s observations allow.
What e-commerce data reveals about your competitors
E-commerce data gives FMCG suppliers visibility into things that previously required either extensive fieldwork or remained completely hidden. Data collected daily from retailers’ online stores shows at what price a competitor’s product is being sold, whether it is even listed in a given store’s assortment, and when it is included in a promotion.
In practice, this means a supplier can see, for example, if a competitor lowers its price in the Prisma chain or if a new product appears in the assortment of twenty K-Supermarket locations. The information is not limited to online shoppers — it reflects how products are displayed and priced in the stores or chains being monitored. E-commerce data therefore acts as a mirror of the in-store situation, not merely a measure of digital sales.
POS and delivery data combined: the foundation of competitor analysis
E-commerce data is a powerful tool, but its value grows significantly when combined with other data sources. POS data in competitor monitoring gains depth when point-of-sale data and delivery data are examined side by side.
POS data shows what is being sold in stores. Delivery data, in turn, reveals what is being shipped there. Combining these two sources enables, for example, the identification of out-of-stock situations: if deliveries have been made but sales have stalled, the product may be out of stock on the shelf or placed in an unfavorable position. When e-commerce data on pricing and promotions is added to this, the supplier gains a complete picture of the market situation that their own sales data alone cannot provide.
This combined view is particularly valuable when trying to understand why a product’s sales in a particular chain have declined. Has a competitor been running aggressive promotions? Has a new product entered the assortment that is eroding market share? Combining data helps anticipate changes and make decisions in time, rather than reacting to them only after the fact.
Practical methods for competitor monitoring using data
Building competitor monitoring on a data foundation requires clear processes and the right questions. Browsing data at random does not create competitive advantage, but systematic monitoring focused on the right metrics does.
Price monitoring and promotion analysis
One of the most concrete applications is tracking competitors’ prices and promotions at the chain and store level. When data is updated daily, a supplier quickly notices if a competitor launches a price promotion in a particular chain or in a subset of its stores. This enables rapid response, whether that means reviewing your own pricing or activating the sales team.
Assortment changes and new product launches
Another key area to monitor is assortment changes: when a competitor’s product is added to or removed from a chain’s range. A new product launch may signal growing competitive pressure in a given category, while a delisting may open an opportunity to expand your own shelf space. Daily monitoring ensures these changes are detected without delay, not months later.
Chain-by-chain comparison
Because different chains have their own strategies, the competitive situation can vary significantly between Kesko, S-ryhmä, Tokmanni, and others. A chain-by-chain comparison reveals where your own position is strong and where a competitor has managed to secure better visibility or a more favorable shelf placement.
Challenges in turning raw data into competitive advantage
Collecting data is only the first step. The biggest challenge is converting raw data into actionable intelligence that drives real-world decision-making.
Data from online stores does not come in a clean, ready-to-use format. Product naming conventions vary by chain, price data can contain errors, and promotional labels are not always consistent. Without careful data cleaning and structuring, analysis produces incorrect conclusions. This is especially critical in competitor analysis, where even small errors can lead to wrong strategic decisions.
Another challenge is integrating data from different sources. POS data, delivery data, and e-commerce data come from different systems and in different formats. Combining them requires technical expertise and industry-specific understanding of how the data points relate to one another. Without this understanding, the data remains isolated fragments rather than forming a coherent picture of the market situation.
The resource question is also a genuine obstacle for many suppliers. Daily data collection, cleaning, and analysis requires ongoing investment that is not always feasible or sensible to build within one’s own organization.
Market data services for automating competitor monitoring
These challenges are best addressed by a service that automates data collection, cleaning, and integration into a ready-to-analyze format. This way, the supplier does not need to build their own data infrastructure — energy can instead be directed toward the analysis and decision-making itself.
FieldForce’s eForce market data service includes a Price & Listing Monitor that collects pricing and assortment data daily from nine Finnish retail chains, including Kesko, S-ryhmä, Tokmanni, Puuilo, Sokos, and Lidl for promotions. The data is pre-structured, so suppliers can easily see both the status of their own products and the position of competitors across different chains.
Automated daily monitoring eliminates the problem of a competitor’s price change or new promotion going unnoticed for weeks. When data is up to date every day, the sales team can respond quickly and enter trade negotiations armed with current market intelligence. Identifying long-term trends also becomes easier when data accumulates systematically rather than from random samples.
For an FMCG supplier that wants to make decisions based on data rather than guesswork, systematic competitor monitoring is an investment that pays for itself faster than most other market analysis methods. Competitive advantage comes from seeing changes before they show up in your own sales figures.