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20 Best Shopify Spy Tools For Competitor Research

15 minutes read
A black magnifying glass depicting a spy like figure with the text top shopify spy tools
Ana Gelevska

The eCommerce game is constantly evolving, and staying ahead of the curve is essential for Shopify store owners.

Here’s where Shopify spy tools come in. These powerful tools allow you to spy on shopify stores revealing valuable insights into market trends, customer preferences, and competitor strategies.

With over 4.1 million Shopify stores globally the competition is fierce. So, access to data and insights is paramount to achieve success.

To gain that edge, Shopify store owners can leverage spy tools, where in the world of eCommerce, even a slight advantage can lead to significant wins for your online store.

In this article we explore the top 20 Shopify spy tools for 2024, with the pricing, features, and pros and cons of each so you can find the perfect tool for your research.

What is a Shopify Spy Tool?

A Shopify spy tool is software designed to analyze Shopify stores, providing insights for dropshipping and competitor research. It reveals product lists, pricing, Shopify themes, app usage, and marketing tactics.

These tools help eCommerce businesses adopt proven strategies, avoid mistakes, and stay competitive by identifying market trends and opportunities. These tools only work inside the Shopify ecosystem, and are also commonly known as Shopify scrapers or Shopify store analyzers.

Imagine having a sneak peek into your competitor’s playbook – that’s the power of a spy tool. Shopify spy tools not only allow e-commerce sellers to analyze what their competitors are doing, they can also give you the data to assess the success and failures of competitors.

By analyzing competitor stores, spy tools provide data on product lists, pricing strategies, Shopify themes, app usage, and marketing tactics.

This actionable intelligence helps eCommerce store owners adopt proven strategies, avoid costly mistakes, and stay ahead of market shifts. With just a few clicks, users can gain insights that inform decisions on inventory, marketing, and customer engagement.

20 Best Shopify Spy Tools

Here is our list of the 20 best Shopify spy tools to in 2024. 

RankSpy ToolPrice
1Koala InspectorFree
2BigspyFree,
$9/Month
3Spyfu$39/month
4XparetoFree
5PowerAdSpy$49/month
6Shopify SpyFree
7Commerce InspectorFree,
$49/Month
8Builtwith$295/month
9Fera.AI Shopify App DetectorFree
10Koala Theme DetectorFree
11UUSpyFree
12PPSPYFree,
$5/Month
13Shopify RaiseFree
14Ali HunterFree,
$19/Month
15EcomhuntFree,
$29/Month
16SimilarWebFree,
$199/Month
17Shine Commerce InspectorFree
18Shopify HuntFree
19Ahrefs$99/month
20Semrush$119.95/month

1. Koala Inspector

Koala Inspector Landing Page

We might be biased, but Koala Inspector was created as a custom made spy tool to fill a gap in the market as no other tool or software featured a comprehensive suite of tools and features needed for an all in one solution.

Since launching, Koala Inspector is used and trusted by over 100,000 users and is rated as one of the best Shopify spy Chrome extensions in the market. It delivers consistent high-quality insights for free.

Made for dropshippers and Shopify store owners across product niches, this tool reveals all your competitors’ e-commerce secrets.

You will have access to features including Shopify apps, themes, newest products, bestsellers, monthly traffic visits, sources, ad campaigns, and find retailers. Using this tool, you can reach your goals faster, without needing to compromise quality and convenience. 

Pricing

Koala Inspector has 3 pricing models starting from free to $19.99/month.

  • Free.
  • Professional Plan $7.99/month.
  • Ultimate Plan $19.99/month.

All paid plans include a 3-day free trial. This lets you test out its capabilities before subscribing.

The Professional Plan includes 10 export CSV credits, 10 find retailers credits, 20 site traffic credits, 20 ad campaigns, and tracking for 3 shops.

The Ultimate Plan, comes with unlimited use of all features, alongside shop tracking for 50 stores.

👍Pros:

Free for life: You can use Koala Inspector for free, forever. As a result, you can invest in other aspects of your e-commerce business. This helps optimize growth

Full-suite solution: Eliminate the need for multiple apps and extensions. Instead, use Koala Inspector as an integrated Shopify store analyzer. It gives you all the data you need in one place. Use a reliable Shopify store analyzer to find themes, apps, ad campaigns, products, and more.

24/7 customer support: You will never have to struggle alone when you use Koala Inspector. This Shopify spy tool comes with round-the-clock customer support. The Koala Inspector team will address your queries at any time. You can always seek advice and assistance whenever necessary, to get the most out of your Shopify store’s features.

2. BigSpy

Shopify spy Bigspy

BigSpy touts itself as the best and cheapest spy tool to detect ad campaigns. It supports more than 9 platforms. These include Pinterest, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. 

Pricing

  • Pro Plan: $1 for 3 days, then $99/month for 1 user
  • Basic Plan: $9/month for 1 user (no advanced features like ads analysis and top charts)
  • Enterprise Plan: $3,600/year with multi-account seat support and full feature access

👍Pros:

Enterprise support: Large teams oftentimes require sophisticated solutions. BigSpy offers enterprise support for these teams. This solution can ensure that their complex e-commerce needs are sufficiently met.

Support for multiple platforms: Whether you’re detecting ads on up-and-coming platforms like TikTok or gunning for more established social channels like Facebook, BigSpy has coverage for multiple ad networks.

👎Cons:

Lacks functionality beyond ad detection: If you are looking for an all-in-one solution, BigSpy offers only ad detection support. It does not contain other features. This might mean you will need to download other extensions and tools to make up for its shortfalls.

3. SpyFu 

Shopify spy SpyFu

SpyFu is focused on Search Engine Optimization and pay-per-click campaigns. With this tool, you can quickly tap into resources for competitor analysis, SERP analysis, keyword research, and more. 

Pricing

  • Basic Plan: $39/month (up to 10k rows of search results, 6 months of historical data)
  • Professional Plan: $79/month (unlimited search results and over 10 years of historical data)

👍Pros:

30-day refund policy: This Shopify store analyzer gives customers 30 days from the date of purchase to request a refund. This policy gives customers the opportunity to try out the product.

They can then assess if it meets their needs and expectations. If the customer is not satisfied with the product within the first 30 days of use, they can request a full refund.

Benefits to SEO and PPC insights. SEO and PPC insights reveal which keywords and phrases are most successful at bringing in new leads. These keywords and phrases can then be targeted in website content and advertising initiatives.

This data may be utilized to increase the website’s visibility and search results by making modifications. Furthermore, businesses may increase traffic to their website by optimizing them for search engines.

👎Cons:

Lack of extensive features: A Shopify spy tool like SpyFu that focuses just on SEO and PPC does not provide a comprehensive set of features. As a result, it may be unable to give users a comprehensive picture of their competitors’ operations.

This results in insufficient or unreliable information.

4. Xpareto 

Shopify spy Xpareto

Xpareto allows users to look at the best-selling items of their competitors and analyze their business methods to learn more about their strategy. Users may easily acquire this knowledge using the tool by following a few straightforward steps.

Pricing

  • Free: No account or subscription required; all features accessible to visitors without signing up.

👍Pros:

Cost-efficiency: Tools which require a monthly fee tend to be much more expensive than Xpareto. Hence, individuals searching for more affordable solutions may find this browser-based application more appealing.

Compatibility: In comparison to an app extension, Xpareto may be more compatible with a larger range of operating systems. This improves accessibility for e-commerce business owners who may prefer other operating systems.

👎Cons:

Limited functionality: Xpareto is solely available as a website. A Shopify spy tool app extension often provides more flexibility, simplicity of use, integration, and performance than a Shopify spy tool that is exclusively accessible through an internet browser.

An app extension may be more capable of integrating with other tools and systems. Users that rely on several tools to manage their business may find other apps more useful and efficient as a result.

5. PowerAdSpy

Shopify spy PowerAdSpy

Using PowerAdSpy, you can monitor ad campaigns across a range of platforms. You can also use filters to find targeted and specific keywords for your needs. Hence, you will be able to identify the best-performing keywords and geographical regions to target your ad campaigns. 

Pricing

  • Free Plan: Access basic features at no cost
  • Basic Plan: $24.50/month
  • Palladium Plan: $174.50/month (highest-tier paid plan)

👍Pros:

Targeted ad campaigns: PowerAdSpy allows businesses to see what competitors are doing, in terms of advertising and how effective their campaigns are. This helps businesses identify opportunities and make informed decisions about advertising strategies.

By analyzing the targeting strategies of competitors, e-commerce business owners can better understand their audience and target their campaigns more effectively.

👎Cons:

High cost: Some of PowerAdSpy’s plans can be expensive, which may not be cost-effective for all businesses.

6. Shopify Spy

Shopify spy chrome extension

Shopify Spy is a Shopify scraper tool and Shopify store analyzer. It allows you to easily export your findings and product listings from competitors as CSV files.

Following this, you would be able to open up these CSV files in Excel to extract the data you need. This process can be done in a matter of minutes and is extensive, providing all product listing fields.

It offers a great amount of flexibility for different users, available for download on both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. 

Pricing

  • Free Plan: Search up to 100 products
  • Premium Plan: $29/month or $199/year for expanded features

👍Pros:

Export as CSV: If you love compiling your data neatly on Excel and getting data-driven information conveniently, Shopify Spy efficiently scrapes product lists as CSV files. It does so without requiring an extraordinary amount of app permissions.

👎Cons:

Limited features: Shopify Spy is best used as a Shopify scraper, extracting thousands of products at one go. However, if you’re looking for a Shopify spy tool that offers more, you might want to consider other options.

For example, it is not capable of detecting Shopify themes and apps easily, which may hinder your comprehensive e-commerce growth goals.

7. Commerce Inspector

Shopify spy commerce inspector

Commerce Inspector is a Shopify spy tool and Shopify store analyzer, which offers information on product availability, pricing, and delivery alternatives. Using this tool, you can obtain useful data and make e-commerce business decisions with confidence.

Pricing

  • Free Plan: Limited features.
  • Paid Plans: Start at $29/month, go up to $149/month.
    • Track unlimited data for 3-30 stores, depending on the chosen plan.
    • Access advanced features like shop-level and product-level revenue, trending product lists.

👍Pros:

Track price changes: Curious to see how prices change over time in competitors’ stores? You can track product pricing on numerous e-commerce websites with Commerce Inspector. Stay informed of price changes as they occur by configuring alerts to reflect them.

Comparison tool: Users may evaluate the costs and features of items on various e-commerce websites using Commerce Inspector.

👎Cons:

Lack of flexibility: Once you decide to subscribe to a store, you must commit to this decision for a 30-day time window. You will not be able to switch this store out for a different one.

According to Commerce Inspector’s website, this is to avoid allowing consumers to repeatedly subscribe to and unsubscribe from shops, giving them access to more data than is permitted by their subscription.

8. BuiltWith 

Shopify spy BuiltWith

BuiltWith is a Shopify spy tool that covers three pillars of analytics and insights: lead generation, market share, and sales intelligence.

By providing coverage across these segments, this Shopify store analyzer helps you understand important data points which define your competitors’ success. Its other features include global data coverage, report filtering, and cyber risk auditing. 

Pricing

  • Free Plan: Detect metrics on standalone e-commerce sites.
  • Basic Plan: $295/month for additional features.
  • Pro Plan: $495/month for more advanced capabilities.
  • Team Plan: $995/month with unlimited access for enterprise teams.

👍Pros:

Extensive reports: BuiltWith allows users unlimited report downloads without constraints, with the ability to export these as CSV files in Excel. These lists also contain a full spectrum of data that is integral to your business intelligence needs.

👎Cons:

Pricing: BuiltWith’s price plans can be pricey for teams on a budget and may not be the most cost-efficient option available. For e-commerce beginners and novice dropshippers, committing to a plan which costs upwards of $295 may feel like a significant expense at first. 

9. Shopify App Detector by Fera.ai 

Shopify spy-Shopify App Detector by Fera.ai

Do you need to find out which Shopify apps your competitors are using? Or do you want to find out what Shopify theme is best when it comes to maximizing conversion rates? Find out which apps and themes are being used by a Shopify store easily with Fera.ai.

Pricing

  • Free: No sign-up or subscription required; fully accessible without monthly fees.

👍Pros:

Find apps and themes instantly: Optimize your time and eliminate the need for time-consuming research when you use Shopify App Detector by Fera.ai.

With this Shopify spy tool and Shopify store analyzer, you can find out what apps and themes are used by your competitors in a fuss-free and organized manner.

Easy to Install: To install Shopify App Detector by Fera.ai, all you need to do is visit the Google Chrome web store and find the extension and add it to Chrome. You can start using the extension instantly and find out what apps and themes you should consider downloading quickly.

👎Cons:

Limited capabilities: Considering that Shopify App Detector by Fera.ai specializes in detecting Shopify apps and themes, you won’t be able to get other features you may need with this tool.

While other Shopify store analyzers like Koala Inspector include a full suite of features, Fera.ai’s offering is less comprehensive.

10. Koala Shopify Theme Detector

Building a successful Shopify store isn’t always a walk in the park, especially with the overwhelming number of themes to choose from.

This is where the Koala Apps Shopify Theme Detector comes in handy for anyone looking to make the process of building an online store easier.

With just a simple input of your competitor’s Shopify store URL, this tool will reveal the exact theme they’re using. No more guesswork—just clear, straightforward results in seconds.

Pricing

Free: Simply enter the Shopify store URL to get theme information with no hidden costs.

👍Pros:

Easy to use: Learning and navigating complex e-commerce tools can be time-consuming, but the Shopify Theme Detector keeps it simple. Just input a URL, and you’ll instantly know which theme is in use.

No cost: The tool is 100% free. You can use the web version, or install the Chrome extension to have with you at all times.

Great for beginners: This tool is an ideal resource for anyone looking to make data-driven decisions without the need for a steep learning curve.

👎Cons:

No paid plans to choose from: While Shopify Theme Detector’s cost-efficiency is a huge plus, there are no paid plans for those who seek a more advanced tool for their needs. 

11. Uuspy 

Shopify spy - Uuspy

Uuspy is a free Shopify spy tool and Shopify store analyzer. It enables e-commerce store owners to examine and follow competitors’ sales strategies.

You may use it to determine your competitors’ best-selling items, most popular categories, and daily sales volume. Additionally, you can use it to remain updated on competitors’ sales performance and order statuses.

Pricing

  • Free: Install as a Chrome extension at no cost.

👍Pros:

Real-Time Tracking: Look no further than Uuspy if you’re looking for a tool that can track how your other competitors are performing. You can see which orders are being placed in real-time, giving you an idea of how frequently orders are coming through. 

Understand best-selling products: Scoping the market is essential to win at the e-commerce game. With UUSPY, you can keep an eye on your competitors. This lets you exceed their performance by identifying their top-selling products and hottest product categories. You can also find out how much sales are transacted daily.

👎Cons:

Lack of dedicated customer support: Uuspy’s website lacks information on how you can reach customer support live, and there is no support service being advertised.

12. PPSPY 

Shopify spy - PPspy

PPSPY helps Shopify store owners analyze competitors’ stores and identify best-selling products. Hence, they can use these insights to make more informed decisions for their businesses.

Pricing

  • Free: No hidden charges or paid plans.

👍Pros:

Detailed store analysis: PPSPY doesn’t just provide the basics. It goes above and beyond to offer an extensive range of information. These include identifying Facebook and TikTok ad pixels. Other tools on this list do not frequently offer such detailed analysis.

Ability to download Shopify reviews: Trust is a crucial instrument to winning customers over. That is why PPSPY’s Shopify review download function is useful. You can easily import Shopify reviews for existing competitors’ products right into your store with ease.

👎Cons:

No ad campaign detection: Digital marketing strategies are essential in driving business success. Therefore, PSPY’s lack of ad campaign detection limits its full potential. 

13. Shopify Raise 

Shopify Raise focuses on providing sales data and market insights for Shopify store owners. It pulls in sales trends, pricing strategies, and product performance metrics to give you a comprehensive view of how their products stack up against competitors. 

Furthermore, it also helps track discounts and promotions from other Shopify stores, permitting you to adjust their marketing strategies accordingly.

Pricing

  • Subscription Plan: $99/month, with a free trial for first-time users.

👍Pros:

  • Product tag analysis: Shopify Raise allows you to conduct product tag analysis to see how competitors organize their catalogs.
  • Sales trends and insights: Shopify Raise is also excellent for tracking sales trends, pricing strategies, and competitor promotions.
  • Free trial: Shopify Raise offers a free trial, allowing first-time users to explore the tool before committing to a subscription.

👎Cons:

  • Lack of theme detection: Shopify Raise does not include a Shopify theme detector, making it harder to analyze the themes competitors are using.
  • High pricing for small businesses: Starting at $99/month, Shopify Raise may be expensive for your business, 
  • Limited integrations: Shopify Raise lacks advanced SEO or traffic analysis features and integrations with other marketing tools.

14. Ali Hunter

Shopify spy - Ali Hunter

Ali Hunter brings together a range of useful Shopify spy features in one place. You will be able to explore best-selling items to decide what to sell to your customers. Moreover, you can use the tool to find the best-reviewed products.

This ensures you are able to meet your customers’ demands and keep them satisfied

Pricing

  • Free Trial: 7-day free trial for first-time users
  • Startup Plan: $19/month
  • Growing Plan: $29/month
  • Professional Plan: $49/month
  • Enterprise Plan: $99/month

👍Pros:

All-in-one solution: Comprehensive tools are ideal for e-commerce sellers. Ali Hunter brings all its features under one roof. You will no longer need to switch between apps and extensions to complete your competitive analysis.

Assess trustworthiness: Ali Hunter’s seller credibility feature gives you the autonomy to choose the best sellers in your niche. This ensures you work with only the best suppliers available.

👎Cons:

No free plan: Beyond the 7-day free trial, you will need to subscribe to Ali Hunter for a monthly fee. This may not be the right choice for e-commerce store owners who have a tight budget. 

15. Ecomhunt 

Shopify spy - Ecomhunt

Ecomhunt: use it to find out what the best new products are. With its respective tools and resources, Shopify store owners can find ways to get ahead. Whether you want to find new products, Facebook ads, or Shopify apps, you can achieve any of these with this Shopify spy tool. 

Pricing

  • Free: 100% free with no extra charges or subscription required.

👍Pros:

Comprehensive: ​​Ecomhunt’s Shopify spy chrome extension is one of many offerings available on the company’s website. It merges several features conveniently, so you can start spying on your competitors effectively. 

Free of charge: Don’t feel like forking out a fortune on your e-commerce store? With Ecomhunt, you can save money on spying on competitors. 

👎Cons:

Manually added: According to Ecomhunt, winning products are added manually every day. This means there is a lack of a smart algorithm. Updates may be slower and laggier than other tools on this list. 

16. SimilarWeb

SimilarWeb is a digital intelligence platform with insights into web traffic, audience demographics, and online behaviors. You can use SimilarWeb to track website performance—including Shopify stores—by analyzing traffic sources, audience engagement, and competitor rankings. 

This tool details where your traffic is coming from and how your Shopify store performs against competitors.

Pricing

  • Free Version: Limited data access.
  • Premium Plans: Start at $199/month, unlocking advanced features like detailed traffic data, global rankings, and industry benchmarks.

👍Pros:

  • Comprehensive traffic data: SimilarWeb provides in-depth insights into traffic sources, audience engagement, and competitor rankings.
  • Competitive analysis: SimilarWeb is excellent for benchmarking your Shopify store against competitors and understanding market performance.
  • Global rankings: SimilarWeb offers industry benchmarks and rankings that help you assess your store’s performance on a broader scale.

👎Cons:

  • Limited free version: The free version offers very limited data, making it difficult to access meaningful insights without a premium subscription.
  • High pricing: Premium plans for SimilarWeb starting at $199/month may be too expensive for small businesses.
  • Lacks product-specific data: SimilarWeb does not provide detailed insights on individual product performance because it focuses more on traffic and audience behavior.

17. Shine!

Shine! focuses on store performance by monitoring customer reviews, social media mentions, and product ratings. It aggregates data from various platforms to present a clear overview of how customers perceive rival products. 

Moreover, Shine! is useful for identifying customer sentiment and understanding how well marketing efforts are resonating with their audience.

Pricing

Subscription Plan: Starts at $29/month.

👍Pros:

  • Affordable pricing: Accessible to smaller businesses due to its relatively low monthly cost.
  • Social media monitoring: Tracks customer reviews and social media mentions, giving real-time updates on customer sentiment.
  • Simple interface: Easy-to-use platform that provides real-time data on customer perceptions.

👎Cons:

  • Limited scope: Focused more on customer sentiment and social media monitoring rather than broader business intelligence.
  • No traffic data: Lacks insights into traffic sources and SEO performance.

18. ShopifyHunt

ShopifyHunt can help users find and track popular products in Shopify stores. ShopifyHunt is particularly good for drop shipping businesses or those looking to expand their product catalog based on data-driven insights.

Pricing

  • Free Version: Available with basic features.
  • Premium Plans: Start at $69/month for additional features like competitor tracking and advanced product analysis.

👍Pros:

  • Discover trending products: Shopify Hunt is excellent for finding and tracking popular and trending products across Shopify stores.
  • User-friendly: Shopify Hunt provides easy navigation and a user-friendly interface.
  • Free version: Shopify Hunt has basic product insights available in the free version, making it accessible to new users.

👎Cons:

  • Limited competitor analysis: The free version lacks advanced competitor tracking features.
  • No traffic data: Shopify Hunt does not provide insights into traffic sources or SEO performance.
  • Product-focused: Shopify Hunt primarily focuses on product trends, with fewer insights into broader store performance metrics.

19. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a leading SEO tool you can use to analyze Shopify stores’ organic search performance, backlinks, and content strategies. 

Although not a dedicated Shopify spy tool—Ahrefs is superb for providing detailed data on search engine rankings, competitor keywords, and link-building opportunities. Ahrefs is also invaluable for improving Shopify store visibility on Google and other search engines.

Pricing

  • Lite Plan: Starts at $99/month.
  • Standard Plan: Starts at $199/month.
  • Advanced Plan: Starts at $399/month.
  • Enterprise Plan: Starts at $999/month.

👍Pros:

  • Comprehensive SEO analysis: Ahrefs provides detailed insights into search engine rankings, backlinks, and keyword research.
  • Backlink tracking: Ahrefs is excellent for monitoring and improving your store’s link-building strategy.
  • Competitor keyword analysis: Ahrefs also helps identify other companies ranking keywords by offering opportunities to improve your search engine visibility.

👎Cons:

  • High pricing: The premium price of Ahrefs may be a barrier for small businesses.
  • Complex interface: Ahrefs can be overwhelming for users unfamiliar with SEO.
  • Not Shopify-specific: Ahrefs lacks Shopify-specific features like product or sales tracking. Instead, it focuses solely on SEO.

20. SEMRush

SEMRush is another top-tier SEO and digital marketing tool that provides a suite of features for Shopify stores. It offers keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink tracking, and insights into paid search campaigns. 

SEMRush is especially useful if you’re looking to optimize SEO and PPC (pay-per-click) efforts to drive more traffic and sales.

Pricing:

  • Pro Plan: $108.33/month.
  • Guru Plan: $208.33/month.
  • Business Plan: $416.66/month.

👍Pros:

  • Comprehensive SEO and PPC tools: SEMRush provides extensive tools for keyword research, backlink tracking, and paid search campaign analysis.
  • Organic and paid traffic insights: SEMRush offers data on both organic search rankings and paid traffic, making it a well-rounded digital marketing tool.
  • Competitor research: SEMRUSH is great for analyzing competitor strategies and improving your store’s visibility in search engines.

👎Cons:

  • Expensive: SEMRush pricing may be prohibitive for smaller businesses.
  • Complex interface: The platform has a steep learning curve, which can be difficult for new users.

Limited Shopify features: SEMRush lacks product-specific or sales data tracking, as it focuses more on SEO and PPC efforts.

Essential Features of Shopify Spy Tools

A good Shopify store spy tool should come with the following 6 features.

1. Product Analysis: To identify best-selling or trending products on competitors’ Shopify stores. A Shopify product spy feature can be a useful feature for finding a trending dropshipping niche or finding seasonal e-commerce products.

2. Traffic Analysis: To examine where competitors’ traffic comes from, which can include social media channels, organic search, or paid ads.

3. Pricing Strategy Insights: To help with gaining insights into competitors’ pricing models and any pricing changes over time.

4. Ad Insights: This allows you to see the advertising campaigns of competitors, including ad content, placement, and performance.

5. Theme Detector: To understand what theme a store is using, and if the theme is custom built or Shopify 2.0 compatible.

6. App Detector: To see what apps competitors are using in the background to enhance their Shopify store and engage with their customers.

We know the value of finding this information, so that’s why we have custom-built our own Chrome extension, Koala Inspector. Koala Inspector comes with all of the above features as well as a free built-in Shopify theme spy feature that shows you any Shopify theme in the click of a button.

How Do Shopify Spy Tools Get Their Data from Stores?

1. Web Scraping

Web scraping is a primary method used by Shopify spy tools to collect data from stores. These tools use automated scripts, or bots, that visit Shopify stores like you would browse a site.

However, instead of just viewing the content, the bots collect specific information, such as product details, prices, inventory levels, customer reviews, etc. They navigate the store’s HTML structure, extract relevant data points, and organize this information for analysis.

For instance, if a Shopify store lists its products with stock availability, product descriptions, and customer ratings—a web scraper can scan all this data and compile it into a dashboard. This lets you monitor competitors’ stock levels, price changes, and performance.

The main challenges of web scraping:

  • Blocked IPs: Websites may block scrapers if too many requests are made in a short period, particularly if the store detects unusual patterns.
  • Captchas: Some stores use Captchas to block automated tools from accessing data.
  • Data accuracy: Since web scraping pulls data directly from the store’s front end, store updates (e.g., website redesign) may break the web scraper’s power to pull accurate information.

2. APIs and Integrations

Some Shopify spy tools use a structured approach with APIs and third-party integrations. These tools connect to Shopify’s API to grab detailed data about store traffic, order information, sales trends, and product catalogs.

By utilizing the API, the tools can get real-time updates without having to scrape the store’s front end. This ensures higher data accuracy and better performance compared to web scraping. 

Additionally, APIs offer a more secure method of data retrieval because the interaction between the tool and the Shopify store is authorized and less prone to blocking.

Some tools also integrate with third-party services like Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, or other marketing platforms to provide a view of store performance.

3. Publicly Available Data

In addition to directly scraping websites or integrating with APIs, Shopify spy tools grab publicly available data from external sources. The data includes social media activity (like mentions on Facebook or Instagram), customer reviews on platforms such as Trustpilot or Google Reviews, and product ratings on external marketplaces.

For example, these tools can track that activity if a competitor’s Shopify store receives significant attention on social media. Besides, they can monitor product reviews to understand customer sentiment, product issues, and popular trends.

Is a free or paid spy tool better?

If you have a large team, enterprise plans may be more useful. Paid plans also tend to include more features. For bigger teams and more established stores, we recommend considering a paid option.

Is an all-in-one Shopify store analyzer better?

All-in-one tools are better. Save yourself the hassle of downloading multiple extensions and apps. You can achieve your goals with just one comprehensive tool. Such tools like Koala Inspector save you time, effort, and money. You should opt for these instead of downloading apps separately.

Can I succeed without Shopify spy tools?

You might be able to. However, thousands of sellers use these tools to succeed. To get ahead of your competitors, you need crucial data and insights.

What do I do with the insights?

Shopify spy tools, Shopify scrapers, and Shopify store analyzers provide you with competitor insights. Using these, you can either modify your strategies or implement new tactics. The possibilities are endless. You just need to decide how to improve your business with these insights.

Is a Shopify spy Chrome extension useful?

Yes! They are convenient and easy to use. They are featured within your browser. You do not have to launch an app separately. Everything is included in one place.

 

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Ana Gelevska
Ana Gelevska
Ana is a creative and customer-oriented freelance writer with over 5 years of experience working with eCommerce global clients. Ana enjoys breaking down the latest eCommerce trends and diving into the needs of today’s merchants.

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