What EcomWatchdog can and can't see

What it checks

• Each competitor's homepage, sale page, new-arrivals page and shipping and returns page. It finds them when you add the store, and you can change any of them.
• The product pages you add, for the option in each link.
• Up to 5 competitors on the free trial, 5 on Starter and 20 on Pro.

What it reports

• Promotions: sales, discounts and coupon codes.
• New offerings: new products, collections and bundles.
• Purchase incentives: free gifts, free-shipping thresholds and guarantees.
• Pricing: price changes on the products you follow.
• Offers that stop being advertised.

What it leaves out on purpose

• Products changing position, review counts and menus.
• Stock levels: whether something is in or out of stock is not reported.
• Pay-later wording ("4 payments of $25") when the price itself didn't change.

What it can't see

• It reads public pages only: not prices behind a login, in a cart or at checkout, or offers sent only by email or text message.
• Some stores block automated visits. Their pages can't be read, and the app says so instead of reporting "no change".
• Prices are what a visitor in the US sees, for the product option in the link you add.
• Checks run once a day, so a change made and undone between two checks can be missed.
• History starts when you add a store; it can't show what changed before that.

How it stays accurate

• Every update is checked against the page before it is saved: a price, code or date that isn't on the page is never reported.
• A page it couldn't read says so, with the reason, instead of "no change".
• A price it isn't sure about is shown as unclear rather than guessed.

Questions

What happens when a store blocks it?

The page shows that it couldn't be read and why, and it is tried again at the next daily check. It never pretends nothing changed.

Can it watch any page I choose?

For each competitor it watches the four key pages (you can change which page is used for each) and the product pages you add, not any page.