What It Is
The Competitor Intelligence skill gives your agents a structured research methodology for building comprehensive reports on named retail competitors. It directs the agent to gather, organize, and synthesize publicly available information — company overview, recent news, current promotions, assortment strategy, digital activity, and strategic signals — into a single working reference for Category Managers, Commercial, and Strategy teams.This is a default skill — ready to use immediately without any setup.
What It Can Do
Company Overview
Gather a factual baseline on each competitor: ownership, markets, store count, revenue signals, and core positioning — sourced from the competitor’s website, company databases, and business press.Latest News and Announcements
Pull recent news across corporate developments, store openings and closings, financial results, executive changes, and regulatory events. Supports date-filtered searches so you can focus on a specific time window (default: last 90 days).Current Promotions
Identify active and recent promotional activity from the competitor’s website, weekly flyers, and promotion aggregator sites — including promotion type, category, mechanic, and channel (in-store, online, app-exclusive).Assortment and Product Strategy
Examine the competitor’s product range: new launches, private label expansion, category resets, and exclusive or first-to-market products.Digital and Marketing Activity
Assess the competitor’s digital presence, including social media activity (public profiles only), e-commerce capabilities, app features, and notable marketing campaigns.Strategic Signals
Infer future direction from job posting patterns, leadership changes, and announced investments in new store formats, supply chain, or technology.When to Use It
Use the Competitor Intelligence skill when your agent needs to:- Prepare for category planning: Understand competitor positioning before a range review or buyer meeting
- React to a market move: A competitor launched something new and you need context fast
- Brief leadership: Produce a structured overview of the competitive landscape for a strategy session
- Support supplier negotiations: Understand where a supplier’s products are listed elsewhere
- Plan promotions: See what competitors are promoting and how before setting your own calendar
Example Tasks
Report on a competitor's dairy category
Report on a competitor's dairy category
“Build a competitor intelligence report on Lidl Germany, focusing on their dairy category over the last 90 days”
Track a competitor's new product launches
Track a competitor's new product launches
“What new products has Aldi launched in the UK this year? Include any private label activity”
Compare promotional activity side by side
Compare promotional activity side by side
“Give me a side-by-side comparison of Tesco and Sainsbury’s current promotional activity in snacks”
Read strategic signals from hiring
Read strategic signals from hiring
“What strategic signals can you find from Rewe’s recent job postings and executive hires?”
How to Use
1
Open your agent
Open the agent you want to configure.
2
Find the Skills section
In the agent settings, find the Skills section.
3
Select the skill
Select the Competitor Intelligence skill.
4
Describe what to monitor
In your agent’s AOP, describe which competitors to monitor, the relevant category or market, and any time window or priority areas.
5
Connect the research and output tools
Connect the tools the skill needs: Web Scraper, Exa Search, Deep Research, Enterprise Browser, and optionally Google Sheets or Slack for output delivery.
Works Well With
Web Scraper
Crawl competitor websites and promotion pages for structured content.
Exa Search
Search the web for recent competitor news and signals.
Deep Research
Run multi-source research to synthesize a competitive landscape.
Browser
Navigate competitor sites to gather public information.
Google Sheets
Deliver the report to a spreadsheet for the team.
Slack
Deliver report summaries to a Slack channel.
Things to Know
- This is a default skill available to all teams
- The skill only accesses publicly available information — it does not log in to competitor systems or access private content
- Social media data is sourced only from public company and brand profiles
- Report confidence varies by competitor: well-documented national retailers produce richer output than regional or private companies with limited public presence
- Pairs with the Supplier Discovery skill (to find which suppliers a competitor stocks), the Should Cost Grocery skill (to analyze costs of competitor products), and the Input Cost Monitor skill (to track commodity costs in the competitor’s categories)