How Retailers Can Monitor Competitor Prices Without GTINs

How Retailers Can Monitor Competitor Prices Without GTINs

For many retailers, keeping track of competitor prices is key to staying competitive. But what happens when products don't have GTINs (Global Trade Item Numbers) like EANs or UPCs?

This is a common issue, especially when competitors strip product identifiers or when private-label items dominate the category. Without GTINs, traditional product matching tools and feeds fall short — making accurate price comparisons a real challenge.

Why GTINs Are Often Missing

GTINs are often removed from product listings to prevent scraping or to avoid direct comparison. You’ll commonly see this in categories like:

• Consumer electronics
• Home and garden
• Fashion and accessories
• Private-label or white-label ranges

Retailers relying solely on barcode-driven matching end up with patchy results — or no matches at all.

How Price Trakker Solves This

At Price Trakker, we've developed a product matching engine that doesn't rely on GTINs alone. Instead, it uses:

• Product titles
• Key features (e.g. load capacity, screen size, material)
• Structured attributes from the page itself
• Brand and category context

This approach allows us to identify exact and near-exact matches even when GTINs are absent — giving our clients full visibility of their competitive landscape.

Why This Matters

Missing GTINs shouldn't mean missing intelligence.

With accurate, GTIN-free matching, you can:

• Track competitor pricing even for awkward listings
• Maintain a consistent pricing strategy across multiple channels
• Identify margin opportunities others might miss

Want to See It in Action?

Price Trakker’s platform gives you access to:

• Daily competitor price updates
• Margin opportunity alerts
• Custom reporting and dashboards
• Account manager support

👉 See our Solutions to learn more about how we support retailers like you.

‍