Which competitors to monitor? The 3-circle method

Ask ten store owners which competitors to monitor and you will see two opposite mistakes: the list with twenty names nobody can actually keep up with, and the list with a single name, the same old obvious rival. Both fail for the same reason: they were built on impulse, not on criteria. Monitoring too many spreads the team so thin that alerts turn into noise; monitoring too few creates a blind spot, and it is from the blind spot that the competitor who hurts you comes.

This guide shows a practical method for building the right list (the three circles), objective criteria for cutting candidates, and the shortcut for anyone starting from scratch: AI-powered competitor suggestions, which analyze your own website to detect your competitive arena and propose the first names.

The cost of choosing wrong

Every competitive intelligence operation has a scarce resource that shows up on no spreadsheet: the attention of whoever reads the alerts. If your team has half an hour a week to look at the competition, every extra name on the list splits that half hour. With twenty names monitored, the detection that mattered (the direct rival cutting the price of your flagship product) arrives wrapped in nineteen irrelevant updates. The outcome is familiar: ignored alerts and the feeling that the tool “does not work,” when the real problem was the list.

The opposite mistake is quieter. Whoever monitors only the rival down the street sees very clearly a fight that may not even be the main one anymore. The new competitor rarely announces itself: it is the marketplace opening up your category with an aggressive coupon, the manufacturer starting to sell direct to consumers, the pharmacy pushing into the dermocosmetics that used to be skincare-shop territory. By the time it hits your informal radar, it has already taken a slice.

As we detailed in the competitive intelligence guide, information only becomes an advantage when it drives a decision. And the quality of every decision that follows starts with the choice of who to watch: no process makes up for a wrong list.

Which competitors to monitor: the 3-circle method

Instead of writing down everyone who “sells something similar,” sort each candidate into one of three circles and take just a few names from each one. The circles exist because each type of competitor answers a different question about your business.

Circle 1: the direct rival

It is the store fighting for the same order you are: same audience, same price range, same channels. The test is simple: when your customer opens two tabs to compare before checking out, the other tab is the direct rival. Two activewear stores selling leggings in the same price range, to the same audience, on Instagram, are direct rivals even if one is in Goiânia and the other in Curitiba: in e-commerce, the shelf is the same.

This is the circle you want operational signal from: flash sale, new coupon, shipping cut, new launch. Reserve 2 or 3 spots on the list for it.

Circle 2: the aspirational

It is the category benchmark, usually much bigger than you. An independent online pet shop does not fight for the same order as the big chains in the segment on equal footing, but they are the ones who set the standard the customer starts to expect from everyone: reference pricing, promotional calendar, shipping policy, content quality. You monitor the aspirational to read the playbook before it becomes a consumer expectation, not to react to every post.

Here lies a vanity trap: filling the list with giants that are not fighting for your customer becomes entertainment, not intelligence. One or two aspirationals are enough.

Circle 3: the category invader

It is whoever comes from outside your mental map: the marketplace seller who professionalized the operation and launched its own site, the brand from another segment that started selling your product, the manufacturer that opened a direct channel and now skips the retailer (you). By definition, the invader does not look like a competitor until it starts taking orders.

Choosing this circle takes more work because it requires looking outward: who has shown up in the search results for your category over the past few months? Which stores did your customers start mentioning coupons from in support chats? Reserve 1 or 2 spots, and accept that this circle changes names often.

Objective criteria for trimming the list

The circles organize the search; the criteria make the cut. Run each candidate through these verifiable filters before giving it a spot:

If two candidates tie on the filters, a visual tiebreaker works well: plot everyone on a two-axis perceptual map (price and specialization, for example). Whoever shares your quadrant is a direct rival; whoever is far away is a benchmark, or just noise. The step-by-step for building and reading that map is in the article on positioning maps and white space.

How many competitors should you monitor?

There is no magic number, but there is a practical ceiling: a good list is one your routine can actually read. For most small and mid-sized operations, that means between 4 and 7 competitors: 2 or 3 direct rivals, 1 or 2 aspirationals and 1 or 2 invaders. Fewer than that and you are hostage to a single point of comparison; more than that and the weekly read turns into a marathon nobody finishes.

The AI that suggests the list by analyzing your website

There is an honest problem with the method above: it assumes you already have candidates. Anyone opening a store, or entering a new niche, often does not even have the names. It was for that starting point that Batedor put AI-powered competitor suggestions inside the onboarding.

Here is how it works: on your first visit to the dashboard, the “Discover competitors in 30 seconds” step asks for the address in the “Your company website” field and, optionally, the segment (“natural cosmetics,” “activewear,” “pet e-commerce”). From the website, the AI infers which arena you compete in and returns up to 5 plausible competitors from the Brazilian market, each one with website, Instagram profile already filled in and the reason for the suggestion. You uncheck whatever does not make sense, ask it to generate again, or skip the step and add them manually.

Three limits are worth noting, because they define the right use of the tool. First, the AI is instructed not to make up a brand: when it lacks reasonable confidence, it returns fewer than 5 suggestions, or none; in that case, giving a more specific segment usually unlocks it. Second, it prioritizes brands with an active digital presence in Portuguese: it finds the direct rival well, but the silent invader, which is not making noise yet, remains your own work (circle 3). Third, it does not know your margin or your positioning: treat the answer as a circle 1 draft and run each name through the table’s filters before turning monitoring on.

You can try the full flow in the 14-day trial, no card: paste the website, get the suggestions and watch the first detections land on the timeline, already sorted by type (promotion, coupon, free shipping, launch).