Dynamic pricing automation helps you stay competitive and profitable by automatically adjusting your product prices based on competitors. This guide shows you exactly how to build this automation using n8n.

What You'll Build:

• Monitor competitor prices automatically.

• Automatically update your product pricing.

• Get instant notifications of price changes.

Tools Needed:

• n8n (workflow automation tool)

• HTTP requests and HTML extraction

• Google Sheets, Airtable, or Database (PostgreSQL/MySQL)

• Shopify or WooCommerce (for pricing updates)

• Slack or Email (optional for notifications)

Step-by-Step n8n Workflow

Note: This article describes the basic logic of dynamic pricing automation. For a complete, robust implementation, additional complexity and considerations will be required, including advanced error handling, rate limiting, and compliance with competitors' website terms.

Step 1: Schedule Regular Checks

Set up a "Cron" node in n8n to schedule your workflow. Run it hourly or daily, depending on your needs.

Step 2: Scrape Competitor Pricing

• Use the "HTTP Request" node.

• Configure this node to GET data from your competitors' product pages.

• Include headers like User-Agent to prevent blocking.

Step 3: Extract Pricing Data

• Pass the response into an "HTML Extract" node.

• Use CSS selectors or XPath to pull exact pricing elements from HTML.

Step 4: Store Competitor Prices

Send extracted data to storage:

• Simple setups: Google Sheets, Airtable or Supabase.

• Advanced setups: PostgreSQL or MySQL.

An advantage of using Airtable or Supabase is the flexibility they offer when managing multiple marketplaces. You can store pricing data centrally first, then selectively decide on which sales channels to update prices, rather than directly pushing changes to Shopify or WooCommerce.

Step 5: Calculate Dynamic Pricing

• Use the "Function" node.

• Create simple logic to compare competitor prices with yours.

Example logic:

const competitorPrice = parseFloat($json["competitorPrice"]);
const myPrice = parseFloat($json["myPrice"]);

let newPrice;
if (competitorPrice < myPrice) {
  newPrice = competitorPrice - (competitorPrice * 0.02); // set your price 2% lower (for example)
} else {
  newPrice = myPrice;
}

return [{ newPrice }]

Step 6: Update Prices Automatically

• Shopify users: Use "Shopify" node → Update Product Variant Price.

• WooCommerce users: Use "WooCommerce" node → Update Product.

Step 7: Instant Notifications

(Optional but recommended)

• Send a Slack message or Email notification each time a price changes.

• You can choose whatever channel you prefer. Even WhatsApp.

• Include details such as new price, competitor's price, and product info.

Example Workflow Structure

Best Practices

• Avoid Scraping Issues: Use proxies or scraping services if you face blocking.

• Error Handling: Add checks to handle HTTP failures gracefully.

• Historical Tracking: Keep records of past pricing to spot trends.

Why n8n?

• Free, open-source, and scalable.

• User-friendly for non-coders.

• Flexible integration with popular platforms.

Follow these straightforward steps to create a robust, automated, dynamic pricing system and stay ahead of your competitors.

Ready to Automate?

We specialize in implementing automations tailored specifically for your business. Contact us today to streamline your pricing strategy and outpace competitors.