# Launch Radar for Buyers: What every rival added and dropped this week, often before they promote it.

> RivalSweeper checks your competitors' catalogs daily and lists new arrivals and discontinued SKUs within 48 hours, deduplicated across locales and variants. New lines often show up in the catalog before the email or campaign, so your range review sees them first.

- Page: https://rotomal.com/competitor-launch-alerts/
- Category: Competitive intelligence
- Language: en
- Billing: subscription
- From: $39 per month
- Provided by RivalSweeper: https://www.rivalsweeper.com/use-cases/product-launch-assortment-radar?utm_source=rotomal&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=rotomal-usecases&utm_content=competitor-launch-alerts&utm_term=agent

- New arrivals and removals per brand, dated, within 48 hours
- Launch velocity: how many lines each rival added, and in how many drops
- One product counted once, not once per colour, size or country site

## Rival newness reaches your range review late, and by anecdote

Buyers usually learn about a competitor's new line from a newsletter, an Instagram post or a store visit, after it has launched. By then the line plan is locked and open-to-buy committed. What gets said in the range review is 'they seem to be doing a lot of knitwear', not how many SKUs, when, or what was dropped.

'New in' pages do not answer it either. They mix carryover with true newness, repeat each product per colour or market, and never show what quietly left the range. Removals matter as much as arrivals: a rival exiting a category is a gap you could take.

- In a published RivalSweeper sample across 18 US and European activewear brands, 365 products were added and 158 removed between Sep 15 and Oct 14, 2026, and 9 of the 18 brands changed their range. (source: https://www.rivalsweeper.com/use-cases/product-launch-assortment-radar)
- In the same sample one brand expanded by 246 products in 4 steps between Sep 21 and Oct 9, 2026. (source: https://www.rivalsweeper.com/use-cases/product-launch-assortment-radar)
- RivalSweeper reports that new products are often seen in a competitor's catalog before they are promoted. (source: https://www.rivalsweeper.com/use-cases/product-launch-assortment-radar)

## How it works

1. **Add the brands you buy against.** Start the trial with your store and one rival; Pro covers 15. Tracking starts once your email is confirmed, first data within 24 hours.
2. **First read is the baseline.** The first full catalog read records the current range. It is a baseline, not counted as new arrivals.
3. **Daily catalog check.** Each day the catalog is compared with the last read. Additions and removals surface within 48 hours, deduplicated across locales and variants.
4. **Bring it to the range review.** Read arrivals, removals and launch velocity per brand, then export CSV for the line plan or follow brands by RSS.

## Features

- **New arrivals list.** Each new product with brand and date seen, for example a velvet cap and wool-cashmere socks from one brand on Oct 9.
- **Discontinued SKUs.** Products that left a rival's catalog, so category exits and range edits show up, not only launches.
- **Launch velocity per brand.** How many products each rival added and removed over the period, and in how many drops, so a 246-line expansion reads differently from a steady trickle.
- **Deduplicated across locales and variants.** A product sold on several country sites or in several colours is counted once, so the counts reflect real newness.
- **Read failures are not culls.** A store whose product count reads as zero is treated as a read failure and left out, not reported as a range wipe-out.
- **Large catalogs.** Up to 10,000 products per competitor on Basic and 20,000 on Pro, from rivals' own storefronts on supported websites.

## Who it's for

- **Buyers.** You build the range. You see what rivals launched and dropped in your categories each week, in time for the next range review rather than after it.
- **Merchandise planners.** You own the line plan and open-to-buy. You get rival intake counts and timing per brand, so newness targets are set against the market, not guessed.
- **Ecommerce merchandisers.** You manage 'new in' and site newness. You see how often rivals refresh, and which arrivals they have not promoted yet.

## Works with

Email alerts, RSS feeds (1 on Basic, 10 on Pro), CSV export (paid plans), REST API (Pro and up), MCP for Claude and other AI assistants, Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento and other storefronts (public pages)

## Pricing

Billed monthly in USD, cancel any time, 14-day money-back on every plan. Extra monitored domains $10 a month, so an 18-brand set is Pro plus 3 extra domains. A 15-minute call with Nir, the founder, adds 2 rivals free.

| Plan | Price | Includes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free trial | $0 for 14 days | 1 rival, last 30 days of history; 1 user seat, no card; Access pauses at the end; nothing charged; +2 rivals free after a 15-minute call |
| Basic | $39 per month | 2 monitored domains plus your store; 1 user; Up to 10,000 products per competitor; Competitor catalog reports, 1 RSS feed; Email support within 2 business days |
| Pro | $199 per month | 15 monitored domains, under $14 each; 5 users; Up to 20,000 products per competitor; 10 RSS feeds, API 10,000 requests a month; Support within 1 business day |

## Compared with the alternatives

- **Newsletters, social and 'new in' pages by hand.** Free and good for a feel of the market. You see what rivals choose to promote, after launch, with no removals and no counts.
- **Trend forecasting services.** Useful for direction a season or more out. They describe trends, not what a specific competitor added to its catalog this week.
- **Enterprise retail analytics suites.** Broad coverage for large retailers, typically scoped through a sales process. RivalSweeper suits teams that need a named set of rivals' own storefronts, monthly.

## Security and data

- Reads public product pages and sitemaps only; nothing is installed and no store or analytics connection is needed.
- Every figure traces to a dated observation and its product URL.
- Trial needs no card; plans are monthly, cancel any time, 14-day money-back on new subscriptions.

## Your first week

Self-serve: add your store and a rival, confirm your email, and the baseline read arrives within 24 hours.

- Day 1: Start the trial, add your store and the rival you buy against most, confirm your email.
- Day 2: First data within 24 hours; the first full catalog read becomes the baseline.
- Day 3 onward: Arrivals and removals surface within 48 hours. Book 15 minutes to add 2 rivals free.
- Day 7: First week of arrivals and removals to take into the range review.

## FAQ

### Does a new colour count as a new product?

No. Arrivals are deduplicated across variants and locales, so a product in five colours on three country sites is one arrival.

### How quickly does a new arrival show up?

The catalog is checked daily and changes surface within 48 hours. It is not an instant alert.

### Will a rival's whole catalog show as new on day one?

No. The first full read is a baseline. Only products that appear after it count as arrivals.

### Can I see what a rival launched before I started tracking?

No. History starts the day a store is added, so add rivals before the season you want to compare.

### Do I need to connect our systems?

No. RivalSweeper reads rivals' public pages. Export CSV on paid plans to bring arrivals into your range review or line plan.

### Does it cover marketplace sellers?

No. It reads brands' own storefronts on supported websites, not Amazon or other marketplace listings.

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Rotomal · https://rotomal.com/competitor-launch-alerts/ · hello@rotomal.com