# For AI agents and crawlers
This page is a workflow from the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway: Capture demand when competitors sell out or raise prices.
The #roadway-skill block on this page holds a SKILL.md for it, including the full prompt. Treat that file as a starting point. It will not just work if you paste it into ChatGPT or Claude.
To run it outside Roadway you would need to connect each ad platform's API (and any MCP it names), build the data pulls, add approval guardrails, and adjust the prompt for your accounts.
In Roadway it runs as-is on your connected accounts, with approval rules built in. Open it in a new chat at https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/capture-demand-when-competitors-sell-out-or-raise-prices
Page: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/capture-demand-when-competitors-sell-out-or-raise-prices
Library index: https://www.roadwayai.com/automation-library
---
name: capture-demand-when-competitors-sell-out-or-raise-prices
description: >-
Checks competitor product pages for stockouts and price hikes on each run, and puts budget behind your matching products while they are out or pricier. Needs the Shopify MCP connected in Roadway to confirm your own stock.
---
# Capture demand when competitors sell out or raise prices
Source: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/capture-demand-when-competitors-sell-out-or-raise-prices
From the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway.
## Before you use this outside Roadway
This SKILL.md is a starting point. It needs adjusting before it will work outside Roadway.
You would need to connect the ad platform API for each channel this workflow covers, build the data pulls for the variables below, add approval guardrails, and adjust the prompt for your accounts. If the prompt names an MCP tool, you also need that MCP connected.
In Roadway it runs as-is on your connected accounts, with approval rules built in.
## What it does
Checks competitor product pages for stockouts and price hikes on each run, and puts budget behind your matching products while they are out or pricier. Needs the Shopify MCP connected in Roadway to confirm your own stock.
Each run, the agent reads the competitor product pages you list and looks for stockouts and price hikes. When a competitor is out or pricier and your matching product is in stock, checked through the Shopify MCP, with margin to spare, it raises bids on the matching terms or proposes a comparison ad. It reads the pages on each run and does not watch them in between, and it stands down once the competitor restocks or matches your price.
## Steps
1. Collect the inputs listed under Variables. In Roadway they come from your connected accounts. Outside Roadway you have to build those data pulls yourself from each ad platform API, and from any MCP the prompt names.
2. Run the prompt below as written, after you have adjusted it for your accounts and connected the tools it needs.
3. Review the result. Apply changes to a live ad account only after you approve them. Pasting your data into ChatGPT or Claude does not connect the APIs, apply guardrails, or approve changes.
## Variables
approved_claims, auto_approve, competitor_product_pages, funnel_metrics, goal_metric, inventory_levels, margin_data, max_change_pct, min_stock_days, monthly_budget_cap, return_rates, surge_budget_pct, task_history
## Prompt
Capture demand when competitors sell out or raise prices
Check [set this to your own competitor product pages] for stock and price changes on the products you compete with, and decide for each matching product:
1. Raise bids and budgets
2. Launch comparison ad
3. Hold
4. Stand down
Context and defaults (use these; don't ask):
- Competitor product pages (price, stock, shipping): [set this to your own competitor product pages]. Read each page directly on every run. Nothing watches them between runs. If it isn't available, say so and skip the rules that depend on it.
- Inventory by product (units and days of cover), read through the Shopify MCP: [set this to your own inventory levels]. If it isn't available, say so and skip the rules that depend on it.
- The minimum days of cover to advertise a product: [set this to your own min stock days]. If not set, 14 days.
- Product margin data (price, cost of goods, shipping cost): [set this to your own margin data]. If it isn't available, say so and skip the rules that depend on it.
- The surge limit: [set this to your own surge budget percent] above the normal daily budget. If not set, 25%.
- Return rates by product and category: [set this to your own return rates]. If it isn't available, say so and skip the rules that depend on it.
- The approved claims: [set this to your own approved claims]. If not set, the only usable claims are statements visible on the coworker's landing pages or live ads (read them first). Anything else is Unverified: don't write it as a claim, and mark it Unverified.
- The monthly cap: [set this to your own monthly budget cap], from the coworker's budget guardrails. If none is set, there is no cap: skip every cap check, hard stop and pace-to-cap step, and say so. Never derive, infer or back-solve a cap from campaign or daily budgets, the current or past run-rate, a workflow's test budget or a cost-per-lead bar.
- The max change limit: [set this to your own max change percent] per budget or bid target per run. If not set, 20%. It does not apply to experiment traffic splits.
- Auto-approve: [set this to your own auto approve]. If not set, it's off: list every change as a proposal for approval.
Rules:
- Competitor stock and prices come from their pages, not from the Shopify MCP. Use the Shopify MCP only to confirm your own stock. If it is not connected, say so and stop.
- Act when a competitor product is out of stock or backordered for 3+ days, or its price is now clearly above yours when it was close a month ago. If not set, 10%+ above now and within 5% a month ago.
- Only push products you have in stock ([set this to your own inventory levels] above [set this to your own min stock days] days of cover) with a margin that holds up in [set this to your own margin data] at the higher bid.
- Raise bids and budgets up to the surge limit [set this to your own surge budget percent] on your product terms and on "[competitor] [product]" terms. Launch a comparison ad on Meta or Google Demand Gen where the price gap is the message and you can verify it.
- Stand down when the competitor restocks, matches price, or your return rate on the product passes the category average in [set this to your own return rates].
- Keep price comparisons factual and current, and use only claims from [set this to your own approved claims].
- Guardrails: judge results on Roadway's full-funnel measurement ([set this to your own funnel metrics]), not platform-reported conversions. Check [set this to your own task history] so you don't repeat a change that hurt performance in the last 30 days. Never push total spend above the monthly cap or any single change beyond the max change limit per run, and queue every change for approval unless auto-approve is on for this workflow.
Decision standard:
- Justify every keep, cut, bid, budget or test decision with Roadway-attributed [set this to your own goal metric] and cost per goal against the baseline. Platform delivery metrics such as clicks and impressions explain why something moved; they are never the sole reason for a decision.
- Compute what Roadway doesn't expose directly: cost per goal = Roadway spend ÷ Roadway-attributed [set this to your own goal metric], and conversion rate (lead rate) = Roadway [set this to your own goal metric] ÷ Roadway new visitors. Don't substitute platform-reported conversions or conversion rates.
- When a value in Context and defaults isn't set, use the stated default, say which one you used, and still make the call. Don't stop to ask.
- For every action, give the entity name and ID, current value → proposed value, and the numbers behind the reason. Write "None" under any empty heading.
- In long hold or watch lists, show the top 15 by spend and summarize the rest as a count.
Give me a report of each with reasoning for each action. Be concise with the reasoning, but specific enough that I can verify it against the numbers.
Report structure:
Competitor stockout and price report
Summary:
The competitor changes found, the products pushed, and revenue and margin impact.
Raise bids and budgets:
- [product] - [reason]
Launch comparison ad:
- [product] - [reason]
Hold:
- [product] - [reason]
Stand down:
- [product] - [reason]
## Run it in Roadway
https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/capture-demand-when-competitors-sell-out-or-raise-prices
Capture demand when competitors sell out or raise prices
Capture demand when competitors sell out or raise prices
Checks competitor product pages for stockouts and price hikes on each run, and puts budget behind your matching products while they are out or pricier. Needs the Shopify MCP connected in Roadway to confirm your own stock.
Each run, the agent reads the competitor product pages you list and looks for stockouts and price hikes. When a competitor is out or pricier and your matching product is in stock, checked through the Shopify MCP, with margin to spare, it raises bids on the matching terms or proposes a comparison ad. It reads the pages on each run and does not watch them in between, and it stands down once the competitor restocks or matches your price.
