Abstract:

This paper develops and demonstrates a practical methodological procedure for analysing online competitor communication in a sector-specific e-commerce environment. The proposed approach is designed for marketing managers who need to transform observable online signals into structured inputs for managerial decision-making. The empirical setting is the Slovak gastronomy e-commerce market, represented by firms selling gastronomy equipment, packaging materials, hygiene products and related supplies. The research design follows a case study logic and combines customer-oriented search simulation, keyword-based competitor identification, purposive sampling and a standardized SEO audit. The procedure is demonstrated on four comparable websites: World Gastro & Office, Europapier, Gastrokuchyne.sk and METRO. The article does not treat SEO only as a technical audit; rather, it positions search visibility, metadata, website structure, social signals and link architecture as observable elements of online market communication. The results show that the method enables the identification of communication gaps, visibility weaknesses and differences in digital maturity among competitors operating in a relatively homogeneous market. The main contribution is a replicable step-by-step framework that can support competitor benchmarking, content planning and the allocation of marketing resources in small and medium-sized e-commerce businesses.