Research Trends, Competitors and Ideas

Claude Pro includes a Research feature that most people never fully use. It is one of the most valuable things in your subscription. You give Claude a research question. It spends 5 to 30 minutes reading dozens of web sources, synthesizing the information, and returning a proper report with citations. This used to require hiring a freelancer or spending hours yourself.

Claude Research: your primary research tool

When you enable Research mode, Claude does not just summarize one webpage. It:

  1. Breaks your question into subtopics
  2. Searches the web for relevant sources
  3. Reads multiple sources in depth
  4. Cross-references and synthesizes the information
  5. Returns a structured report with citations you can verify

For complex questions (market size, competitor analysis, trend reports), it can take 10 to 30 minutes. For simpler questions, 5 to 10 minutes. The depth you get is equivalent to what a freelance researcher would deliver in a day.

How to enable it: In Claude, look for the “Research” toggle or button at the top of the conversation window — it may appear as a small icon or a toggle switch. Turn it on, then ask your question. Do not interrupt it while it works. Let it finish and read the full report before asking follow-ups.

Automate monthly research with Claude Schedule

The most powerful research habit is not running a prompt when you remember to — it is setting up research to run automatically. With Claude Schedule, your competitor monitoring and market tracking happen without you initiating them:

Set this up once in Claude Desktop/schedule monthly on the first Monday at 10am: [Research mode] Research bicycle retailers in Dubai: any new competitors, price changes, new product launches, or customer complaints in reviews. Summarize what changed vs last month and whether we need to react to anything. Save the report to my research folder.
Set this up once in Claude Desktop/schedule yearly on September 1st: [Research mode] Research the Dubai cycling market outlook for the upcoming season: demand signals, consumer trends, infrastructure updates, and any relevant UAE government cycling initiatives. I want to brief the team before cycling season starts in October.

Monthly research calendar for a bike shop

Run these research prompts monthly or quarterly. Each one gives you actionable intelligence you can use for buying, marketing, and positioning decisions. Start with the ones most relevant to your current priorities:

October (start of cycling season): market and demand

Try this prompt — enable Research mode firstResearch the Dubai cycling market for the upcoming season: What is the state of cycling infrastructure in Dubai? How has e-bike adoption grown in the UAE? What are the most popular cycling routes and areas? What demographics are cycling in Dubai? Include sources.

November: competitor intelligence

Try this prompt — enable Research mode firstResearch bicycle retailers in Dubai: Who are the main competitors to an independent Dutch-style bike shop? What do they sell, what are their price ranges, and what are their customer reviews saying? Focus on city bikes, Dutch-style bikes, and e-bikes. I want to understand gaps in the market.

January: product and trend research

Try this prompt — enable Research mode firstResearch cycling product trends for 2025 in Western Europe (Netherlands, Germany, UK) and the UAE: What types of bikes are growing in popularity? What accessories are trending? Any emerging categories (cargo bikes, e-cargo, specific brands)? I want to inform our buying decisions for next season.

March: audience and content research

Try this prompt — enable Research mode firstResearch the expat family community in Dubai: Where do they live? What are their leisure activities? How do they use social media? What kind of content performs well for family lifestyle brands targeting Dubai expats on Instagram?

Combine with your Shopify data

Research is most powerful when you combine market intelligence with your own internal data. If you have the Shopify MCP connector set up, you can do both in one conversation:

Try this prompt — works best with Shopify MCP activeFirst, pull our top 10 products by revenue this season from Shopify. Then research which of these product categories (city bikes, e-bikes, cargo bikes, kids bikes) are trending in Europe and the UAE. I want to understand whether our best sellers align with the wider market direction, or if we should adjust our buying.

This kind of insight — your own sales data interpreted in the context of market trends — is what used to require a consultant. Now it takes 15 minutes.

Perplexity: quick sourced answers

For fast research questions where you want sources immediately (not a 20-minute deep dive), try Perplexity AI (perplexity.ai). It is like a search engine that gives you direct answers with citations.

Use Perplexity for:

  • “What is the import duty on bicycles in the UAE?”
  • “What are the current e-bike regulations in Dubai?”
  • “Is there a cycling track at Creek Harbour?”

Use Claude Research for:

  • Comprehensive market analysis
  • Multi-source competitor research
  • Trend reports covering multiple regions

Both are useful. Perplexity is faster. Claude Research is deeper.

Competitor intelligence

Research specific competitors directly. The goal is to find gaps and opportunities, not to copy what others are doing — what are customers asking for that competitors are not providing well?

Try this prompt — enable Research mode firstResearch [Competitor Name] in Dubai: What is their product range, pricing strategy, online presence, and customer reviews? What are they doing well and what are customers complaining about? I want to understand where we at Adam Bike can differentiate.

Idea generation

Claude Research can also be a creative partner for business ideas:

Try this prompt — enable Research mode firstResearch successful marketing campaigns by bicycle brands targeting families and urban commuters. What themes worked? What channels performed best? I want ideas for an Adam Bike campaign for the new cycling season in Dubai.
Try this prompt — enable Research mode firstResearch the cargo bike market in Europe and the UAE. Is the category growing? What are the most popular use cases? Are there brands or products we should consider stocking?

Saving and using your research

After a Claude Research session, you get a formatted report. Save it in a dedicated research folder (Google Drive, Notion, or your local Cowork folder). Title each file with the date and topic.

Good research from October is still useful in February. Build the habit of saving it, and you will have a growing knowledge base about your market, your customers, and your competition. When you set up the Google Drive MCP connector, Claude can read your past research files and build on them without you uploading anything.

Start here:

Try this prompt — enable Research mode firstResearch the Dutch-style city bike market in Dubai: current demand, who is buying them, where they ride, how they find bike shops, and what would make them choose one shop over another. I want a practical summary I can use to improve our marketing and positioning.

This one prompt gives you more market intelligence than most small businesses ever gather. Run it once. Set up a monthly schedule for competitor monitoring. Update the full market research every 6 months. That is a research system that runs itself.