Doing competitor research for your eCommerce business helps you determine strengths and weaknesses in both your business model as well as theirs. You can figure out what you’re doing well and what you can change to start beating them out. This could be product photography, better product descriptions, or simply increasing the quality of your product to start beating them in terms of sales.
Here is how to conduct good competitor research to give yourself an advantage.
Figure Out Who Your Competitors Are
The first part of eCommerce competitor research is to figure out who your competitors are in the first place. This gets broken into three categories: primary, secondary, and tertiary.
Focus on primary and secondary, as these will be your more direct competitors. Primary competitors are competitors that have similar products that focus on the same audience. Secondary refers to a competitor product, but they focus on a different audience.
For those that need help checking into a business competitor in Ontario, be sure to check out opstart.ca.
Look Through Customer Reviews on Their Products
Another integral part of how to research competitors is to determine how their customers perceive them. Look through reviews on different platforms and determine what customers think of their products.
If you need to, buy the competitor’s product to determine how you would feel if you left a review. This will also give you an idea of the product quality that they have.
Where Do They Stand With Ads?
Ads on different platforms can quickly give an advantage to competitors. If they’re outbidding you for ads on Google or Facebook, then you may need to increase your marketing budget to start beating them out.
If you’re already beating them out but find you’re still losing sales, look at how they structure their ads. They could just have better hooks and material than what your ad offers.
Keep Pricing in Mind
Pricing can be tricky, as people that truly want a product will pay the price for it. That means that lowering your prices may not always be the best option to appeal to new buyers. Instead, set your prices to match the quality of the pieces.
See if competitors fall into a good balance of price to quality. If they sell jewelry and they’re saying it contains 14k gold, but they sell it for dirt cheap, chances are they’re lying. Customers don’t want to be ripped off.
Competitor Research Doesn’t Have To Be Hard
Doing competitor research starts with determining who you’re up against and how strong of a competitor they are. Stay true to yourself and your products and let that show in the quality. Over time, with the right competitor strategy, you’ll see that your business grows and you start to beat them out.
If you want to learn more business advice that could change your world, then be sure to check out the rest of the blog. Know a business owner that could use help? Send them this article so they can start the process of doing competitor research.
