An ecommerce business takes a lot of work. There are plenty of considerations that need to be taken into account. Ecommerce web design and general product quality can make or break your business.

Your marketing strategies will depend on a variety of factors. One metric of which strategies will work are the successes and failures of your direct competitors.

But how do you get this information? How do you know first of all who your competitors are, and what they are doing well? And how does this information help you?

Let’s first look into the benefits of analyzing competitors before we look into the methods.

Benefits of Analyzing Your Competitors

 

Tips for Analyzing Your Competitors

 

Benefits of Analyzing Your Competitors

You Will Better Understand How You Rank in Search Results

Recognizing your competition and analyzing their tactics and performance will help you understand how your ecommerce business ranks on search engines and how well you compete with the overall market.

Information about your competitors will help you put together a strategy to spread the word about your own company’s website.

Which marketing tactics will work best for you? Which section of the population is more liable to want and need your services?

Your place in the market isn’t going to be static, but knowing where you stand can give you crucial context.

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You Will Recognize Holes in the Market

This market analysis will also show you the areas that are not currently being addressed by your competitors.

And any holes in the market are great places for you to pick up potential customers that simply aren’t being engaged.

You want to be able to compete for your target audience, but you can also benefit from targeting these unaddressed areas. Lower levels of competition increases your likelihood for conversions.

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You Will Learn From Your Successes

Established competitors must have done something right to get where they are. Learning from their successes will show you how to properly engage with your target audience.

There are many different ways for an ecommerce website to market and interact with their customers.

This information can narrow down your focus so you don’t waste time on tactics that have been proven not to work.

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Set Yourself Apart From The Competition

One of the main benefits of understanding who your competitors are and what they are doing is that you can use this information to better solidify your individuality.

Unique companies attract attention.

And you can turn that attention into conversions with proper marketing tactics and quality products and services.

Proper ecommerce web design and thorough market analysis can help you define who you are as a company, how you interact with customers, and how to put your own stamp on the industry.

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Tips for Analyzing Your Competitors

Identify Your Competitors

The first step is to simply find the businesses that compete for similar customers. Internet searches are going to be your best tool for this.

Simply open your favorite search engine and start searching terms relating to your business. Add local keywords. Try variations on product and service names.

This should give you a list of websites that you can narrow down by comparing against your own buyer personas. 

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Understand Their Services

Take this list of competitors and narrow it down even more by thoroughly analyzing their products and services.

Pay attention to the type of information shared on their website.

This will tell you more about who they are targeting. Is this audience the same as yours? Do you possibly share customers?

Browse their products to see what information they include on listings. Compare your prices to theirs.

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Know Their Strengths and Weaknesses

Read the available reviews on their products to see what they do well and what can use work. Visit their social media accounts and read through the comments.

Negative comments tell you what you can improve upon. Positive comments will show you what works and give you something to work towards.

These are great opportunities to hear directly from customers.

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Understand Their Marketing Efforts

The marketing efforts of your competitors will tell you a lot about how your shared customers are best addressed.

How often do they update their blog, and what type of information is included? Have you come across their ads on your own? What is the tone?

There are various SEO tools like SEMrush that can be used to learn how your competitors rank for specific keywords.

Pay attention to which social media platforms they use. If, perhaps, they are active on Facebook but not Instagram, you know you can target Instagram to fill a hole and potentially address more customers.

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Know Your Market Demands

And finally, look into the market for your industry as a whole. Does the interest in your products or services seem to be increasing or decreasing? Is the number of competitors growing or shrinking?

Your product’s potential for success can have a large effect on the direction of your business.

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