Achieving success in the eCommerce space has two parts. Obviously, you need to do everything you can to make your website the best and most responsive it can be. But there is always competition that you have to deal with and that can keep you looking for new ideas.
It can be difficult having to compete with your competition if you don’t take the proper approach.
In this article, I’ll mention a few things you can do to stay up to speed on your competitors and better your own eCommerce website in the process.
Before you can address the ways in which you can be better than you’re competition, you have to analyze your competition to find their strengths and weaknesses. Chances are each of your competitors has a strength that they do better than you, but no competitor comes without weaknesses either. Take notes on what your competition does well that you may not be doing and what you are doing better than your competition.
One way to address the gap between your competition’s strengths and weaknesses is to go above and beyond. If you have a clear strength over your competition, keep taking it to the next level. If you have a weakness compared to your competition, address it and don’t just try to keep up but go beyond. The more you increase your quality and make yourself superior in the online retail space, the more irresistible you become to prospective shoppers.
You can also stay ahead of the competition by putting a strong focus on mobile development and your place in the mobile marketplace. More and more people are using their phones to complete purchases. Larger companies like Google, Amazon, Apple and PayPal are making their apps mobile-friendly. You may not be on the same level as Google and Amazon, but you want to keep up with competition locally and a great way to do that is to join these larger companies and get mobile-friendly. Making your site responsive for different devices is a good way to start.
Another tip is to make your delivery packaging more attractive and appealing. This doesn’t really have anything to do with your eCommerce store, its design, development or anything like that, but it has a lot to do with your customers. If you ship your products with care and some added flare, it leaves an impression. This can create more buzz around your business, which is always a great way to generate new customers. For example, if a customer purchases a product and it typically takes seven days to arrive, see if there’s a way to get it to them a day or two early. Or if there is a product that has a lot of accessories, include one of them at no charge as a surprise and thank you for being a customer. These small gestures go a long way in retaining customers.
Look to expand your business as well. If you’ve only sold locally, branch out into other parts of the country and perhaps eventually, the world. You can easily limit your capabilities as an eCommerce business by sticking to one area and keeping your target area narrow. It may require a bit of an education on how other parts of the world do business, but there are enough resources out there to make it easy and worthwhile.
Finally, pricing is of great importance to customers. People are willing to spend money for quality, but they also want to know that the business they are purchasing from cares. A great way to show that you care as a business owner is to make your prices the best among your competition. You can’t always keep track of what your competitor’s pricing is, so offer deals to beat your competition. You can also use tools like RepricerExpress that can program your shop with your minimum and maximum prices for products so that you can easily adjust your prices with intelligence.
Now that you know some ways to keep up with your competition, get out there and put them to use. Be sure to keep track of what you have done to maintain pace with your competition and measure the gains regularly to see what is working and what is not.
Looking for more tips to get the most out of your eCommerce store? Follow the experts at Genius eCommerce for more tips, trends and news on everything in the eCommerce space. Check out Genius eCommerce regularly for the latest updates and eCommerce news.
