Did you know that the global ecommerce market is expected to reach $5.4 trillion by 2026? That means a lot of competition for ecommerce businesses.
To stand out, you need to know your competitors well. You need to understand their strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and positioning in the market. This will help you identify the unique selling points (USPs) that make your ecommerce business different and better.
But how do you conduct a comprehensive ecommerce competitive analysis? Keep reading to learn everything you need to know.
Identify Your Competitors
To identify your competitors, start with keyword searches on Google and other search engines. Utilise tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush, online marketplaces, and social media platforms to collect as much data as possible.
Focus on the most-relevant competitors with a similar online business model to yours. Categorise them into:
- Direct Competitors: Sell the same or similar products, target the same audience and operate in the same geographic area
- Indirect Competitors: Sell different but related products as yours but target the same or similar audience and operate in the same or different geographic area
- Potential Competitors: Don’t sell similar products as yours yet but have the potential to do so in the future
You can list 5-10 competitors for each category and prioritise them based on their relevance, size, and market share.
Analyse their Products and Prices
An ecommerce competitive analysis is not complete with analysing the products and prices. Their websites and online stores are a great source of this information. Browse their product categories, descriptions, images, reviews, and ratings.
Tools like Price2Spy and Prisync can be invaluable for monitoring your competitor’s prices and comparing them with yours. You can also check if they offer discounts, coupons, free shipping, or other incentives.
The goal is to learn as much as you can, including the best-selling products along with their unique features and benefits. Understanding the following also helps:
- How do they differentiate themselves from other competitors?
- How do they communicate their value proposition?
- How do they handle product returns or refunds?
Analyse their Marketing Strategies
The third step is to analyse how your competitors market their products and attract customers. You can look at their website design, content, SEO, social media presence, email marketing campaigns, paid ads, etc.
It’s also important to examine how your competition interacts with their customers online and offline. Start by checking out their website features, such as chatbots, FAQs, live chat, and contact forms. Remember their social media profiles, reviews, ratings, and testimonials.
Some of the tools you can utilise at this stage of competitor analysis for ecommerce include SimilarWeb, Alexa, BuzzSumo, and Social Blade. Your research into your competitor’s marketing strategies should answer the following questions:
- What are their main traffic sources?
- What are their main keywords?
- How do they rank on search engines?
- What are their most popular content or posts?
- How do they engage with their audience?
- How do they build trust and credibility?
- How do they convert visitors into customers?
Identify Your USPs and Opportunities
The final step is identifying your USPs and opportunities by tapping into the competitor intelligence gathered. You can use a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) to summarise your findings and compare them with your competitors.
A value proposition canvas can also help define your value proposition and how it’s a better choice for your consumers. Some questions you can ask yourself when identifying your USPs and opportunities are:
- What are your strengths that make you stand out from your competitors?
- What are your weaknesses that you need to improve or overcome?
- What are the opportunities that you can capitalise on in the market?
- What threats do you need to be aware of or avoid?
Uncover Your Unique Selling Points with Ecommerce Competitive Analysis
Identifying your unique selling points is vital for the success of a small business in today’s competitive landscape. A great way to achieve this is by tapping into ecommerce competitive analysis. This gives you valuable information to make better decisions and drive your app development goals.
Build your ecommerce store today with us and start the journey towards unlocking the full potential of your online brand.
