Competitive Analysis for eCommerce Development-Site Analysis and Market

As a continuation to our previous article, once you have identified and categorized your competitors, you can then begin the actual competitive analysis for your eCommerce development. In the online platform, an understanding of your competitor’s eCommerce development strategy and their market positioning would help you to get critical insights on their business, which can be used to improve your own eCommerce development plan and market ranking. In this article, let’s take a look at the critical aspects of doing a competitive analysis on your competitor’s website and online strategy, along with getting insights on their market positioning.

Getting to know your competitor’s eCommerce development strategy

An effective online eCommerce presence includes both design as well as marketing aspects. If you are planning to set-up an eCommerce store, or are looking to revamp your existing eCommerce development plan, you can have a look at your competitor’s websites to get a better idea of how they are placed. This will help you have a better eCommerce development plan for working with, and ideas to stay ahead in the race. Below are a few points that you need to check to get a better understanding of the competition.

• Check the product data: You can check the product data that they have on their website, which includes product images, description, reviews and other marketing material to get an understanding on how your competitor is showcasing their products. This will give you rich insights on how you can better your own product data on your website.
• Check their marketing flow and call to action prompts: You can check how well their marketing banners and call to action buttons are designed, along with the choice of colors and marketing design. Check if they are actively prompting for a conversion, and if they are well-placed with catchy design. Also check if they have a newsletter feature, or if they are running regular promotions, and how often do they do it. This will give you a better understanding of the way you would need to promote your own products on your website, as essentially you will be having the same or related set of products that are being sold online.
• Check their customer engagement: Does your competitor have a blog, and how often do they update it? Do they have a multiple support channel such as chat, phone and email, and if so, what are their hours of operation? These questions will help you get a better understanding of what are the customer engagement standards for that set of products, and help you refine your own. You can also check if their website is optimized for mobile viewing, and if they have advanced customer tracking options such as for Abandoned Shopping Carts. Abandoned carts are incomplete customer engagements, and one of the best ways to re-engage with a customer. If they do that, check how often do they connect to such customers, and how are users prompted to give their contact information during the process of shopping online.

Getting to know your Competitor’s Market Positioning

In order to understand your competitor’s Market positioning, you would need to check on a few aspects such as what makes their store and offerings unique, how well do they distinguish from their competitors and what aspects of their marketing strategy are more focused to get more market for their products. You can do the above by signing up for their newsletter or blog, follow them in social media, make a small purchase from them or try abandoning a shopping cart and see how well do they follow-up with you. This will give you a better understanding of the “Distinguishing” elements of their marketing strategy, which is what you should also be focusing on, to stay ahead in the race.