Competitor Analysis

By Adam  |  20 Jul 2016 12:00:00

When you run an eCommerce website, obviously the goal is for your site to be the one that people turn to whenever they want or need a specific product. But unless you're the owner of Amazon (in which case, I am flattered that you are reading my blog post) there's always going to be another eCommerce website out there which is doing a little better than you: maybe they have higher rankings in search engines, more social media followers and just generally seem to be doing a better than you.

But, actually, the silver lining to having a more successful competitor is that you can actually learn from them. They have more followers on social media? Well, what are they doing differently to you? Are they sharing more? Sharing less? Are they more or less salesy? Do they have a sense of humour? These are all things to take note of, because if they are having more success, then that means what they're offering is more appealing to your target consumers. Are they ranking more highly than you in searches? What is different about they layout of their site? More professional in some ways, maybe? Use an SEO tool to check what kind of links there are which lead to them too - how do their backlinks differ to yours? Everything, from the products they offer to the business slogan, can be learned from.

If you're struggling to get your eCommerce website noticed, your competitors have faced those same problems and resolved them. If you can't figure out how to solve these problems, just look to see what they did! Obviously you don't want to mirror your competitors entirely (it's possible that you're actually already doing some things better than them) but taking an in depth look at their work certainly can't hurt! But if you don't have any competitors, because you don't even have an eCommerce website yet, then sign up to Sellr and make one right away! It won't cost you a thing. Unlike Shopify.