Leave Your Ecommerce Competitors Behind With These Top Tips
There’s a common thought among many people who start businesses. “A lot of people are already doing this.” Ecommerce is no different. Many are already doing nearly everything you want to do. You have to fight with competitors for traffic, so that you can get sales. Your business’s traffic can be converted by downloading this free Debutify theme. People who sell what you sell. Those who sell in the same place to the same people. They will always be a problem. Follow these tips to stay ahead of ecommerce competitors: Understand The Customer Read reports and surveys on how consumers are behaving. Find out what kind of products they like most. Look for social patterns to learn the differences between families, single people and other groups. The benefit is you get to know how your original ideas fare against those that others have already tried. Here’s a good source of annual consumer reports. Make use of the communication you receive. Record every complaint about packaging, delays and more. These help you know what’s really important to the customer. Know What Sets You Apart Known as a USP (Unique Selling Point), it is the major thing you have that your competitors don’t. Find out all the things you’re doing that your competition is also doing. Look for something extra to add to your offer. Choose to speak to a customer’s pocket, their mind or heart. It could be something related to morals, like using sustainable packaging. Another example is using suppliers who pay workers fairly.
Some shoppers don’t care that much about these things. They just want a good deal. Offer things like long warranty, free shipping and full refunds where necessary. Place your USP where it’s very visible. This can be on your home page or next to product listings. Offer Print-On-Demand And Dropshipping With dropshipping, you can sell products on stores like Shopify from other suppliers. You don’t have to stock them yourself. This helps a lot in cases where you know a product your competitors aren’t selling. Make the products available without worrying about extra costs if they don’t sell. Many shoppers want to buy as much as they can from one place. This helps you take more traffic from competitors. To get more sales out of those bulk shoppers you attract, click here to get Debutify, the highest converting free Shopify theme. Provide print-on-demand services. These to cater to shoppers who like customized products. When a customer orders for a cup or t-shirt, you can print a design on it. Use services like Printful to handle the entire process and even ship on your behalf. This will attract shoppers who like expressing themselves through their purchases. Speed Up Order Fulfillment And Shipping
Let store visitors know that you can do same-day delivery. This is an option easier for bigger businesses but many customers expect the same from startups too. Come up with a list of logistics providers. Pick out those that can hold on to a part of your stock and update order deliveries daily. Set up an arrangement with them to serve as third parties in areas where you get many orders. Some ecommerce businesses even use cloud-based management of their stock and shipping. These kinds of platforms offer sync features. With syncing every party involved remains up-to-speed with any changes.
Display Beautiful Product Visuals If you have some of the same products as your competitor, make yours look different from theirs. Go beyond offering multiple angles. Give them the option to zoom in and study the details of the product. Invest in photo-shoots with models for things like fashion products. Stage other props in pictures. This shows shoppers how the product would look in their space. Make sure you’re using photos that aren’t anywhere else on the internet. It makes people feel like what you’re offering is a little more unique than it may be. Feature short videos, GIFs or other slides showing the product in use. This works well for items like electronics or anything with multiple parts. Such visuals bring life to the product and make customers imagine themselves using it. Take Selling Beyond Your Site The arrival of business account options on social media has changed the game. Don’t always wait for shoppers to first reach your store. Use pictures with a collection of products. It can be a person wearing different clothes and shoes you sell. Tag the products using Instagram shopping features. Create buyable pins on Pinterest. These products will have prices and buy buttons next to them. Social media users can view them and then instantly. Group your products using hashtags. Update campaigns on your pages to make your stocking feel like a story. With your listed products buyable on social media, you create awareness while also receiving revenue. Improve Mobile Selling If your store is only smooth on desktop computers, your competitors will steal any shopper who’s usually on the move. Test your store on mobile devices to see how well it performs. Enter its URL into Google’s PageSpeed Insights for an even better answer. Tune up your site to load within 5 seconds on mobile devices. Where possible, add AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) to load faster. Sites that are well set up for mobile are likely to appear higher up in search results. Whenever you add new parts like landing pages or other buttons, test them on mobile too. Consider changing the theme of your site to one with mobile-friendly features. A theme with powerful add-ons can help you convert more, and downloading the free Debutify theme will do that. Stay Ahead Of Trends Be one of the first people to have something that is new. Follow the news and other pop culture pieces for the latest trends. Find out which celebrity is putting out a new perfume or sneaker line. There are always customers who follow these people and want to have their products first.
Position your store as the go-to place for all the new and next trendy products. Keep updating your collection whenever there’s a change. You don’t want to get left behind. Adjust Pricing Sometimes, you and your competitors won’t be any different. List all the products you have in common with competitors. Find ways to source them cheaply. Look for the most affordable providers. This includes packaging, shipping and all other costs of your ecommerce store. Lower your prices a little bit. This can help you steal all those who want to save. Be careful not to lean on just that. The competition may engage you in a price war. It can also affect your brand image negatively. Offer Customer-Friendly Features Give customers the option to save their carts and return later. Always be available to guide them through the shopping process. This can be via phone or live chat. Let shoppers create wish-lists. They can use these to group products they plan to buy and even share them. Features like this help you keep a hook in potential customers. Have a simplified store finder on your site. Customers can use it to easily locate your physical stores. Other friendly features include product filters and compare buttons. Here’s a full list of must-have customer features for your ecommerce store. Keep tabs on customers who are loyal to you and reward them with free products and other offers. Find A Niche Product
Think of a niche as that one rare thing liked by a small circle of quiet people. List a product that competitors have neglected because it doesn’t seem popular. For example, if everyone is selling regular frying pans, try selling non-stick pans. If the competition switches to non-stick pans, find out the types (Teflon, ceramic etc.).
Offer the type that is least common. Whoever knows it and its benefits may help draw others to it. The competition will be fighting for small pieces of mass product sales. You will be getting a huge share of sales for a rare product. You don’t have to offer just one niche. Find niches in as many categories as you can to keep drawing more people in. Always be ready to move on once the competition copies. Conclusion There are three major areas to focus on in order to beat ecommerce competitors. The first is customer habits. The second is your competitors’ actions. The third is your store’s nature and what it offers. More importantly, how it looks and runs. A good foundation for this is selecting the right theme. To get the powerful features you need for a high converting Shopify store, download Debutify, completely free. Remember not to get too comfortable once your sales are up. Your competition will definitely be watching every change you make and responding. Make it a habit to always check on them too. The same goes for customers.