Last Updated on September 25, 2023 by Tanvi
Are you looking for the secrets of competitor analysis at Shopify? Or do you just want to know how to beat your competitors? Well. The eCommerce market is highly competitive.
To quote from Oberlo.com, after reaching a high of 17.1% in 2021, the growth rate of the global eCommerce market is expected to level down at about 8% for the next several years.
There will always be other Shopify store owners who sell similar products to yours. But there is nothing to worry about. You will shine, and your competitors will shine in equal measure if you both know the secret of the eCommerce industry. Recognizing your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses is crucial in such a situation.
By seeing how your competitors do it, you may learn much about what does and does not work in advertising and sales. You can steal their customers by using the same strategies they do.
Observing the advertising strategies of your rivals is only the beginning of knowing who they are. You have to go below the surface. What specific information should you gather about your competitors? When do you start looking?
In this article, we will go over some of the most effective tactics for keeping an eye on the competition and adapting their tactics to your Shopify Store.
Know about Different Types of Competitors
There are many different kinds of businesses you may be up against if you run an online store. There are three types of rivals: those who offer direct, indirect, and supplementary services.
- Direct competitors sell the same goods and services as you. They also run online stores hosted on Shopify, they also use social media marketing to attract customers, and they may even target the same demographic. Direct rivals naturally warrant the most attention. They are most likely to affect your company.
- Indirect competitors sell comparable goods to yours through alternative distribution methods. They try to advertise their products to a new group of people.
- Competitors who offer substitute products and sell something completely different from what you provide but still fulfill the exact needs of your customers are replacement competitors.
Indirect and replacement rivals should also be tracked, although they are less likely to impact your bottom line. Your primary area of investigation should be your direct competitors.
5 Tactics to Research Competitors
- Analyse Competitor Websites and Social Media Presence
- Track the Speciality of your Competitors
- Make Sure to Visit their Websites
- Read The Review of the Customers of your Competitors
- Use Sofware to Analyse Competitors
Tactics 1- Analyse the Competitor Website and Social Media Presence
Sprout Social found that 85% of businesses use social data as their primary source for business intelligence. You must pay attention to the over 4.6 million people already using social media as part of your expansion plan.
It is no longer breaking news that all markets have severe online brand competition. So, how do you expand your brand and business on social media while also beating out the competition? By studying how they use social media to compete.
You may develop a successful social media strategy or adapt an existing one by analyzing the methods used by competing brands.
You will feel motivated to improve when you compare your social media strategy and results to your competitors. The promising growth areas and the risky ones for your brand’s reputation are laid bare for your perusal.
You may use your social media channels to their fullest potential as a marketing tool by doing a competitive analysis of the field in this space. If you look at what your rivals are doing on social media, you can start using some features and methods that are currently underutilized.
In addition, this allows you to establish your brand as an industry leader by developing a unique positioning plan. If you do not know who your rivals are or where they hang out online, you can not examine their social media strategies.
Finding social media competitors who rank for your keywords might be time-consuming, but it can be done using the search engine results page (SERP). Input your search term and take note of the resulting pages and, more importantly, social media profiles.
Tactics 2- Track the Speciality of your Competitors
You can gain an advantage over your competitors if you know their unique selling points. Differentiating yourself from the competition can make you sell more products and allow you to gain more trust from customers.
If your competitors are more successful than you in this marketing area, you should prioritize building a solid social media presence for yourself. Also, you should need to keep an active eye on their marketing tactics and what perks they are offering.
For instance, you and your opponents both sell personalized items. Thus, you both need to research your competition. You may provide invaluable insight into your competition’s marketing strategies by examining how they use product personalization applications. If your Shopify site sells personalized products, you should monitor your competitors to see how they sell products using a product personalizer.
Find retailers using a Shopify app that lets buyers customize products with their own text, graphics, photos, etc. After analyzing the competitors, You may know how to grab customers’ attention by offering them a user-friendly, flexible, and helpful product personalizer.
Tactics 3- Make Sure to Visit Their Websites
It is common knowledge that satisfied customers are a valuable asset for a company. Because of this, almost every business nowadays has a website where they can connect with customers and showcase their wares with proper information and CTAs.
Websites are the best resource for understanding an organization’s methods. Their websites’ content, design, and atmosphere may tell you much about how they do business.
The company could maintain a blog section where they do a detailed posting about its services and products and the industry it deals with.
Additionally, there may be lots of exciting ads on their website. Your research on their website will give you a better understanding of their strategy for marketing and selling any particular products and services.
Tactics 4- Read The Review of The Customers of Your Competitors
Reading customer reviews of similar products and services your competitors offer is a great way to learn more about the market.
Many factors influence why a customer writes a review. Sometimes, people want to tell a company how much they appreciate their excellent service. In other instances, they wish to be a cautionary tale for others.
You can use feedback from customers to your benefit either way. If there are many compliments, look into the reasons behind this enthusiasm to learn how to serve your clients better. However, negative feedback might be used to strengthen your product. You can avoid losing clients to your competition by understanding what they dislike about your primary opponent.
Tactics 5- Use Sofware to Analyse Competitors
You may transfer competition analysis to human personnel, but you should consider how much time and effort they need.
Competitor analysis is a time-consuming and intricate process that calls for continual investigation from a committed team of experts. As a result, it is only sometimes practical for small firms to include it in their budgets. Fortunately, there are specialized applications that can help. Several excellent resources are available now that can assist you in monitoring your competitors.
For instance, software that monitors prices might automate your cost-tracking by offering detailed real-time updates. On the other side, keyword monitoring tools can provide you with valuable insight into your competitors’ keyword strategies.
To stay ahead of the competition, you must investigate the sophisticated software that can track your rivals’ every move.
Bottom Line
You can learn more about your Shopify rivals by using the tactics mentioned in this article and then utilize that knowledge to advance your store. You can learn about your rivals’ strengths and shortcomings by examining their online and social media profiles, monitoring their expertise, and employing a competitive intelligence tool.
