A Complete Guide On Beating eCommerce Competition (2022)

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eCommerce has grown tremendously since the Covid-19 pandemic shows no signs of slowing down. Increasingly more people and organizations are participating in eCommerce, which means the competition in the space has become unparalleled. There are two ways to be successful in eCommerce. 

You can either improve your business or beat the competition. However, even the first might not be enough as every company aims to improve. Being a standout eCommerce performer in 2022 will take much, but the rewards will be worth the effort. 

The following is a guide to beating eCommerce competition in 2022: 

Know Your Competition’s Strengths and Weaknesses

One of the most famous sayings from Sun Tzu’s Art of War is ‘If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.’ Business is like war as you compete against others for victory.

If you want to be victorious in your eCommerce battles, you should study your competition as a general in a war would study his opponents.

And use companies like linkbuilder’s link building guide to work your way through the competition and establish authority on search engines. This is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your eCommerce store.

Conduct an honest assessment of all your competitors and outline their strengths and weaknesses. A SWOT analysis is crucial for your own business but also competitors. It might be easier to find out the strengths and weaknesses of some competitors than others, but all have them; you just have to look harder. 

Once you know your competition like the back of your hand, you should exploit their strengths and weaknesses to your advantage. For example, if a competitor’s weakness is poor customer service, you can offer the customers better service for free, and you may turn them into your customers.

Have A Responsive eCommerce Site

Mobile shopping is growing in leaps and bounds due to the prevalence of smartphones worldwide. There are many places where people barely use computers, but they often use smartphones to shop on eCommerce sites.

Therefore, if you have an eCommerce site, you can attract more customers than your competition if your site is mobile-friendly. Most online shoppers are more likely to purchase from the same seller if the latter has an excellent mobile site. 

The website should be responsive enough to be accessible to any device that a user wants to purchase from, including phones, tablets, and computers. Doing so may mean creating applications that Android and iOS users can download and get the same experience. 

Moreover, you should make the same features on the main desktop website available on all other devices. So initially, build this functionality into the cost of website development. Google’s search engine algorithm uses mobile-friendly as a ranking metric, meaning that a more responsive website will rank higher on search engine results.

Any eCommerce site that does not prioritize making their site more responsive will lose to competitors who do. 

Offer Better Customer Experience

Many eCommerce business owners ignore the customer experience, which is very dangerous. Just because customers are not physically walking into your store, it does not mean that customer experience is not important.

In fact, it is more important online because you cannot convince a customer to stick around as a salesman would. You only get a few seconds to make an impression, and that is it. 

The customer experience is vital in online business and starts before a user opens your website or mobile app. The sales process or purchase funnel refers to the journey that customers go through from when they visit a store to when they make a purchase. It would be best to make that journey as smooth and interesting as possible. 

The first step is to have an attractive user interface that will keep visitors interested in the site. Visual appeal is integral to a successful purchase process, so make the text legible, the images appealing, and the graphics superior to your competitors’.

Make navigation on the site as easy and smooth as possible so customers can easily find whatever they are looking for without getting confused or needing help. 

Increasing page loading speed is essential to improving the customer experience. Visitors to your site will leave if two consecutive pages load for over five seconds.

You should also consider giving customers friendlier eCommerce functions that help them navigate the site and make purchases. For example, the ability to select an item, put it in the cart, and search for other things is crucial. 

Offering customers valuable information during the purchase process is also beneficial. Focusing on improving the customer experience will be a significant factor in helping you beat the competition in eCommerce.

Provide Unbeatable Pricing

Pricing will always matter in business, whether in eCommerce or traditional retail. The one with the best prices wins, and adjusting your prices is one of the most straightforward practices you can use to beat the competition. Pricing is versatile as it is a strategy you can essentially apply to every product or service in your store. 

Competitive pricing does not mean offering the lowest prices among your competitors. It means offering the best value for money to your customers.

Therefore, when evaluating your competitors, ascertain what is included in their prices and go above and beyond. Doing so may involve offering after-sale services or offering valuable information. 

Discounts and other promotions such as coupon codes can make your store’s prices more attractive than the competition. Reducing prices based on volume also works well. Do your research well before attaching a price tag to a product, and your competition will chase you. 

More Appealing Delivery 

Amazon, one of the world’s biggest businesses, has proven deliveries are incredibly vital in eCommerce, and the company with the best delivery packages often beats the competition.

Therefore, if you want to beat out eCommerce competitors in 2022, you should consider offering your customers more attractive delivery packages. 

Though you might not be able to offer free day shipping like Amazon, you should provide free shipping at least. You can almost be sure that your competitors will be doing it.

You should figure out how long it typically takes a product to arrive at a particular part of the world from your storage location and try to beat that time. Find better carriers or be willing to pay higher rates for faster delivery, and you can increase prices for superior shipping, which customers value. 

You may also want to make delivery offers for those who buy goods in bulk as opposed to individual items such as discounts. You may consider adding thank you notes or accessories or better packaging, which will make deliveries more attractive. 

Customer Rewards

Customer loyalty is a crucial aspect of any business, and keeping your customers ensures you don’t lose them to the competition. Therefore, you should reward customer loyalty in as many ways and as often as possible.

It is natural to focus on attracting more visitors to your store and converting them into customers, but the famous saying ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’ applies here. 

Developing your customers is the best thing you can do for your business in some cases, you do not have to do much. If you have a mailing list, sending them valuable information about product discounts and other offers or practical advice on how to get more value from your products will go a long way. 

Giving loyal customers discounts, coupons, and other bonuses will be a great help in beating competitors. You can have promotions where you give out free items to loyal customers too. Rewarding loyal customers makes them feel valuable and important, making leaving you for a competitor hard. 

Improve Security

A customer is taking a risk every time they make a purchase in your eCommerce store. They are risking their financial information and their personal information, too, both of which can be used for nefarious purposes. A lot of money is lost every year due to cybersecurity breaches, especially in eCommerce. 

Therefore, if you want to be one step ahead of the competition, you should ensure that your store has the best security available.

If you have security protocols for your site, such as SSL certification, upgrade them regularly and always be on the lookout for better security options.

 Ensure that users are subjected to the highest security measures, too, as they are vulnerable to an attack. 

Product Ratings And Reviews

Many users will only visit an eCommerce store and make a purchase after they have read reviews from others about that store.

Reviews are hence essential in building trust among customers, and having positive reviews will help you attract more visitors than your competitors. Reviews are social proof and will improve your store’s conversion rate.

You should offer customers a chance to rate your product and leave a review. A simple five-star rating system and a dialog box for users’ comments are enough, but you can do more. Use the feedback to improve your products and services so you can become a trusted store that never loses customers. 

eCommerce is ever-growing and becoming more competitive by the day. Improving your business may not be enough, and you need strategies to beat your competitors.

The above guide will help you beat your competition and be the premier merchant in your space. Please don’t take our word for it; apply it and watch the results.