Market analysis part four: competition

The purpose of analyzing the competition is to get the competition’s customers to become your customers. Your competition is all the stores, both online as well as offline, that sell the same or a similar product as your business. The way to analyze the competition is very simple. You can go to an offline store and look around and you can search for the online web shops that sell fishing gear. Analyze the following.

Who are their targets?
In my case it can be that they are targeting people who are professional fishermen. I will not get a lot of competition from these stores. Their products are most of the time more expensive than mine.
You should only be concerning yourself with the stores that can be a threat to you.

How can I distinguish myself from the competition?
Most of the web shops are focused purely on their product; just as in a traditional shop, they have the product divided into sections. I would like my web shop to be closer to my clients, maybe a page where people can exchange information with each other. Maybe I will build a page that informs customers about the best places to fish for certain kinds of fish and the right season to do this. I also want to inform them about their options for gear, depending on what type of fish they want to catch.
This product is your passion, so it shouldn’t be that difficult to find a way to distinguish yourself. Just ask yourself these questions. What else would I want to know if it is my first time purchasing this product? What would I want to know if I were a regular client? What would persuade me to buy this product?

Do they sell the same products?
Your competition might have some products that you don’t have. Maybe you should consider putting them in your store. You will need to compare their prices with yours. Maybe you can find a less expensive quality product in order to compete. Are their products better than yours? These are some of the things you should be looking at.

WARNINGS!!

Image 7: Warnings

If after a while you are earning beneath the 2% CR you are doing something wrong. Maybe you are targeting the wrong audience, maybe your product is not good enough or maybe your content isn’t strong enough. Whatever it is, you should find it and fix it.
If you don’t have a large enough audience (for example, due to a small market), in order to get at least 2% CR, you should consider looking for another product or adapt your target.
If your competition has a better product than you, you should consider looking for another product.

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