Facing Cutthroat Competition? Utilize These E-commerce Competitive Strategies

Technology has redefined and transformed how we do business today. From marketing to human resource management, everything has changed drastically. Undoubtedly, the large-scale introduction of information technology in the industry has created new channels of customer interactions. Digital marketing and online stores are the most promising creations of this IT-business blend. 

Both these tools have produced a significant game-changer for businesses, that is, e-commerce. One can describe it as a business exchange through some electronic medium over the internet. However, the entire philosophy of e-commerce is quite different. Electronic buying and selling ensure a brimming business environment with all the essentials of a good business. 

One needs to operate an e-commerce business with the same strategic insight as a traditional business. Fierce competitiveness, war of customer acquisition, and market share are typical of an e-commerce platform. Therefore, you must have the right strategies for your business to withstand the cutthroat competition in the market.

This article mentions some of those competitive e-commerce strategies that can make your business more successful. It highlights five e-commerce tactics that can help your business tackle the competition optimally. 

1. Play with the Pricing

Pricing is your biggest tool to position your offerings at the right place against the competition. However, pricing on an e-commerce platform is quite tricky since it involves more stakeholders than usual. It would help if you utilized the eBay calculator for fees and other platform-specific tools to understand the final accumulated cost. Then, you must label your products with the most optimum price. 

Therefore, dynamic pricing has proved quite successful for businesses regarding e-commerce dealings. It enables you to change the price as per the customer’s response. You can easily manage the shipping costs as well. The recent market response can tell you whether an additional shipping cost is repelling customers or not. You can add the shipping cost to the final pricing of the product and attract more customers. 

2. Derive more product ratings and reviews

According to Digital Agency Network (DAN), having reviews and recommendations on your e-commerce website uplifts the site conversion ratio by a whopping 270%. It also increases the customer pool for a business by 73%. More customer ratings and reviews serve as social proof for other potential customers. They act as a significant source of enhancing customer trust. Undeniably, trust increases customer loyalty and derives more value for your e-commerce business. 

You need to incentivize your current customers to leave a review and rate your products. You can offer them some discounts on their next purchase if they leave a review. You can even create a loyalty drive for your regular customers who rate your products. In short, you must motivate them to engage with your brand at a deeper level. It would enhance your brand’s market position and trustworthiness. It will also drive you more business and increase your market footprint.

3. Enhance your online visibility

What’s highly visible sells well. Countless players in the market are trying to meet customer’s needs in the best possible way. They are outreaching customers online to increase their customer base. It has disturbed the entire market dynamics, and customers have greatly accepted this change. Therefore, if your website, online store, and product listings are not readily visible online, customers don’t even bother considering you. You can use product listing management software to automate and streamline listings across marketplaces.

You can utilize different options like Search Engine Marketing, SEO, content marketing, and Google algorithms to increase your online visibility. According to Statcounter, Google receives 88% of global searches that sums up to a staggering 1.2 trillion Google searches per year. It becomes easy to understand why having better visibility on Google can help your business. Now people use smartphones for 60% of these total searches. Therefore, your online presence must have a mobile-friendly interface. 

4. Create a personalized user experience

Highly conscious purchase decisions, more and more brands meeting customer demands, and frequent buying cycles have increased the importance of personalization. Today’s customers ask for customization and personalization more than ever before. Therefore, you must replicate a similar experience for your online audience too. Your entire online presence should base on a customer-centric approach. 

Customers must receive a user-friendly interface, personalized product suggestions, and ease in online processes on your website. Companies like Shutterfly, Coca-Cola, Snapchat, Spotify, and Amazon encompass their target audience mainly through a personalized approach. Amazon’s recommendation algorithm made headlines because it was so apt to recommend the right products for customers. It increases customer loyalty in the long run and enhances the brand value proposition. 

5. Explore Social Media 

Don’t just get captivated by your website or your online store on Amazon. You must tap all the resources where you can reach your customers. Customer engagement is stronger on social media platforms than on business websites. You must expand your business’s presence on all these platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even LinkedIn. Your customers use these applications frequently and would want to interact with you there. Therefore, these platforms also act as an essential source of branding for your business.

According to Webfx, 70% of all adult internet users are frequently active on these social media platforms. It accounts for approximately 3.6 billion social media users globally. Your business gets exposure to such a vast audience through these social media channels. Moreover, they also act as one of the strongest anchors of remaining relevant in the market. It helps you in customer pipelining. One might not be buying from you right now but becomes aware of your business presence through these engagements. 

Final Thought

Strategy in any field is always a mixture of the right success factors. Similarly, your e-commerce strategy must contain all the necessary ingredients to make your business a success. It has to be a 360-degree approach. First, you must understand your target audience. Then you have to devise the right pricing strategy that will attract more customers to your offerings. Then you have to engage in a way that creates a good brand perception of your business. It would help if you utilized all the new business tricks and tactics for achieving these goals. Now that might include SEO for better visibility or a smartphone-friendly website for better customer experience. By the end of the day, all these factors collectively govern your e-commerce success.

Share