Competition in online trading: ten steps to beat your competitors

From this material you will learn:

Step-by-step instructions on how to beat competitors in business
6 stages of competitor analysis
Techniques to beat competitors in sales
7 options to beat your competitors in sales
19 tips on how to beat your competitors by selling a similar product

Every self-respecting company wants to know how to beat its competitors, and that’s normal. In fact, there are plenty of ways to do this without much effort. You just need to think carefully about how you can become better than competitors in the eyes of customers. And these same qualities and capabilities, as a rule, lie on the surface.

You will be surprised after reading our article to the end how easy and simple everything really is. Below are some basic tips to differentiate yourself from your competitors by selling a similar product. Moreover, they were relevant 10–20 years ago and will be in demand for at least another 30 years, unless, of course, all processes are completely roboticized. Although by then marketers will probably come up with something else.

Create a unique selling proposition

Of course, this message is not new, but it works. An ordinary product in a new “packaging” is sold in a new way. The main task of a unique selling proposition (USP) is to let the audience understand that this is a product, service, assortment, presentation - all this is available only and exclusively to you. For example, you have an online store of pet products. Try to convey to your clients the idea that only you have a full range of what they need to maintain a comfortable life for their pets. This could be a wide selection of food, clothing for pets, various fillers for trays, and so on.

Your advertising should look so that the client understands that he does not have to look for different groups of products on different sites. Buyers of online stores, despite all their online activity, are quite lazy, and therefore they may like the prospect of comfortable shopping on one site. The slogan “The main thing in life is to find your people and calm down” works and is applicable to online sales.

Of course, promises must be backed up by real sales proposals. If, for example, your online store delivers prepared food and promises hot pizza delivery within 30 minutes, then make sure that drivers adhere to this time interval.

How to correctly formulate a unique selling proposition?

To answer this question, it’s worth thinking about how your business actually helps its audience? It’s worth taking the client’s side and looking at the operation of the online store through his eyes. By the way, it is generally useful to do this from time to time in order to evaluate the results of your work and, perhaps, adjust some important points. Try to answer the questions:

What problems does your business help clients solve?
Why should he come to you to solve his problem?
Will he be ready to come back to you again?

Answering these questions, formulate several main advantages of your online store over your competitors. They will form the basis of the USP, which should preferably be contained in one sentence.

The unique selling proposition should be:

short and succinct;
clear and transparent for understanding;
truthful (promise only what you can deliver);
meet the interests of the client.

And, of course, it is worth analyzing the USP of competitors in order to create your own, different from them and memorable. For example, this could be the operating hours of an online store: your closest competitors accept orders from 8 to 20, on weekdays, and you, say, work seven days a week. This mode of operation can result in a successful USP.

Not the most reasonable USP options are the story that “we have the cheapest price” , “we are the oldest on the market” or “the largest” .

If you want to guarantee your client a price that is noticeably different from those of your competitors, explain why the reduction occurred. For example, a low price implies a longer delivery time. Anyone who is willing to wait will happily accept such an offer and will be glad of transparency in the “seller-buyer” relationship.

Examples of common USPs:

“Delivery today”, “Updating baths without removing the old coating”, “Products for children from 0 to 3 years”, “Repairing equipment in 90 minutes”. From these examples it is clear that the USP is formulated with a clear framework - time, age, and so on.

A magical way to “switch off” the machinations of enemies and the envy of ill-wishers

This conspiracy is quite strong. It will help solve the following problems:

disarm competitors;
neutralize magical interference and damage;
destroy the plans of enemies;
protect from any evil.

The ceremony takes place early in the morning. If you live in an apartment building, open a balcony or window. If it’s private, go out into the yard or garden.

They take a new broom in their hands and, waving it in different directions, say:

Such a plot can be useful for different cases. It is especially good to conduct it before a long business trip, signing important papers, or a major transaction.

Pseudo-unique selling proposition

It’s good when you really have something to stand out in a competitive environment, but what if everything is so similar that the client can’t tell the difference between a twin store? Then all that remains is to come up with the difference and introduce it into the heads of the potential audience. Examples from marketing classics are cholesterol-free sunflower oil, antibacterial soap, non-GMO products, sweets without preservatives and with natural dyes.

Perhaps it’s worth having a real brainstorm and coming up with your own message to the buyer that will effectively work for sales. Let’s say you sell fresh vegetables via the Internet, then you can calculate how many hours it takes for the product to “reach” from the garden to the consumer’s refrigerator. By the way, this technique is used on cans of Bonduelle canned vegetables (“4 hours from garden to package”).

If you have an online store for organizing moving services, then the slogan “we always have sober movers” is truly appropriate.

It is really difficult to stand out for those who sell “faceless” goods, such as household appliances, clothing, and food. But even here, if supported by marketing research, you can find your appeal to a potential buyer. And in such situations, it is the pseudo-USP that will help create an image that is different from competitors.

To accurately determine the message to the audience, you can conduct a simple survey of customers and ask them to formulate why they turned to your online store. Such tips and feedback from customers can be very helpful.

Extended Warranties

“Did the tire break? We will replace it for free! "

“If you don’t lose weight with our course, we’ll give you your money back!”

“Eat 2 kilograms of steaks in 40 minutes, we will refund their cost!”

“If we fail to deliver the goods on time, we will refund you 20 percent of its cost!”

These are all examples of the extended warranty option. You promise the client special terms of the relationship, which your competitors do not risk doing. All this increases audience loyalty, provided, of course, that you deliver on your promises. By the way, examples of such facts can be placed in a separate section of the site. For example, arrange a “board of honor” for the winners who managed to eat the ordered meat in 40 minutes (in the presence of your courier, who recorded everything), and were exempt from paying for the goods.

They say that the most loyal clients are those who had to contact the office again with a warranty claim. If such an opportunity does occur, then replace the defective product or repair the product without lengthy proceedings, so that this does not become a serious stain on the reputation of the online store.

Added Value

This option to stand out in a competitive environment is especially suitable for “densely populated” niches. It seems like a small thing, for example, wet wipes as a gift for a monitor, but when there are a dozen competitors who simply sell monitors, the gift option can become decisive. A case plus a smartphone, beautiful packaging and a postcard for a bouquet from a delivery service, a perfume sample for a general order of cosmetics for a certain amount in an online store... These little things work, such is the consumer psychology that even a trifle thing that you get for nothing is perceived even better, than just a discount.

Think about it: maybe there is some unclaimed small product in the warehouse that could be useful as small gifts. It would be better for him to play his supporting role than just lie around unbought by anyone.

Faster than usual

Today everyone is obsessed with saving time. And the time spent is the same full-fledged resource as money, for example. Therefore, competitors can always be bypassed within a time frame. Set up a faster order form (informing the buyer about this), organizing the optimal method of delivering the goods. Or arrange for operators to be on duty on weekends if your competitors, for example, only accept orders on weekdays.

The time factor can also be decisive if you sell some services through an online store. Flexible class schedule if you are a training center. Strictly regulated arrival time for the technician if you provide plumbing services.

The important point is to understand that you value the time resources of your customers and want to save it together, and not steal time or kill it.

Amulets against competitors for the workplace

Such amulets are kept in the office at the workplace - the main thing is to hide them from prying eyes. Any thing from your table can be such a talisman - the following words are spoken to it:

“Lord, grant me good times and your mercy; according to your great mercy and your generosity, deliver me from my enemies, visible and invisible. Forgive all who envy and curse me, according to your commandment, Lord. Reward them with abundance - I won’t envy them, and don’t cross my path, don’t spoil my business and don’t steal my luck. Just as my enemies fled from King David, let my enemies also flee from me. As King Solomon was famous for his wisdom - Lord, share your wisdom with me. Just as a river flows and the stones wash the yellow roots, so let all the evil and sadness dissolve, go away and never return.”

After such a slander on the amulet, attacks and intrigues from competitors will stop against you. You can be calm about your luck and your own financial income, successful trading, and your business will flourish.

The best, at the usual price

This technique is especially effective before the holidays. When you promise your client that he will find the best gift for the New Year from you, February 14, March 8. Ordinary goods fall into the status of the best gifts, because, as you know, “an egg is expensive on Christ’s day . Hurry up to communicate this before your competitors and you will gain an advantage.

Marketers say that purchasing decisions are made based on the balance between pleasure and pain. That is, in order for a customer viewing products on your website to make a purchase decision, you need to increase the perception of pleasure and reduce suffering. This should be prompted by a high-quality description of the product.

Practical tip: Swap cards for products, adding seasonally relevant holiday paraphernalia. Yes, these are extra costs for the photographer, but they will pay off, because the product in the updated catalog will sound different. And an ordinary tourist thermos, not particularly popular on ordinary days, will go in great demand on World Tourism Day, for example. The main thing is to remind customers about this holiday.

Raise your prices

This paradoxical advice, oddly enough, is quite applicable in practice. A cheap price is sometimes associated with low quality goods, and by increasing it, you move to a market segment that sells higher quality, but also more expensive goods. Yes, you will already have other competitors there. And, perhaps, you will have to participate in the information war on the other side of the barricades, turning to yesterday’s competitors with the question of why they are selling goods at such a low price.

Roman Tarasenko’s book “Valuable Solutions” contains tips on how to set the price for a product. He identifies as many as 25 (!) types of prices that can be included in the case depending on the market situation.

Base, incentive, discount, reference - and many more types of prices that will help you clarify pricing issues and influence the purchasing decisions of potential customers.

Price adjustments

Price is almost always one of the determining indicators when choosing a product. Almost - because there is a luxury segment in which spending more rather than saving is considered correct and prestigious.

Option 8. We give a discount

A discount is a double-edged sword. By giving a 25-30% discount on a luxury product, you may well ruin sales, since part of the audience will definitely think that the product is defective, expired, damaged, or assembled with careless hands. Nevertheless, people still have a desire to save money. How to use it?

Specifics : When offering a product at a discount, you must understand and calculate what discount will not be a loss to you, how and what you earn in this case. Maybe there is a discount on an initially inexpensive product that you use to warm up your audience. And after some time she (the warmed-up audience) will come to you for more expensive options. Or a person receives a 10-15% discount on every third purchase - this way you will also stimulate purchasing activity.

10 facts about discounts you should know

Option 9. We offer several possible payment schemes

For example, the price of a refrigerator in two online stores is the same - 50,000 rubles. But in one, a person needs to pay the money immediately, taking it out of his pocket, and in the other, they offer interest-free installments for 3-6-9 months. Most rational buyers will choose an option in which they will have to pay for a long time, but it will be almost unnoticeable. The online store will receive a loyal customer, and the buyer will be left with the pleasant feeling that he got expensive equipment for almost nothing. In addition to installments, in some cases in the B2B segment a deferred payment may be used.

Specifics: You will have to accurately calculate what kind of installment plan you can offer to a person so that you yourself do not end up at a loss.

Personal submission

In our impersonal world of SMS alerts, similar websites and official correspondence, personal presentation is beginning to be valued. Congratulations on birthdays and professional holidays, personal discounts, invitations to participate in promotions create the illusion of friendly communication between the online store and the client.

The good old message of increasing customer loyalty to the organization will not be canceled, so take steps to ensure that this program works.

Be straight, stay honest.

Openness and publicity are often the best weapons against attacks from competitors. You can discuss the arguments being used against you at a press conference or in an online discussion. Do not make excuses under any circumstances. You must highlight the problem identified by ill-wishers from different angles.

Find something positive for your clients. For example, large insurance companies often face accusations of delaying payments. In this situation, the company's management must explain to customers why losses are not settled quickly. The insurer takes care of clients by thoroughly investigating insurance events, calculating the amount of loss and identifying cases of fraud.

Do not forget:

monitor reviews about your company on social networks, especially if they were positive;
repost them on your profile, thank customers for their feedback;
collect customer feedback to analyze criticism and improve performance;
give gifts to the most active clients;
use surveys to measure the level of customer interaction;
be available when clients need your help.

To summarize, let’s say that competition in the market is not only a headache for the owner of an online store, but also an opportunity to raise the business to a completely different level . It is important to notice changes in the environment and respond correctly to the changing situation. Sometimes, instead of fighting with a competitor, it is worth joining forces and jointly increasing momentum. This option also cannot be excluded.

TOTAL

Even if you sell drinking water, salt, matches and buckwheat, adjustment options can always be found if desired and with some effort.

Often positioning with the found detuning does not require any investment at all. If you need to bury one of your golden chervonets, with the right approach you will eventually get a real, not like in the Land of Fools, money tree and a good flow of customers. This game is definitely worth the candle.

To make a unique feature memorable, it should be reflected in your logo. For those who care not only about a beautiful picture, but also about conveying the meaning and essence of the brand, a logo design service is available.