Compare Your Site To Your Competitors

You can't just create an ecommerce site and expect it to succeed all by itself. And in this recession, it's even more important to create your own growth!

But how do I do this you may be thinking? I am glad you asked.

Here are five ways to do it:  


ONE
Measure your performance against industry averages. How does your ecommerce website compare against all other online retailers in your market?

You need to look at things such as web sales growth rates, conversion rates, average tickets, SKUs online, web traffic, sales from search engines, response times, return shoppers, site availability and monthly e-mail campaigns. 
 
Focus on improving your site’s position on these metrics - one at a time.


TWO
In recessions, shoppers migrate to those retail websites that have more top performance positions. For example, higher ranking on search engines. 

As you improve your performance in the areas you focus on and achieve more top placements in different performance metrics, your overall online sales position will dramatically improve.


THREE
Keep pace with your competitors on technology. An e-retail website that isn’t continually enhanced with the latest technological applications is headed for a slow downward path.

Does your site offer more or fewer features and functions than your competitors? Take a look around.

Key technologies include elements such as dynamic imaging, advanced search, product zoom, product comparisons, site personalization, video and more.

Have a talk with your website developer about what enhancements are potentially needed.


FOUR
Find the right ecommerce web solution providers for you.

If you know a lot more about all of this leading edge stuff than your web developer ... then I suggest you RUN!! ... you'll need to seriously consider switching to a professional ecommerce company who know how to help your business succeed or you will be left behind. Fast.  

Find out which ones are the leaders in providing solutions to your segment of the ecommerce market. It’s a great way to ensure that you are getting the solutions you need to win on the web!


FIVE
Try and benchmark your site relative to the entire ecommerce market.

How is your online business performing against the leading online retailers? These guys control about 65% of the ecommerce market for a good reason - they’re the best!
 
How fast are they growing relative to the overall market?
How many of them have implemented social networking and other e-commerce applications? Which merchandise categories are growing fastest online?
What’s an average, poor and stellar conversion rate?

You begin improving your position the day you decide to benchmark your retail website against industry averages in each of these key metrics.


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You may ask yourself - how do I find out these metrics?
How do I find out what my competitors are doing?

Google Analytics
Firstly, you need to make sure your web provider knows a thing or two about google analytics. You need to make sure that you have access to this sophisticated tool so you can start assessing your sites metrics. If they have never spoken to you about this tool then that is a problem.

The Top 500 Guide
This guide is brilliant! It's packed with America's 500 largest e-retailers and provides a huge amount of information that you can use to see what the really big players are doing.

Sure, New Zealand sites will not be listed, but you can still learn lots about the ecommerce industry and what is happening overseas. The UK and US lead the world with ecommerce so it's worthwhile knowing what is going on over there and seeing what sort of functionality is being included on the leading websites.  

Check it out at: www.InternetRetailer.com/top500


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SALES PITCH ALERT

If you want to talk to us about developing a professional ecommerce website that works and delivers results then drop me a line on steve@solutionists.co.nz

I'd love to hear from you!

We are based in Auckland, that's in New Zealand (near Australia), and we deliver cutting edge ecommerce solutions for small - medium sized businesses all over the world. It's a lot of fun.

Check out our ecommerce portfolio >