How to Stay Ahead of Your Competition, No Matter What Channel You Sell On

Across sectors, eCommerce is a crowded industry. There are a reported 1.8 million online retailers in the United States — that’s double the population of Fiji.

To be successful, you must convert potential customers before your competition, which is challenging when you sell on multiple sales channels. Managing marketing plans and product data optimizations for several channels at once makes it harder to zero-in on conversion optimizations.

Today we’re going to cover 4 simple ways to stay ahead of your competition, no matter what channel you sell on. Why is staying ahead of your competition critical to success? Staying ahead of your competition means using innovative tactics to target, reach, and convert customers before your competitors do.

This is crucial for:

• Winning new customers
• Keeping existing customers
• Increasing customer lifetime value (CLV)
• Getting positive social proof

In other words, staying ahead of your competition on all marketplaces is critical to eCommerce success.

How to stay ahead of your eCommerce competition

Not that long ago, staying ahead of your competition required sales-channel specific keywords, low prices, and product variety. This would mean dominating search results, ad space, and online marketplaces to reach customers first.

Today, your competition has caught up, meaning these tactics place you in line or behind your competition.

To regain pole position, you must think outside the box and implement tactics your competitors aren’t using to boost visibility and convert customers. In 2021, there are 4 key tactics to help.

1. Utilize multiple sales channels

Selling on multiple sales channels, such as Amazon and Walmart, gives you a bigger eCommerce footprint. This empowers you to...

Convert on sales channels without your competition

Multi-channel selling means you’re selling everywhere your competition is and isn’t. This puts you immediately ahead of them on the marketplaces they aren’t using, allowing you to generate the flywheel effect and establish market dominance before they arrive.

Win sales on the channels your competitors are using

Widening your eCommerce footprint naturally increases brand recognition — customers see you everywhere they shop. This is proven to boost trust, making shoppers more likely to choose your brand over a competitor they haven’t heard of.

Improve your D2C sales

Increasing brand recognition through online marketplaces can also increase visits to your eCommerce website. As shoppers become more familiar with your brand, they might choose to search for your website directly on Google or Bing.

2. Provide fast shipping speeds

The industry average shipping speed is 3-5 business days. Fast shipping speeds of 2-days and next-day keep you ahead of your competitors, literally and figuratively. In particular, 2-day delivery brings benefits including:

Fast shipping programs

2-day and next-day deliveries qualify you for fast shipping programs such as Walmart TwoDay and eBay Fast ‘N Free, which can:

• Increase search result rankings
• Boost buy box eligibility
• Highlight your listings with fast shipping tags

Shipping certainty

By using a fulfillment service with real-time inventory positioning, you can provide shoppers with shipping certainty by adding a countdown timer to product pages. Customers know exactly how long they have left to order a product and receive it by a specific date, which is invaluable when shopping for a last-minute or urgent product.

Convenience

2-day and next-day shipping allow customers to tailor your service to meet their delivery needs. It also provides shoppers with an element of control that balances out the unpredictability of ordering online, making them more comfortable buying.

3. Acquire shoppers on Facebook and Instagram

70% of shoppers turn to Instagram for product discovery, and we expect this figure to jump as Facebook and Instagram make social shopping even easier. Get ahead of your competitors by implementing:

Facebook and Instagram Shops

Facebook and Instagram Shops allow people to discover, browse, select, and purchase products without ever leaving the platform — making social media shopping highly addictive. And, with plans to introduce shoppable Reels and loyalty programs, it’s a good idea to dominate these channels before your competitors do.

Facebook and Instagram dynamic ads

With Facebook and Instagram fast becoming the go-to platform for online shopping, it makes sense that you want to advertise your products there. However, advertising products on social media isn’t anything new — your competitors are already there.

You need something different to stand out, and this is where dynamic shipping ads come in.

(Source)

Dynamic Facebook and Instagram ads use real-time inventory positioning to add a 2-day or 1-day shipping tag, depending on the customer’s location. This tag makes your ad stand out from the rest while offering something of benefit to the shopper.

4. Incorporate Google

Despite Google bursting with products and marketplaces, there are still ways to keep ahead of your competition on the search engine.

Google Shopping

Last year, Google brought free listings to its Shopping tab, meaning many of your competitors are investing their ad spends elsewhere. This also means that, by investing in Google Shopping ads, your products appear ahead of your competitors in both the search results and Google Shopping tab.

Dynamic Shopping ads

Even if your competitors are still using Google Shopping ads for their products, you can make your product ads stand out and more personalized by adding dynamic 1-2-day shipping tags. These work in the same way as Facebook and Instagram shipping ads — using real-time inventory locations and the customer’s address to calculate the quickest delivery time.

Long-tail keywords

There’s a new type of long-tail keyword in town — one that’s easy to rank for and has decent search volumes: shipping. Fast shipping enables you to target less competitive, long-tail keywords based on delivery speed.

For example, you can optimize your website listings for “fast delivery presents,” “next-day delivery sneakers,” or “fast shipping moisturizer.” This enables you to beat your competition to last-minute or urgent shoppers.

Key takeaways

Keeping ahead of your eCommerce competition requires innovation.

In 2021, this means:

• Shipping at lightning-fast speeds of 2-day and 1-day
• Using dynamic advertising tailored to a customer’s location
• Investing in Instagram and Facebook Shops
• Widening your eCommerce footprint by diversifying your channels
• Providing customers with a personalized service

About the Author

This is a guest post from Rachel Go, senior content marketing manager at Deliverr. Deliverr provides fast and affordable fulfillment for your Shopify, Walmart, Amazon, eBay, Wish, and BigCommerce stores, helping to boost sales through programs like 2-day delivery for Shopify, Walmart 2-day delivery, eBay Fast ‘N Free, and Wish 2-day.

Deliverr’s FBA-like multi-channel fulfillment comes with clear pricing, easy onboarding and a hassle free experience so you can focus on growing your eCommerce business.