Traffic. Something we all hate when we're on the way to work, but something we're desperate for if your work involves a website. But the same rules don't apply to traffic on the road and traffic on the internet. On the road, pretty much all traffic is bad, annoying and something you don't want. But the opposite isn't exactly true on the internet. Sure, we all want a lot of traffic to our website, but if it isn't converting then its almost as useless as the traffic jam on the way to work. What all of us are after is a high conversion rate.

So what can be done to increase conversions?

Well what we specialise in is competitor price monitoring. Whilst having the most competitive prices is the most important factor in competitive ecommerce sectors, there are still other aspects that need to be in check so as to further enhance the effects of monitoring your competitors prices.

What do shoppers do when they want something? They hunt around, run searches for the best prices, and then go from there. Well even if you are competitively priced, your site may not show up high enough in the search results to get spotted by potential customers. So you need to make sure you rank well for your specific keywords. This means you have to treat SEO as part of your routine unless you are outsourcing it. Its no good building a few links and hoping you stay in the position you are in. SEO, like competitor price monitoring, is an ongoing activity. So put yourself out there, write blog posts, interact on forums and social media, and publish press releases. Anything that can build good quality links to your site is going to help you move up the rankings so that you show up when someone searches for your product or service.

So you're using a competitor price monitoring service. You've ramped up the SEO efforts for your ecommerce website. There's still one more thing which can be done to ensure you are doing the very best you can to win customers, and that is conversion rate optimisation (CRO). This, like the SEO and competitor price monitoring, is a large topic and you should spend time researching how to optimise your website. It may be that the layout simply doesn't appeal to customers, or it may be its hard to navigate. Whatever it is, there are sophisticated tools available to help you get to the bottom of why visitors aren't converting (or if they are, how to get even more!). You can know how people interact on each page of your website, you can use heat maps to see where people click, and once you've got this knowledge, you can try doing some tests to enhance your ecommerce store even further. Maybe try various headings, images, layouts or calls to action until you are getting the conversions you want.

One essential tool to help with CRO is Google Analytics, a free service used to track bounce rates and navigation paths. Used in conjunction with a tool like Click Tale and you have all the information you need.

So to recap, the 3 steps we advise ecommerce businesses to take in order to stay ahead of their competitors are

1. Competitor Price Monitoring
2. Search engine optimisation
3. Conversion rate optimisation

Hopefully this has given you an insight into what is required in order to stay competitive in today's ecommerce arena. Leave a comment if you want to discuss any of the steps covered in the post. For more information on how we can monitor your competitors prices, take a tour.

 

Image by EA / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In our last blog post we gave you an introduction to the world of monitoring. This week we're going to focus on competitor price monitoring, which is a great way of maintaining a competitive advantage online.

Competitive analysis should be an ongoing practise of all ecommerce businesses operating in competitive markets. Now that online price monitoring is so simple to do, there is no reason not to include it.

'Competitive Jewellery' (not real!) launched only six months ago. They sell low-mid range priced branded jewellery through an ecommerce store. They operate in a very competitive market, and have come to realise that they are going to struggle to survive unless they have a way of capturing the customer's attention as soon as they come online. They are doing ongoing SEO, but stand little chance of making it to page 1 anytime soon.

So they decide to do some research and stumble across an up and coming trend in the world of ecommerce - competitor price monitoring. They see this is as something which can potentially give them a chance to compete with the well established players in the market becasue we all know the first thing people do when they go to buy something online is hunt around for the best prices. If they are able to continuosly offer the best prices, then people will return to them, and they will build their brand as a result.

So how exactly does competitor price monitoring help Competitive Jewellery stay competitive?

 

Optimal Pricing - it ensures they always have their prices set competitively. They never have to worry about pricing too high or underselling too much. Anytime their competitors are out of stock of a certain product, they can jump right onto this and capitalise, whereas in the past they would have probably realised too late.

 

Competitive Intelligence - once they start using online price monitoring, they soon notice interesting trends. Prices of certain product ranges will drop across the border for no apparent reason. In the past it would take them a while to realise this.

 

I f your current situation is nothing like the one in the example then this doesn't mean competitor monitoring is not for you. It can help businesses of all sizes and in all markets gain and maintain a competitive edge. If nothing else, the information is simply very interesting to know, and spotting trends will help you learn more about your competitors.

This is only really scratching the surface with what competitor price monitoring can do for businesses, so leave a comment if you want to talk to us about it. We're passionate about it because we know how much use it can be and we really see it becoming widespread. The problem right now is that no one really knows you can even do it.. although I guess in the eyes of those that currently use it they want it to stay that way!

Will this become common practise for ecommerce websites, and end up simply pushing profit margins down for businesses? Who knows. Maybe, but it will take some time. And the fact of the matter is, right now not many businesses do monitor competitors, so there's no better time to start than now.

 

Brand monitoring, competitor monitoring, social media monitoring. The list goes on. The Internet has developed into a world in which everyone is trying to keep tabs on each other. Here at Competitor Monitor we want to help you make sense of this mass of information, as this is a field we specialise in.

 

Our first bit of advice to you is to tell you not to shy away – due to the confusion surrounding the topic of monitoring, many businesses elect to not have any involvement. Well if you follow this same notion, you will be missing out on a huge competitive advantage.

 

Depending on your line of business or your goals, certain types of monitoring will or won’t be of use to you. Let’s briefly run through the purpose of each of the types we listed above.

 

• Competitor monitoring

-      Keeping track of what your competitors are up to via price monitoring and product monitoring… are they changing prices? Are they scrapping certain products? Why!

 

• Brand monitoring

 Do you know what your competitors did today? Business is fast paced and constantly changing. In order to stay effective and competitive in the marketplace, you have to know what is happening around you. Perhaps most importantly, you should know what your competitors are doing on a daily basis. What are they promoting? What prices are they selling at? How is their business advancing? Competitor monitoring is something that can keep you informed and in control. 

 

 

There are all types of competitor monitoring available, that let businesses monitor and analyse their competition in a variety of different ways. Price monitoring is just one aspect of competitor monitoring which can prove to be particularly effective in helping businesses stay competitive. For example, if you have an ecommerce website and your sales drop off all of a sudden for no obvious reason, competitor monitoring might have the answer. Your competitors might have lowered their prices significantly enough to draw customers away from you.

 

Alternatively, product development and diversity can also have an effect on how your business performs. In the same scenario where you suffer a drop in sales for no obvious reason. Competitor monitoring might reveal that a competitor has added a new range of products that give them an edge. 

 

With this knowledge, any business has the power to make more informed decisions and choices in where they should be taking their business and how they can develop to fit with market trends and advances.

 

 

Innovation and change are key to business. Without development and new ideas, businesses become stagnant and fail to successfully compete in the market. Competitor monitoring services aim to survey and analyse changes in the market. Within a single business, anything from a pricing structure change, a new product line, the removal of old products or new ways of marketing can have an affect on how other businesses in the same market perform.

 

Monitoring change in your closest competitors gives the opportunity to choose to take action, whether that be defensive action, or offensive action - change for the better, whatever that change may need to be. 

 

 

Competitor monitoring, while effective and empowering, should also be discreet. It is one business area that must be tactful in its own endeavours and seek to produce results without being detected. If your competitors are aware that you are monitoring them professionally, this could be counter-productive to the process. It is also important to state that competitor monitoring is not an underhand practice either. Information that is collected as part of competitor monitoring is openly available for all to see in the first place. A good competitor monitoring service will just ensure that this information is collated and communicated effectively.