Spy on Your eCommerce Competitors' Sales Tactics (Competitor Analysis)

Key Takeaways

you think about your competitors a lot i think about your competitors a lot so you definitely do in this video we're going to share an exercise that you can use to steal reverse engineer their sales tactics now we've made two versions of this video this one is all about e-commerce so if you're an e-commerce business i.e you sell products through your website this is awesome for you if your website is there to generate leads for your business then we have a separate one for you of course you're welcome to watch the other as there's always lessons that can be learned but in this video we're going to be looking just at e-commerce examples so let's find out how to steal your e-commerce competitors sales tactics all right in this video we're going to be talking specifically about how to steal their sales tactics we're not going to be talking about how to drive more traffic to your website or how to see how your competitors driving traffic we've got other videos that are about that this is specifically about how your competitors are turning a website visitor into a sale in e-commerce there are actually kind of four buckets where competitor sales tactics sit firstly how they're using lead capture or list building secondly the actual sales process on their site so for example navigation through to product pages and checkout this is like the conversion optimization piece the third element is cart abandonment and retargeting and then finally we've got post-sale follow-up so in this video we're going to be looking at each element in turn if you don't have the time to do this for your competitors don't worry i'm going to share some examples from the sites that we've analyzed and the sites that we've worked on so you still get a really good gist of what you can do to improve your ecommerce sales but really i want you to go and dig around on your competitor sites have a look under each of these different categories and see what they're doing because there is almost always something that can be learned even from your worst competitors all right first up list building email capture this building lead capture for e-commerce yeah trust me this building has become a key e-commerce battleground and here's why as pay-per-click costs increase and e-commerce naturally becomes more competitive profit margins start to get squeezed even with the best performing site you might have a 15 e-commerce conversion rate in other words you're turning 15 of every 100 visitors into a sale but for many businesses their e-commerce conversion rate is way underneath that and they actually need a model where they can be converting at 2 and still be profitable but this means that with advertising costs increasing and conversion rate between anywhere like two percent to fifteen percent if you're relying on that customer buying on their first visit to your site it's gonna get harder and harder to hit your roi targets there needs to be some kind of backup conversion goal that you can rely on which is softer and less risky for potential customers than buy from us straight away what i suspect we're gonna see over time is that the first sale for many e-commerce stores is going to become less and less profitable as their customer acquisition costs increase so in other words we'll start to get businesses which are much more happy to go negative i.e make a loss on their first sale because they have a back end which they can be confident is going to turn a customer into a repeat customer over time enter lead capture now the most common implementation of lead capture on e-commerce is this type of thing now this isn't a particularly great example this is on the site greenpeople.co.uk which by the way no affiliation to explosion ninja or any of our clients and it says save 10 on your next order get a 10 discount on all products when you sign up to our newsletter now yes it looks a bit rubbish but the point is if you can incentivize someone when they land on the site to give you their email address in return for a discount on their first order you've now got them in your system you can run remarketing ads to them you can run retargeting ads to them you can email them follow up you can give them your newsletter you can give them some great content through email marketing which kind of turns them into a fan of the business over time in the hope that they then buy and become a customer we're starting to see businesses get much more creative with this now on this site we can see that they're offering a free trial so they're actually giving away one of their products this is free plus shipping offers so they're actually covering the cost of the product with the higher shipping cost but even so what they're trying to do is get you into their world incentivize you and they know that if you spend a little bit of money with them you're much more likely to spend more money over time so this is the first area to analyze for your competitors how are they capturing leads how are they trying to get email signups and by the way this is the worst implementation of this strategy stick it right at the bottom of the page stay in the know enter your email address i mean who is ever gonna do that what's the perceived value of that freaking zero so stay away from sign up for the newsletter or anything like that you've got to incentivize people to give you their email address if you actually want them to do it okay the next area to analyze on your competitors size is the sales process on the site so this is how they turn a high commercial intent website visitor into a purchaser loads of different elements in here starts with navigation how easy is it to find products on their site now menus are absolutely key and they're one area that really has seen a lot of work and a lot of development over the past few years now if we take a look at the garden shed space we can see some different examples i'm not in the market for a shed but i was just trying to think of something where there might be some e-commerce sites um in this example we can see how the menu structure uses basically three levels so we've got one level along the top here then we've got categories so garden sheds by type garden sheds by shed size by price and then we've got the sub categories underneath in black pretty easy to use pretty quick to find what you need but nowadays we're often seeing these kind of combined menu types where actually we've got different options next to each other so for example here we've got shed categories then we've got sheds that are delivered fast then we've got subcategories under wooden sheds then we've got cheap we've got base preparation service we've got different types of cladding so it's really confused and we're forcing the customer to work much harder because we're not asking them to compare apples to apples we're giving them different types of options to choose from and it's very possible that the thing they're looking for on the site is actually going to sit in multiple categories here so we're forcing people to choose and then we've got this really interesting implementation from home base which is a kind of three or four level menu so we've got the drop downs here then we click on this and it gives us expanding but it kind of doesn't expand to the next level then we've got some that just disappear altogether okay it's kind of like a game to try and find anything so really the only thing you need to do is think about your typical customer think about how they think about what they need what's the language that they use how much do they know about the product before they come onto your site and then just simply make a menu that gets them to that product as quickly as possible and without them having to do any thinking the more thinking you force a customer to use in order to find the product on your site the more likely they are to go somewhere else the next item to analyze any competitive sites in the customer buying cycle is product pages so product pages are really where the rubber meets the road for a lot of e-commerce sites what's the layout that your competitors are using remember the six areas that you want to include on any conversion focus page on your site credibility law how can you attract someone to buy the product that they're looking at objection handling what are the things that would prevent someone from buying and how can you remove those social proof how can you give that person confidence that they're not the first person to buy this product ease of use is all about simplicity of taking them through the checkout process and then the result how can we get them a result by making this purchase we can see how my protein on this page is actually giving you a voucher code on the page itself so what they're trying to do is give you a little bit of additional look to get you to complete the checkout process and then they handle one of the main objections which is how long is delivery going to take by actually including delivery information on the page as well are your competitors using a ticking clock which shows how long customers have in order to take advantage of next day delivery how are they presenting the product in the images on the page as well is this like one kind of low res grainy image that looks like it might have been taken on an iphone one at the top of a snowy mountain in the middle of a fog storm or are they giving massive high resolution images that can be zoomed in and show the product in loads of detail going back to the garden shed example we can see that we're being asked here to buy a 500 pound shed with basically one front on picture we've got a couple of diagrams which show it closed but actually there's really no detail here at all i don't really get too much of a sense of the product at all if we compare this to something like this site for example which shows the product we can zoom in we can see some of the close-up details and some of the finishes some of the elements like the flooring the hinges the lock you know what we're trying to do here is replicate the in-person shopping experience if you're expecting me to buy a product from just seeing it over in the distance in very low resolution that's a much harder sale than if you're letting someone basically examine it close up see what's inside see what it looks like from the back which is basically what we would all be doing if we were shopping in person do your product pages offer payment options do they show for example that customers can pay by splitting the payment using something like client does it show that you accept apple pay google pay you know one click payment options like those just to show you another couple of examples of areas where your competitors might be falling flat with their ecommerce conversion if we take a look at this page here good looking page well laid out but what we're really expecting on this page is for people to be able to personalize their sheds without very much information at all this requires the buyer to be quite well educated for example i'm being asked to choose between a nine millimeter osb solid sheet floor and a ten millimeter duralis solid sheet i've got no idea what those are maybe that means i'm stupid but even so help me out don't force me to know all of these things and be a shed genius in order to buy from this page whereas compare that with this site where every single option i'm asked to choose from i can click on a little tool tip and it gives me a bit of information about what that thing is and actually tries to make the upsell clear to see how helping your customers make an informed purchase rather than just forcing them to click and take a gamble is a really good bet and i don't want to turn this into like a home-based teardown but honestly what is this product page yeah they've got some images but there's no labeling at all there's almost no information here there's a little bit of information about the product but very very little indeed product details it's all just completely flat and generic come on sell me a shed i don't need a shed i don't want a shed i'm not a shed person i wouldn't consider myself to be a shed person actually and then we've got the all-important basket and checkout pages these are absolutely crucial for many e-commerce sites they'll look at their analytics and see that lots of people are adding product to cart but they're not checking out so when you're doing your competitor sales tactics analysis you want to have a look at what their checkout pages are doing for example here we've got one which kind of looks a little bit half-finished if i'm honest this looks like when you go to a restaurant and it's a small restaurant you go out the back to find the toilet and you open the door and you end up in this random corridor you're like i'm not really sure if i'm supposed to be here kind of a little bit like this if we compare this for example to this one-step checkout where we've got much more information it's been thought of a little bit more and there are loads of things that you can do to increase your conversion rate through checkouts things like adding testimonials adding information about guarantees adding delivery information anything that basically puts you ahead of your competitors or just nudges them to get them through these are all great things to add to your checkout so have a look and see what your competitors are doing what have they learned about their checkout pages and how they can move people through them which you can adapt and copy utilize on your site okay the third element in your competitor sales tactics analysis is cart abandonment and retargeting so this is what happens if you don't buy from your competitors okay so put something in your cart leave the site go and do something else then for research purposes go on to facebook go on to youtube go onto gmail and see if you start seeing retargeting and remarketing ads if you do are these generic business like come back to our sheds.com site or are they dynamic remarketing retargeting are either actually showing you the products that you visited maybe the products that you put in your car this is a really important part of e-commerce and it's only getting more competitive some sites will ask for email address before they allow you too far into the checkout process so what you can try doing is going partially through the checkout process putting in your email address and then abandoning cart are they trying to entice you back onto the site to complete the purchase with free gifts or better delivery terms or an additional discount cart abandonment statistics vary depending on where you look but the baymard institute combined a whole bunch of studies and found that around 70 of checkouts are abandoned before they're completed so clearly there's a lot of money to be made if you can improve your own car abandonment process so have a look and see what your competitors are doing copy the good bits exploit the holes oh and by the way before we go into the final tip if you've enjoyed this video and you love geeking out on digital marketing then guess what everything that we learn at exposure ninja doing this stuff for hundreds of businesses every year we share in these videos so consider subscribing to the channel and every single week we're gonna directly inject straight through your eyeball into your brain digital marketing knowledge and observation it's not as painful as it sounds and of course if you want help increasing your own e-commerce stores sales then we have a free service for you it's called the exposure ninja website and marketing review all you need to do is go to exposureninja.com and click the big button what will happen is we'll ask you a few questions about your business and about your marketing and sales goals one of our team will then go away and do some research they'll analyze your e-commerce store they'll also analyze your competitors e-commerce stores and they'll put all of their recommendations about how to increase your sales into a 15 minute video they will email this to you usually within two or three working days and you're free to take those recommendations implement them yourself implement them with your current agency or if you want to work with us to implement them then of course we're happy to have that conversation although there's no obligation to do so so go to exposureninjet.com and request your free digital marketing review today alrighty the final sales tactic snooping strategy involves actually buying something from your competitors and seeing what happens yes giving them money now you can of course return the product once it arrives if you want what i want you to watch when you buy from your competitors is exactly what happens and you can timeline this in a spreadsheet if you're an absolute geek like we are so from that moment you click submit order what happens when does the email confirmation arrive and what does it include is there anything in that email confirmation which is trying to reduce returns for example by giving you a customer service email address that you can contact if you have any questions are they sharing reviews or testimonials in that confirmation email again to build credibility and reduce the likelihood that you'll pull out or get cold feet whilst you're waiting for your order to arrive what do the delivery notifications look like which delivery partner are they using and how quickly is the delivery arriving how does that compare to your site what about when you receive the product what does it come with does it come with an invitation to review them online does it come with detailed instructions or does it come with absolutely nothing at all and then what happens after you've received the product so do they send a follow-up email after a period of time how long is the period of time asking for you to review that product and if they do ask for the review do they link directly to the product page do they link you to some third party like trustpilot or do they link you to a general review page on the site as you can see there's loads to geek out on when you buy from your competitors if you're that way inclined not everyone is shame and how about after that so are you now on an email marketing list are they sending you different offers are they trying to cross-sell or upsell you into related product categories are they trying to resell you on the same thing are they trying to sell you seven garden sheds a year no one needs seven garden sheds a year remember as we spoke about at the start e-commerce is only getting more competitive and will continue to become the default purchase option for many markets as this happens we'll start to see the roi point shift from first purchase to somewhere further down the customer lifetime so fewer businesses will be able to rely on making profit from the first sale and instead will have to rely on making profit from subsequent sales so this kind of follow-up stuff that happens behind the scenes will become more and more important building a connection between the customer and your business so that they come straight back to you if they need to buy from that category again will become more and more important so having a look at what's going on behind the scenes and the email marketing stuff that goes on in order to spur those repeat customers is exactly what you need to be doing victory will belong to the business that is able to lose the most amount of money on the first sale profitably what does that mean lose the most amount of money on the first sale but be profitable because you know that your customer lifetime is great because the upsell sequences are spot on and you carry a range of products which you're able to monetize that customer without any cost of sale whatsoever so don't make the mistake of thinking that once the first sale is over the customer is done that will become less and less viable as time goes on so to wrap up we've looked at how to analyze your competitors e-commerce stores we looked at a whole bunch of different categories we looked at how they collect leads and what their lead gen bait is we looked at how they convert visitors on the site the first time so the product pages the navigation the checkout and the basket we talked about abandonment and follow-up how the cart abandonment sequences are set up what sort of remarketing retargeting happens and then we looked at what the process is after purchase so how do they encourage you to buy to cross-sell to upsell how do they keep you in their world and continue to build a relationship with you blimey it's hard work running an e-commerce business if you think it's hard work running an e-commerce business go and check out the lead generation version of this video i can assure you getting sales is never particularly easy so work really hard it's one of the best things that you can do for your business obviously why do so few do it i've no idea so if you're watching this thinking oh there's a lot of stuff to do don't worry we've got your back request your free website and marketing review we will analyze your site and your conversion funnel and also your traffic and your competitors and we will let you know what you need to focus on right now to generate more leads and sales for your business don't worry we will be kind we cannot guarantee that we'll be kind we will be honest we'll be honest we'll be polite and civil we will give you the feedback that your business needs in order for your store to grow we can even help you do this stuff although that is a conversation for another day the first step is to go to exposureninja.com tell us about your business and your goals for your store we will then give you some feedback on how you can increase the volume of sales that it's generating for you both by increasing the amount of traffic and also increasing the conversion rate of that traffic as well it's an awesome service completely free no obligation no catch go and do it now i hope you've enjoyed this video if you haven't i'm sorry click subscribe anyway see you next time