As a dropshipper, you should always be aware of who you are up against. The best dropshipping websites are those that have a unique selling point (USP) that makes them stand out from the competition. Before you launch or grow your dropshipping website, you should look into your competitors.
Dropship-Empire has been helping dropshippers find high-quality products and suppliers for almost 20 years. We work with drop shippers from all over the industry who sell on marketplaces and e-commerce platforms. We’re going to show you how to do research on your competitors and give you tips that every dropshipper should know.
Why is it important to research your competitors?
When you know who your competitors are, you can find out everything about them, from how they set their prices to what people say about them online. Researching your competitors lets you see what others are doing well and where they can improve. If you want your dropshipping website to be a success, you should start researching your competitors right away.
Competitor research is an important part of your branding and marketing strategy. It helps you stand out in your niche. Doing research on your competitors can also help you find gaps in the market and ways to improve.
How to do research on your competitors
Researching your competitors is more than just typing in your keywords and looking at the first few pages of Google. This guide gives you six steps for how to research your competitors at any point in the growth of your business, whether you’re just starting out or want to take it to the next level.
It’s important to remember that competitor research can look at both direct and indirect competitors. Direct competitors are those who sell similar products to the same kind of people as you do. Indirect competitors sell products that are similar to yours but are aimed at a different group of people, or they sell something different but are aimed at the same group of people as you. With your competitor research, you want to make sure you cover both.
Find out who your main rivals are.
First, you need to figure out who your main direct and indirect competitors are. Look for the products you want to sell and keep track of the companies that sell to the same people you do. These competitors will be the companies that your customers already use to get the products you want to sell.
More thorough your research will be, the more you look into who your competitors are. Don’t be afraid to cast a wide net and look for competitors both directly and indirectly. Every business can teach you something, whether it’s about how they market their product or how they treat their customers.
Look at what they have online.
Check out the websites of each of your competitors. This step involves checking out all of their online spaces, like their website and their social media profiles. Check to see if they have any blogs that they run or for which they write guest posts.
You can figure out how strong their online presence is by looking at the parts of each platform. How do people feel when they visit their website? Can you find your way around their website easily? How do they tell their customer what their product is?
You should look at how mobile-friendly their website is and how often they post on their blog or social media profiles as part of your evaluation. You should also look at how good their content is. Does it look professional or do you think it’s old?
Make a list of all the social media sites your competitors use, as well as the kind of content they post on each site to keep people interested.
When you look at what your competitors are doing online, you can see what they’re doing well and what they could do better. It gives you an idea of what kind of content and website you’ll need to make to compete with them.
Be like a client
Put yourself in the place of a customer and talk to your competitors as if you were one of them. You can get an idea of how your competitors treat their customers. Use their website like you would if you were going to buy something, and interact with them on social media.
Sign up for their newsletter or email list to see how they market their brand, and check out their website to see how well it works.
Keep track of what you’ve learned.
Your research on your competitors is something you should keep in mind as you make your marketing strategy. The best advice we can give you is to keep track of your research in real time. You don’t have to make fancy graphs or spreadsheets. You can easily keep track of the information you’re gathering by using an Excel document or a Google sheet.
Your spreadsheet can keep track of each competitor’s unique selling proposition (USP) and online presence, as well as any notes you have about how they market themselves.
Check online reviews of them.
Look at an online review to hear directly from your competitor’s customers. Check sites like TrustPilot to get a more complete picture than just the reviews on their website. You can also search their social media handles to see what customers are saying about their products and services. Write down any negative comments you see so you don’t make the same mistakes.
Find ways to get better.
You want to use what you learn about your competitors to make your business stand out by doing well where they fail. You should be able to find at least one way that your business can serve its customers better than the competition.
Dropship-Empire is a leader in the dropshipping industry. We help our customers grow and expand their businesses by putting them in touch with high-quality dropshipping suppliers and products. We integrate with the best marketplaces and e-commerce platforms, so you can add products and sync orders directly with your supplier.
Our service makes it easy for you to use what you’ve learned about your competitors because it gives you access to the products you need to make your dropshipping business stand out.