The last few years have been characterised by rapid advancements in technology. This has paved the way for businesses and startups and has led to intense rivalry in the ecommerce space. Surviving there has become a matter of prudent business choices and unorthodox approaches, rather than mere chance or luck. So how do businesses meet the impending challenges or tackle the cut throat rivalry that exists there? Let us find out.
Below mentioned are some approaches that e-commerce businesses may actively consider:
- Embrace Minimalism
Less is often more. This means trying to please every market segment may have your business landing in some real and unnecessary challenge. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, businesses may choose to focus on a specific niche. They must choose a target audience, which they feel confident of serving.
By offering a specialized and tailored solution, they can embrace minimalism. By being away from too many distractions, businesses can carve out a unique position in the market. It leads to building a dedicated customer base for themselves. This can set them going in an instant.
- Create a Movement
“You can exist as a business for a lifetime, but to thrive requires an overarching business approach.” This necessitates that ecommerce businesses can leverage social media and other channels. It helps them to let the word about their business get out. Engage in storytelling. Building a strong brand that goes beyond selling products or services is something that is at the heart of successful businesses. Perhaps this is why businesses behave as responsible citizens– reflecting their philanthropic element.
Along the same lines, businesses may develop a mission and purpose. They may also devote themselves to a cause that resonates with their closest communities, society, and target audience. This helps them to become part of a larger movement. Also, this emotional connection can foster deep loyalty and word-of-mouth advocacy.
- Put in Place Reverse Engineering
Ecommerce businesses of today are in dire need of this. They have to have that “outside-in approach”– one where they actively seek the ‘whatabouts’ & ‘whereabouts’, ‘tactics’, ‘manoeuvers’, and ‘strategies’ of their close competitors. Instead of starting from scratch or trying some rudimentary marketing gimmicks, or market leaders and reverse engineering their strategies and way of working can be a big breather for businesses in crises.
Identifying their strengths and weaknesses, and building upon their successes while addressing their shortcomings can believably help speed up a business’s growth by learning from the lessons of others.
- Gamify the Experience
Gamification has emerged as a pivotal tool in implementing . This can be a new idea for several businesses but it can work. Introducing some elements of gamification into the products, services, or customer journey can set the ball rolling. By incorporating game-like mechanics, rewards, and challenges, businesses can increase engagement, drive loyalty, and create a sense of fun, inquisitiveness, and excitement around their brand.
- Co-Creation with Customers
“Prudent businesses have their .” There is an underlying meaning to this. If your business can have the customers talking and discussing about your offerings as freely as they have their drawing room discussions, you have surreptitiously and, maybe quite unknowingly infused a sense of patronage in them.
It is recommended that businesses involve their customers in the product development process by encouraging their input and ideas and letting them co-create with you. This not only fosters a sense of association and ownership but also ensures that your offerings align with their needs and desires, giving your business the much-needed competitive advantage.
- Disrupt the Status Quo
Challenge long-standing industry norms and disrupt traditional approaches. Identify outdated practices, inefficiencies, or pain points within your industry, and develop innovative solutions that revolutionize the way things are done. By being a disruptor, you can attract attention, gain market share, and create new opportunities. For instance, this can involve bringing innovative technologies for last-mile delivery in ecommerce.
- Harness User-Generated Content (UGC)
Surrounded by the ‘vocal’ consumers of today, businesses should learn to leverage UGC. It is a valuable tactic that smart businesses of today are using to outsmart their peer businesses. Businesses can encourage and help their customers to create and share content related to their brand.
This can be anything right from enabling them to write testimonials, reviews, referrals, and social media posts, to pitching for user-generated products. By leveraging user-generated content, businesses can inspire authenticity, boost credibility, and achieve organic growth through word-of-mouth marketing.
- Go Hyperlocal
Going hyperlocal is no longer an option for contemporary businesses. It has an ‘essential’ element in it. With a surge in hyperlocal ecommerce deliveries, hyperlocal ecommerce platforms have become a necessity. Businesses of today make up for prudent enterprises if they can leverage them in the right manner.
The hyperlocal delivery network is getting so widespread because it helps contemporary businesses and modern-age entrepreneurs get free from usual logistical challenges, become more organized, get increased visibility for their brand/business, command a better standing in the digital market, and have an upper hand over their competitors.
- Partner with your Industry Players
Businesses can identify non-competing businesses in their industry that share a similar target audience and are open to partnerships— whether short-term or long-term. They can further explore collaborative opportunities to cross-promote each other's products or services, bundle offerings, or even co-create new solutions. This can certainly broaden their reach, help tap into new customer segments, and create mutually beneficial partnerships, thereby producing synergistic advantages.
Conclusion
The ecommerce industry is no short of competitors. From food delivery businesses to groceries and from shopping goods to even the most luxurious goods, everything is getting delivered online at an unprecedented pace, and ecommerce is the force behind it. It is this rapid pace that has rendered the entire industry to be full of competitors who cannot merely sit back, relax, and think of their plan of action.
Instead, they need to ‘excogitate’ and be ‘on their toes’ to work out smart strategies and tactics— a few of which have been suggested. Though the approaches appear a bit unconventional accompanying some risks, it has their significant rewards.
Experimenting with such approaches can lead to innovative breakthroughs and provide businesses the much-needed formidability and robustness that they, in today’s competitive times, so desperately need.
