The e-commerce market is dynamic, and customers have many options to choose from, so monitoring the competition is crucial for success in online business. With the right tools and strategies, you can gain an edge over your competitors and better understand the market. In this article, I discuss the tools and benefits of monitoring e-commerce competition.
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Tools for online store owners
Divided by parameters you can analyze with them:
Social media monitoring tools
In the age of social media, monitoring competitor activity on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram is vital. You can track what advertising campaigns, promotions and interactions your competitors are running. There are a number of tools, such as Hootsuite, Mention and Brandwatch, that allow you to monitor your competitors’ mentions and track industry trends. A Polish tool for such analysis is Brand24.
Brand24 uses natural language processing technology and text analysis algorithms to scan the Internet and social media for mentions of selected keywords, such as your brand name, product names, competing brands, etc. The tool analyzes content such as posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, blogs, discussion forums, opinion services, press releases and much more. You can monitor what is being said about the competition, what campaigns they are running, how they are responding to customer feedback. In addition, Brand24 analyzes the sentiment of mentions of your brand and competitors, that is, it determines whether they are positive, negative or neutral. This allows you to gauge what your customers’ overall attitudes are toward your business and your competitors, and identify areas for improvement.
Brand24 also has an interesting option – real-time notifications of new mentions of your brand and competitors. This allows you to react quickly to situations and take appropriate action when necessary.
Tools for monitoring prices and offers
In e-commerce, price competition is one of the important factors influencing customers’ purchasing decisions. That’s why it makes sense to use tools such as:
- Dealavo
- Brandly360
- Price2Spy
- Ceneo Tracker
- Scarce Monitor
- Google Alerts
They make it possible to monitor prices and offers from competitors. This way you will be able to react quickly to changes in prices, product availability or promotions to adjust your sales strategy and stay competitive.
Tools for analyzing website traffic
Monitoring your competitor’s website traffic allows you to understand what traffic sources bring them the most customers, what products are most popular with your competitors, or which pages users go to most often. Tools such as SimilarWeb, Gemius Audience, Hotjar and SEMrush provide valuable information about competitors’ site traffic, the keywords they use and the marketing strategies that bring them the best results.
Tools for monitoring customer feedback
Customer reviews are of great importance for the image of an online store. That’s why it’s a good idea to monitor competitor reviews on various platforms, such as opinion sites, discussion forums and social media.
Tools such as the aforementioned Brand24 or SentiOne make it possible to monitor customer feedback on competitors. This allows you to find out what your competitors’ strengths are, what problems your customers are facing, and what changes you can make to your store to improve your offerings and customer service.
Keyword and trend monitoring tools
Keywords play an important role in positioning an online store in search results. Tools such as Google Trends, Senuto, SentiOne, SEMrush allow you to monitor popular industry keywords and trends that can influence customer behavior. This will allow you to adapt your marketing efforts and offerings to changing customer preferences.
Tools for monitoring competitors’ marketing activities
Tools such as SimilarWeb, Brand24 and SpyFu allow you to track your competitors’ advertising campaigns, analyze their strategies and even access data on the advertising budgets they spend. This will allow you to adjust your marketing efforts and compete effectively in the market.
Benefits of monitoring e-commerce competition
Now that we’ve considered the various tools, it’s worth considering what benefits can be gained from monitoring e-commerce competition:
- Better understanding of the market: Monitoring your competitors allows you to gain a deeper understanding of the market in which your online store operates. This allows you to better tailor your offerings to meet customer needs and trends.
- Quick response to changes: With tools for monitoring prices and offers, as well as competitor activity on social media, you can react quickly to changes in the market. It’s crucial to adjust your strategy and stay competitive.
- Improving position in search results: Analyzing keywords and trends allows you to tailor your SEO strategy to meet your customers’ current needs, which can improve your store’s positions in search results.
- Better customer service: Monitoring customer reviews of competitors allows you to find out what problems customers face and what suggestions they have about products or service. This is valuable information that can be used to improve customer service.
- More effective marketing efforts: Tracking your competitors’ marketing activities lets you know which strategies yield the best results. You can use this information to customize your own advertising campaigns.
- Staying competitive: In today’s competitive e-commerce world, failure to monitor competitors can lead to lost customers and lost sales. With regular monitoring, you can maintain your position in the market.
It is also worth remembering that monitoring competition is an ongoing process. The market and competition are changing, so it’s important to stay current and adapt your strategy to changing conditions.
Summary
Monitoring e-commerce competition is a key element of business strategy that can bring many benefits. With the right tools and systematic analysis, you can better understand the market, adjust your offerings and strategy, and stay competitive. It’s an investment that can pay off by gaining loyal customers and achieving e-commerce success. That’s why it’s worth spending time and resources on monitoring your competitors to achieve better results for your online store.
