It’s important for new businesses to complete a competitive analysis during the business planning stage, but competitive intelligence can also be useful for marketing, pricing, managing and other strategic planning for retailers.

Before you can know your competitive edge, you must first know your competitor.

Competitive Analysis Questions:
Where is your competitor located?
What are the competitor’s strengths?
What are their weaknesses?
What are your competitor’s annual sales?
What is the company’s product line?
How do the products compare to yours, in terms of quality, appearance and any other criteria?
What is their price structure?
What are the company’s marketing activities?
What are the company’s supply sources for products?
Is the company expanding or cutting back?
What do they do better than you?
To answer these questions, retailers will need to do some detective work and gather competitive intelligence. Competition research and assessment doesn’t need to be complicated.
There’s no need to hire someone to do what you can do yourself, but consider employing research firms to find information that isn’t available publicly. Here are a few tools for acquiring competitive intelligence.

]]>

Online Searches are a quick method of finding competitive information. However, this search will only provide information that has become public.
On-site observations of the competitor’s parking lot, customer service, volume and pattern of suppliers’ deliveries, etc. can yield useful information about the state of the competitor’s business.
Surveys and interviews can yield plenty of data about competitors and products. Research surveys and focus group interviews generally provide more in-depth perspectives from a limited sample.
Competitive Benchmarking is used for comparing the organization’s operations against those of the competitor’s. In making specific comparisons within an industry, an organization gains information about common marketing practices, available work force, and suppliers.
Put it to Work
The results of your competitive analysis establish the skills necessary to succeed in your retail business and define your distinct competitive advantage.
To benefit from your research, take as many weaknesses of your competitors as possible and turn them into potential strengths for your business. Narrow down your list to only those items that will give you the competitive edge. Be sure your list is:
Cost-effective and realistic
Planned to solve a particular problem or meet a specific need
Attractive to a niche market
If you begin a business without performing a competitive analysis, you run the risk of creating marketing tools and product or service offerings that they are way off the mark.
If you begin a business without performing a competitive analysis, you run the risk of creating marketing tools and product or service offerings that are way off the mark. This can cost you valuable time and money during the critical early months.
You should also plan to gather competitive intelligence as your business grows, in order to stay competitive. Competitive analysis is an ongoing process and retailers should always be gathering information about their competitors.

The astronomical growth of group buying websites such as Groupon and Livingsocial has been a major trend for 2010 — but what does the group buying market look like beyond the hype? This webinar will explore competitive intelligence and benchmarking as a way to understand what your competitors are doing online. The webinar will use Compete’s Online Channel Effectiveness (OCE) product to show how marketers can gain insights and competitive benchmarks to improve their performance across the entire online sales funnel. You will learn: • Why online marketers are flying blind without competitive intelligence. • The four key areas of the sales funnel you need to measure vs. your competitors. • Key metrics in each area of the sales funnel. • How leading marketers use competitive intelligence to driving marketing effectiveness.
Video Rating: 0 / 5

More Competitive Intelligence Articles

Comments are closed.