Making a good amount of profit on Amazon can be really challenging at times. It requires constant development and adaptability. Have you ever questioned why something like seller competitor analysis for Amazon is essential? Let’s investigate.
Analyzing your competition is crucial because it answers the following questions-
- Is a product truly as profitable an investment as it seems?
- How strong is your competition?
- What can you improve upon?
Approximately 2,000 new sellers join the Amazon marketplace each day. To get an advantage, you must fully comprehend what the other competitors are doing. This may include a thorough assessment of their pricing, sourcing, manufacturing, marketing, and so on.
Is competition on Amazon harsh?
The competition on the Amazon platform increased by 8% in the United States compared to 2018, according to the most recent Feedvisor data. Sales could marginally decline as more Amazon vendors compete for a piece of the action. The reasons might be-
- The platform is the primary source of income for over half of the sellers examined;
- Most of the businesses have up to five employees;
- A small portion of them rely on specialized consultants
The majority of Amazon sellers operating an online store claim to buy popular items with little competition. However, this tends to make the situation worse. On the other hand, almost half as many people look for goods that their competitors are successfully marketing. No one seems to want to oppose the competition.
Price wars can therefore start up very fast. Nevertheless, maintaining your position and performing some research like conducting an Amazon seller competitor analysis can uphold the profitability of your business on Amazon .
How to find your competitors
Competition from sellers of comparable products should be one of your top priorities when undertaking product research for your Amazon business. If you don’t know who your specific opponents will be, how can you know what you’re up against?
Searching for your product ideas on Amazon is the simplest approach to find your competitors. Initially, use a general keyword to see what appears in the search results. The competition will be fierce for a broad term. But as you narrow your emphasis and become more particular, the number of your direct competitors will decline. It is these competitors that you should concentrate on.
You will have a big list of competitors once you have finished all the stages outlined above. Although it would be impossible to thoroughly investigate each one, you should look through the list and choose the sellers who are having success.
Benefits of Amazon Seller Competitor Analysis
Amazon seller competitor analysis is frequently a time-consuming, difficult, and uninteresting activity. Therefore, at some point, you might start to doubt whether all the effort and time was worthwhile. The simple answer is yes. Researching your Amazon competitors has a number of important advantages because it enables you to:
- Make sure your pricing is reasonable
- Learn strategies to distinguish your items from those of your competitors
- Recognize how your listings are performing in comparison to your competitors
- Decide which products to sell
- Identify and fill market gaps
How to perform Amazon Seller Competitor Analysis
Once you are aware of who your primary competitors are, you need to determine their strengths and weaknesses in order to outperform them. These are the steps necessary for a thorough Amazon seller competitor analysis-
Auditing competitors’ product listings
Make a list of all the things your competition sells to start your competitor analysis. Build a Google Sheet and share it with your team for quick access. Each component of a product listing, including the title, description, and photos, can be graded here. You should concentrate on the following areas during your audit:
Title
The title not only describes your goods to the customer, but it also describes it to Amazon’s A9 search engine and indicates whether or not it is pertinent to a buyer. Keep track of the title keywords that your main rivals are employing.
Is there anything you can add or take away to make your product title better? Are your rivals leaving out crucial details that your customers ought to be aware of right away? Consider some of these while coming up with a compelling title for your product.
Images
On Amazon, images are a major selling element. Since a buyer cannot physically touch, feel, or view a thing before making a purchase, you must make sure your listing has the best photos and infographics you can find.
Bullet points and description
Take note of how your competitors explain their items. Read through their bullet points and descriptions to discern their brand personality. This will give you an idea of their strong points. Relevant yet absent details can tell you quite a lot too.
Reviews
Reviews can reveal answers to questions like- what are consumers saying about the competitors’ goods? What are the problems with those products? What features of their purchases do they like?
To identify flaws in your competition’s product and product listing, use these reviews. Reviews are a terrific approach to find prospective keywords for your target market as well.
Product Q&A
You as the seller can learn a lot of useful information from this portion of the product listings. You will first observe the most typical queries from clients. Additionally, you may observe how much effort other sellers put into assisting customers. Verify whether they participate in answering queries from customers.
Researching competitors’ brands
You want to evaluate your competitors’ branding after your audit. This phase of an Amazon seller competitor analysis is sometimes skipped by sellers, although it might provide information about why customers favor your competitor. A few techniques for evaluating branding include- examining the product’s labeling, packaging, and design and assessing the A+ Enhanced Marketing Content design or the Enhanced Brand Content.
You can get a decent understanding of your competitors’ brands by spending 15 to 30 minutes researching them. Maybe they’re laid back, or maybe they’re direct and detail-oriented. Your branding may occasionally be similar to that of your rivals or may take a completely distinct approach.
If your brand is the opposite of that of your competitor, it may be worthwhile to consider whether you have the same target market. For instance, perhaps they are aiming their fact-based strategy towards corporations. On the other hand, you are emphasizing consumers with your humor-first approach. But with millions of sellers, you can be sure that you do have an Amazon competitor.
Analyzing competitors’ targeted keywords
This phase of an Amazon competitor analysis is the most crucial. It involves investigating the keyword strategy of your competitors. By now, you undoubtedly know the keywords your rivals employ based on the audit of your product listings.
Sellers typically place their main keyword in the product title. For instance, you can see that most of the goods in the sample below include the words “tv wall mounts” or “rv tv mount.” These phrases are recurrent, indicating that they are the targeted keywords.
Evaluating competitors’ prices
Shoppers’ purchasing decisions are greatly influenced by price. In certain cases, it may even persuade them to buy a product from a different vendor. Because of this, evaluating the prices of the competitors is a key component of an Amazon seller competitor analysis. There is a simple technique to look up competition prices, just like you can easily find out their keyword approach.
Sonar’s maker Sellics offers price tracking software enabling your organization to continuously track your competitors’’ selling prices. Other alternatives could be price tracking softwares like Pricefy and CamelCamelCamel. Making a profit is equally important to your business as keeping prices competitive with those of your competitors. However, use your competitor’s prices as a guide instead of a standard. It doesn’t benefit your business to sell merchandise while losing money.
Estimating competitors’ monthly sales
Investigate the monthly sales of your competitors on Amazon to improve your analysis of them. You may determine how much money your competition is making and whether or not they are underselling their products by knowing how much inventory they move each month. Although this stage appears difficult, there are a number of tools you may employ like Sellics or Jungle Scout.
Your team can compare your sales to those of your rivals after conducting this analysis. You can also calculate the potential profits your business could earn by making itself a more appealing option for customers. This may be possible through advertising, product listing optimization, or some other tactic.
Looking into competitors’ marketing strategies
A customer’s decision to buy can be heavily influenced by the branding and marketing of your items and those of your competitors. The tone of the listing description, the product photos, the packaging design, the A+ content, and how the brand interacts with its audience all play a role in this.
Check out their social media presence and other non-Amazon marketing initiatives as well. The impact of social media on brand recognition and e-commerce is significant. In fact, more than half of shoppers have bought products they learned about on social media.
Here are some queries to consider:
- What social media strategies does your competitor use?
- How large is their fan base?
- What platforms are they running on?
- At what frequency do they post?
- What is the level of engagement?
- Do they utilize other venues, such as blogs or emails?
You can have a deeper understanding of your competitors and target market’s customers through these questions.
Visiting competitors’ Amazon store
Your competitors are most likely to have an Amazon store. Since it gives customers easy access to your products, an Amazon Store functions almost like a microsite for businesses on Amazon. Check to see if your competitor operates an Amazon store. Even though the Amazon Store of your competitor may not provide much useful information, it is still worthwhile to visit. For instance, if your team regularly examines your rival’s Amazon Store, you can notice a sudden change in the product they are showcasing, underscoring a shift in their marketing approach.
Conclusion
You will struggle to expand your Amazon business if you don’t understand the market’s competitive environment. You can obtain a competitive edge and a deeper grasp of the Amazon marketplace by researching the sales and marketing techniques of your competitors. Hence, an Amazon seller competitor analysis is the way to go for any seller looking to make a profit on Amazon.
