Starting an eCommerce business is hard. Running a successful one is even harder. All merchants desire to grow their eCommerce businesses, and at the heart of successful growth is a clear approach to acquiring customers. Yet, how to stand out if there is a crowded market? Acquiring customers in a competitive market may seem hard, but it is certainly not impossible. Competition is a fact of business, and life. On one hand, it drives other factors including people to move toward, competition opens the door of development. On the other hand, when it comes to business, competition can be intimidating, especially if your market is competitive. Either you succeed with many customers, or you are eliminated. As the exponential growth of digitalization, staying at the market has become increasingly harsh since more merchants are entering the market with similar product lines, whereas the number of demand is limited.
Competition makes opportunities few and far between. In a competitive market, most merchants do not prefer reinventing the wheel. Furthermore they do not go further than presenting “limited time offer”, or “buy these three together and get 20% off”. Yet, these offers are only temporary solutions, they last until a competitor presents a greater discount. Offering discounts and giving away free items may seem to be the easy way for acquiring customers in a competitive market; the hard way is to get to the root of the problem, and to find a permanent solution.
Thus we like to present some of the best-practices for acquiring customers in a competitive market and boosting your growth:
Business Partnerships
In today’s competitive world of business, using the power of business partnership for customer acquisition and improve brand awareness is not only smart but also an essential move for eCommerce companies. We have previously state the importance of partnerships in our blog. Clearly, not every company in the industry is a rival. There is a big chance that your company targets similar customer bases with another businesses. Business partnerships targeting similar customer bases certainly help you remain competitive in today’s constantly changing market.
Testimonials
One of the best ways to acquire customers is to demonstrate the existing ones. Social media has added a new dimension to purchasing behaviors of customers. Whether a customer is buying a new iPhone or trying to find a t-shirt, the first place she goes is online. A research from Invesp shows that 90% of customers do read online reviews before visiting a store or using its services. Furthermore, 88% said they trust online reviews like a personal recommendation. Customer reviews are even more influential than perfectly written sales pitches since they are certainly proofs that you can deliver on your promises. If you like to learn more about encouraging your customers to make comments, please check our blog on the importance of customer reviews here.
Invest in m-commerce
In the past few years, how customers connect and buy from businesses has drastically changed. This change in behavior had online shopping become the main channel for commerce, and established two new channels for online shopping: eCommerce and mCommerce. Having nearly 90% of the total online commerce market share, eCommerce was considered to be the next true frontier for shopping. Yet, revolutions devour their own children. By more than doubling its growth in the market share in less than five years, and growing at a such a rate that has never been seen before, mobile commerce has become the leader in online commerce. The reason behind this success is simple. With gradually increasing competition, eCommerce companies now have to offer unique and personalized experience in order to stand out among their rivals. Ensuring that a superior customer experience is delivered at each stage and touchpoint, mobile apps have become the most important tool in acquiring and retaining customers. Furthermore, the app economy shows no signal of slowing down. As per the Business of Apps report, global revenue from purchases made in apps to reach USD $189B by the end of 2020. It is clear for all eCommerces that providing a native mobile app is not a necessity anymore, it is a must.
Conclusion
Running an eCommerce business is never going to be easy. Especially if there is a competitive market. Digitalization, if not eliminated, has certainly diminished the barriers to entry into every market. Competition is now more fierce with aggressive competitors. It is not only about giving discounts or make promotions anymore, since there will always be another company that will sell for the less. It is about keeping your customers satisfied, providing a wholesome service, and investing in the most profitable channel, m-commerce. If you like to learn more about creating your mobile commerce app, please feel free to schedule a meeting with us anytime. .
