Hi,
I run an ecommerce site and want to know how to analyse my competitors. So far I have done the following;

• Keyword searches to see where my competitors are ranking
• Searches to see which competitors are running adword campaigns for my keywords
• Competitor site analysis re what they stock, pricing and promotions
• Google and Yahoo link analysis to see who links to my competitor
• Searches to see where my competitors advertise

Is there anything else I could be doing to find out more about my competitors?
Is there any paid or free software I can use to analyse my competitors?


Thanks

James

Here's an article you might find useful. it links to all sorts tools you can use to track your competition.

It's refreshing to see someone asking the right questions. I would also analyze their sites (layout, design, copy), their product listings, the apparent activity on their site (like reviews or forum traffic), if their site comes up in any forums and what people are saying about them, how they are running their marketing campaigns, what the text and images of their marketing says about them...those types of things. Then, after you've gathered all of that information for multiple competitors, sort it and categorize it and see how they compare against each other and you. Analyze what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, and see where you can improve as well. That's the short version, but I hope it helps.

There is one large flaw in "analysing" competition, and that is...

You have absolutely no idea at all if what they are doing is of any use whatsoever.
There's every chance they are just as clueless and are analysing somebody else who doesn't know what they are doing either.

What you should be doing is analysing your customers and potential customers and analyse buying trends in your market demographic.
Be ahead of the game rather than chasing the pack and hoping they drop the ball.

Chris I agree you can't know with certainty what is and isn't working for your competition I think you can still draw some reasonable conclusions through observing what other people are doing.

It's not an absolute science of course, but I think there's an art to it and it can still be useful.

You can make a SWOT analysis so you will know better where you are and where your competitors are. It is really helpful.

There's a lot of validity in what you're saying, Chris. There is no guarantee that what your competitors are doing is successful, but I think if you analyze more than just one competitor, at the very least you'll begin to develop a feel for industry standards and/or conventions. Depending on the industry, it could reveal some best (or worst) practices that you won't have to rediscover on your own. For example, I think someone with a shopping cart would find great benefit in analyzing how amazon and a few of the other online retailers construct their shopping carts and checkout pages.

You can also learn how your industry is communicating with your market. Every industry has its own specific "language" that the customers speak and the companies in the industry should try to emulate when they interact with the market. Some of your competitors may be using the language in a better way than you are, so it can be helpful to see how they are attempting to communicate and what the market response is. If nothing else, this could at least give you ideas for marketing that you may not have otherwise thought of before seeing what your competitors are doing.

Another benefit in analyzing your competitors is that it can help you form your differentiation strategy. How can you fill needs or provide services in a better way than your customers? What mistakes are they making that you can capitalize on? What will make you stand head and shoulders above everyone else?

Being able to do that, I think, will compliment and enhance the process of analyzing and optimizing for your market demographic. Analyzing the competition provides a context for your customers' experience, a backdrop for their actions, frustrations, and motivations. Knowing how your customers have experienced your industry can help how you understand how to communicate more effectively with them. That isn't everything to researching your market, but it does have its place.

I think the biggest key to analzying a competitor, is do your first analysis from a customers prospective, and not a webmasters. Try to spot the areas that were especially easy to figure out, and what was difficult to figure out. Now compare the equivalant sections to your own site, and see if you can adapt the features from your competitor into your own layout.

I'd say the best way to analyze your competitor would be to get third parties to go to both sites and tell you what they liked better about each, and why. Just find friends or family who don't know what your site looks like to go to both, and then tell you which one they liked better and why.

Good point Keith. One of the first things I do when designing/developing a new site is look at the competition as an end user and think about what I do and don't like about their sites.

It almost always leads to new ideas and solidifies the ideas I had prior to looking.

A good question to ask ourselves when comparing a competitor is : would I rather buy from myself or from him ? It is also possible to ask the same question to a few friends you know and if they would prefer the competitor, ask them why.

We often can learn a lot of things from other people.