Strong brands generate interest, attract new
customers, and strengthen a business’s overall marketing strategy, so it’s
essential to know how you can differentiate your brand from your competitor and
carve a niche for your product in the highly-competitive e-commerce industry.In today’s highly competitive
e-commerce business environment, where customers are swamped by too many of
product choices and marketing gimmicks, marketers are struggling hard to stand
out and survive. In order to grow and be successful, it is imperative that
brands distinguish themselves in this crowded marketplace.
Look at this, there are an
estimated of more than 12 million e-commerce companies globally today offering
plethora of products and services and with more and more being created every
single day. So, but of course, customers need a reason to choose your e-company
and product over everyone else.
And, that reason comes down to
your brand differentiator!
Differentiation is, exactly, what
separates your brand from your competition. It is one of the most important
contributor to a brand’s success.
Some famous brands like Dollar
Shave Club, meesho, Zomato, Casper, and Uber/Ola cabs or for that matter even
BookMyShow, successfully managed to differentiate themselves from the crowd;
and the common contributing factor seen is the strategies is that they adopted
to differentiate their online store.
“If you’re not remarkable you’re invisible.” - Roy
Osing (Author of ‘Be different or be dead’)
Notwithstanding
these success stories, it is indeed not easy to differentiate your e-business
from competitors in the hyper-competitive business world. So, how can you
embark on the journey of finding out what makes their brand different?
To help you out, we bring for you
the five unique ways for making your brand to establish differentiation, and
which will in turn certainly boost your sales and revenues.
1. Finding
an existing gap in the market
A gap in the market is an area
that existing businesses are not offering. They are actually prospects
disguised as voids, providing you a chance to create and offer something that
customers need but is currently unavailable. This will help you in creating a
differentiation for your brand.
But, then how to find these
market gaps?
Well, for identifying a gap in
the market all you need to do is to perform an analysis keeping three factors
in mind:
- Enquiring customers about any value-add or improvements you can
provide for a better product.
- Evaluating your competitors’ products and ascertaining unsolved
problem that you can resolve.
- Regular tracking of customer trends and industries on the rise and
adapt accordingly.
Netflix is the perfect example of
finding several gaps successfully in the market and then subsequently filling
it with right offerings. Look at this, it began initially with mail-order movie
rentals and then shifted its focus completely on streaming platform.
2. Finding
& solving your customers' pain points
One of major ways that can make
your brand distinctive is by truly understanding your target audience,
especially their needs and pain points.
According to IBM, "78% of customers don’t feel
understood by brands".
So, in order to have an edge, you
need to gather as much information and facts about your customers and their
purchasing patterns and behaviors. Along with these it is also essential that
you know what stimulates and worries them, and, more prominently, what makes
them to buy from your brand only. Some effective ways of doing so:
- Tailor your solution to their issues.
- Emphasize the benefits of solving the pain point.
- Show how your unique solution is the perfect answer to their pain
point/needs.
3. Focus
on providing exceptional user experienceBuilding an exceptional and
outstanding customer experience definitely has the potential to set your brand
to be distinct in the market. And, when we specifically talk about e-commerce
industry, customer service and experience is plays a pivotal role as customers
are always actively looking for a great and easy buying experience from the
brands they support. Rather, a study by RetailDive depicts that almost “87% of
customers abandon their carts during checkout if the process is too long or
complicated”. Remember, user experience should not only be confined
to how customers feel about using your product, but their experience that
embraces every part of your business that your customers is in contact with.
So, if you provide a truly exceptional experience to your customers, then they
will not even think twice to pay a premium just to buy from your e-store.
According to a PWC Report, about, “73% of customers point to experience as an
important factor in their purchasing decisions, behind price and
product quality.”
4. Aim
to build a higher Customer Net Promoter Score (NPS)
This is an important metric to
understand how your brand is performing. A higher NPS score indicates that your
customers are satisfied and happy with your brand and overall experience. By
delivering great customer support, you can boost your NPS scores and build
stronger differentiation for your brand. Moreover, the added advantage it comes
along with is the fact that you will be able to build qualitative relationships
with your customers effectively, and these customers in turn are likely to be
fantastic advocates for your brand, thereby bringing in more business.
So, what
makes your e-commerce business different?Building a powerful brand is
paramount to succeed in today’s lucrative e-commerce business environment, and
for that a strong and defined differentiation is indispensable. Your customers
will simply leave your brand for another if you do not find ways to stand out
from the crowd. So, offer some specialization which could be pertaining to your
product or your customer experience so that you gain customers’ trust in your
business providing you an edge in a competitive market. Always remember
whatever your area of expertise be, you need to have the right strategies that
focuses on making people think of your product when they have a need in that
category.
How do you differentiate your
brand from the competition?
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the
comments.
