Forum Moderators: buckworks
We've been in business for about 8 months and have done very well to date. In the past month, I found out about a very low priced competitors. Their prices are extremely low, almost at my cost price in some instances.
I'm near the top for some of my keywords but the other competitor is not currently. The are somewhat well known by insiders in the area through message boards and word of mouth.
If the day comes that they beat me in the search engine wars, then it would be a big hit.
My question is, what are people's experiences with a competitor that beats you on price. Our customer service through email is excellent, though we don't have phone service to keep down costs. It is just my wife and I running this. Their service is not bad I hear, and all their orders are taken through phone. The website is just a info site with pricing and orders placed via phone.
What other things can be done to differentiate yourself?
What other things can be done to differentiate yourself?
What a great question ... and what a difficult question to answer! My site is three and a half years old and I still haven't found the secret sauce to make our site stand out from the crowd. Brand awareness? Don't have it, can't afford to build it. Superior value proposition? Customers don't seem to care. Price? Ding! Ding! Ding! :)
When I have a competitor who can spend more money than I can to acquire a customer or who has lower prices than I have, they are almost universally using those products as loss leaders. That is, they are NOT making money on those customers, they are potentially losing money on those products in the hopes of selling more to the customers. A competitor will do this in a variety of ways - most often by either upselling the customer with a bigger/better/faster product once they are in the purchase process, or by cross-selling additional products to that customer.
Obviously this depends on what you're selling - but look through your inventory and think hard: how can you sell more to each customer?
- "Add a travel charger to your order for only $9.95 more!"
- "Many of our customers who bought the blue widget also bought the red widget. Add the red widget to your order and save on separate shipping costs!"
- "We'll giftwrap your widget for $2.95!"
- "You've placed the widget2002 in your shopping cart. For a limited time, upgrade to the widget2003 and only pay an additional $13.95!"
This isn't exactly differentiating yourself on the front end - but it might make it possible for you to compete more closely on product price.
<<but the other competitor is not currently>> It may be only a matter of time, get close to their price now to prepare yourself.
<<Our customer service through email is excellent>> No doubt, create a Customer Comments section (see recent thread on this) and hawk it, hawk it, hawk it (apologies, HawkGirl).
<<Price? Ding! Ding! Ding!>> Yeah, you've got to prepare for that, peel back distribution layers for your product(s) and find out who supplies who?
Aside from the above, I would say, make sure your site is consistent, tight, take credit cards, make sure that process is immaculate, get that residential toll-free number; if your competitor has a cold site, be warm. If your competitor has a warm site, be more efficient with the clicks to order. Make it easy.
Advertise your shipping times if they are beneficial. I hate it but there is a strong momentum toward (at 5pm), 'Can I have it tomorrow?'
If you have got the SE position, you can beat 'em if they trust you more.
Best.
ps
Will apply those ideas and see how they turn out. We're also trying to keep expanding our product selection as well. Trying to import some items, just very hard to find these sources. I've searched many websites with little luck for some of the items.
How do others begin this search.
