{"id":7578,"date":"2014-06-11T13:54:52","date_gmt":"2014-06-11T13:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.123print.com\/blog\/?p=7578"},"modified":"2017-05-23T17:12:31","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T22:12:31","slug":"surveying-the-competitive-landscape-a-competitive-analysis-checklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/surveying-the-competitive-landscape-a-competitive-analysis-checklist\/","title":{"rendered":"Surveying the Competitive Landscape: A Competitive Analysis Checklist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Surveying-the-Competitive-Landscape-A-Competitive-Analysis-Checklist.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-7580\" title=\"Surveying the Competitive Landscape A Competitive Analysis Checklist\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Surveying-the-Competitive-Landscape-A-Competitive-Analysis-Checklist-300x289.jpg\" alt=\"Surveying the Competitive Landscape A Competitive Analysis Checklist\" width=\"300\" height=\"289\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Surveying-the-Competitive-Landscape-A-Competitive-Analysis-Checklist-300x289.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Surveying-the-Competitive-Landscape-A-Competitive-Analysis-Checklist.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Are you thinking about adjusting your retail pricing?\u00a0 Introducing a new product?\u00a0 Shortening your turnaround times?\u00a0 Before you proceed on any one of these important marketing strategies \u2014 which will also directly impact your financials \u2014 <strong>it\u2019s critical to create an in-depth analysis of your competition.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sound like a daunting task?\u00a0 It can be but the pay-offs are considerable. <strong>All online businesses must differentiate themselves to drive more traffic to their website.<\/strong> For example, if your competitive analysis indicates that your turnaround times are no better or worse than everyone else, then it\u2019s time to either move onto another stage of your research or focus on the necessary improvements to lead the pack.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>But I digress. The first essential step in reaching a good business decision is a clear understanding of where you fit in the competitive landscape. This requires establishing the key benchmarks for your spreadsheet analysis, uniquely driven by your business requirements. <span style=\"color: #ff771c;\"><strong>Listed below is a 20-point competitive analysis checklist for tracking your eCommerce website competitors:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>URL<\/li>\n<li>Homepage title<\/li>\n<li>Meta keywords<\/li>\n<li>Meta description<\/li>\n<li>SKU and product description<\/li>\n<li>Pricing (full retail and discounted, if applicable)<\/li>\n<li>Selling quantities (if applicable)<\/li>\n<li>Promised turnaround time<\/li>\n<li>Shipping method\u00a0 with stated delivery times and charges<\/li>\n<li>Guarantee (if any)<\/li>\n<li>International? If so, what countries?<\/li>\n<li>Do they offer product samples? At what price? Is there a minimum or maximum?<\/li>\n<li>Customer Service focus: \u00a0Do they prominently offer a toll-free number?\u00a0 Live Chat?\u00a0 Email?<\/li>\n<li>Social Media involvement:\u00a0 Facebook?\u00a0 LinkedIn? Twitter? Google +? \u00a0Pinterest?\u00a0 Blog? Other?<\/li>\n<li>Credit Cards accepted \u2013 PayPal \u2013 plus any other payment methods<\/li>\n<li>All marketing channels used to promote this product<\/li>\n<li>SEO ranking on key products<\/li>\n<li>Email program: Does the site offer a sign-up opportunity? \u00a0Once you\u2019ve subscribed or ordered, how often do you receive them \u2013 Are they primarily informational in nature or for selling purposes only \u2013What incentives do they offer to purchase?<\/li>\n<li>How long did it take to receive your test order?<\/li>\n<li>Rate the quality of shipped product and packaging \u2013 Did the company insert any additional literature (flyer, catalog, card) and special offers?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Important point: <strong>Include your own website in the analysis so you can clearly make the necessary comparisons.<\/strong> Although it\u2019s time-consuming, the easy part is collecting the data. Once you have all of the critical info captured, it\u2019s now time to move onto the hard part:\u00a0 <strong>You need to search for the gaps between you and your competitors, reaching conclusions on the opportunities and threats facing your business.<\/strong> You may find that you are weak in specific areas and need to catch up or, even better, you might discover that you have some real, honest-to-goodness advantages that you\u2019ve never noticed before, thus requiring immediate advertising attention.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t keep the results to yourself. Make this a collaborative effort. This is the fun part of the process. <strong>Share your findings within the company to get everyone\u2019s unique perspectives.<\/strong> They may uncover additional opportunities you had not even considered.<\/p>\n<p>One final point \u2014\u00a0<strong>don\u2019t get lost in analysis paralysis.<\/strong> When you\u2019ve completed your competitive study and arrived at the key take-aways, it\u2019s finally time to take action. Don\u2019t delay. And, by the way, the world and <i>your competition<\/i> are always changing. Never sit on your laurels for too long. Repeat this analysis every three or six months to ensure that you understand the current competitive landscape.<\/p>\n<p>Have we left anything off our competitive analysis checklist? How often do you create an in-depth analysis of your competition? We&#8217;d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below or connect with us on <a title=\"facebook.com\/123Print\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/123Print\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a>, <a title=\"twitter.com\/123print\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/123print\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a> or <a title=\"plus.google.com\/+123print\" href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/+123print\/posts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Google+<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are you thinking about adjusting your retail pricing?\u00a0 Introducing a new product?\u00a0 Shortening your turnaround [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1448,1458,8,1462],"tags":[1619,1621,1618,1617,1620],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7578"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7578"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10181,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7578\/revisions\/10181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}