Amazon is the largest eCommerce organization in the world. The dominance of Amazon over small eCommerce retailers is real. Nearly 44% of product searches begin from Amazon. They have almost 200 million visitors to their website. They have controlled almost every market that they have touched. With the ideology of selling almost every product ever invented, the roots of Amazon in the rental are getting deeper and deeper every day.
As a result, small-scale eCommerce retailers are facing hard times standing still against Amazon. Even other giants like Walmart, Apple, Macy’s, and Costco face hard times competing against Amazon. As a small store owner, you have been experiencing the same too. Well, not from now. Here we have created a list of the best eCommerce approaches to compete against giants like Amazon.
Be the king of your product niche
One thing that attracts the majority of buyers is products. Amazon avails everything in one place. Amazon is appealing to the masses. They have something for everyone. Instead, you can do a niche-based business. Amazon has thousands of products from hundreds of sellers. The best product drives all the sales. They sell to everyone, and honestly, you can’t do that. It would be best if you played within your niche. You can create a variety of stand-out niche product ranges. Manufacturing the quality products yourself or find trustable partners.
One product niche is more manageable than working on multiple product niches. With such a wide variety of products, you will need help to focus on multiple product niches. And in the end, it results in poor customer experience. Instead, be the best in class. Think of your store as the best food joint in the town. They attract customers with their product quality. Do the same for your store. Be the one-stop solution for your buyers. Give your audience what they want. Amplify your efforts in marketing too. Apply your attention to all these areas; that is how you will be the ultimate king of your product range.
Make your buyers love your brand
Behind the success of Amazon, their customer service also plays an important role. The states say that 68% of buyers are satisfied with the service of Amazon. If you want to compete with Amazon, you must also work in this area. It would be best if you were better than Amazon. Considering the size of the Amazon, they can’t go beyond any extent. As a small-scale retailer, you can go beyond their limits.
The best way to deliver better customer service is to give your buyers a more human experience. When buyers hear a sweet voice solving their queries, they start feeling good about brands. You can solve buyers’ problems through phone calls, emails, or chats, but there should be personalization. There should be a touch of humans at every stage of customer service. At the current stage of technological improvements, we can only achieve the expressiveness of humans with bots. Your CRM team should be in direct contact with your buyers. The chatbots or any automation will be beneficial in decreasing the response times. But in the end, human intervention in customer service will do wonders for your brand.
Prove your credibility by showing reviews
The best way to prove that your products are worth buying is to display customer reviews. Take the case of Amazon here. You don’t check the customer reviews before ordering anything from Amazon? 9 out of 10 buyers accept that they only buy products with a three-star rating. Customer reviews matter a lot. After delivering a great buying experience, you can ask customers to submit their reviews.
You can show your reviews on the homepage of your website. You can even illustrate the buyer’s reviews on each product page of your website. And apart from these places, you can present customer reviews at your Google my business listing and every other online listing. And most importantly, show reviews on your social media channels. Customer reviews create a positive image of your products in the minds of your buyers. They can attract buyers and improve the trustworthiness of your brand.
Earn customer loyalty & leverage it
Amazon has done a good job of earning customer loyalty and providing better service. Amazon’s Prime service is a good example of it. They offer prime members free shipping, a movie streaming service, and several other benefits. They even introduced Amazon Pay, which is their payment system. You need to present the movie streaming service or create your payment system. But there are better ways to engage with buyers.
You can create customer loyalty programs to keep them coming again and again to your store. You can create a point-based system. And give them a few points on every purchase, and provide discounts on the final cart value according to it. Or you can create programs like spending X amount now and get a discount worth 5% of X amount on the next purchase. The possibilities are endless. Be creative with your programs, and achieve the maximum number of returning buyers.
Post quality content for your audience
During the initial day of your brand, you need to be efficient with your content. You need to build a trustworthy relationship with your audience during this time. Your brand’s trust factor will be your most dominant weapon in competing against Amazon. And the best way to build trust for your brand is to post quality content. You must create quality content for your brand.
When a user opens your website, there should be many how-to guides, tutorials, videos, and infographics. With your content, you need to deliver value to your buyers. While buying from your website, help your buyers by solving their difficulties. If you are running a gift store, create an in-depth video tutorial to help buyers select the right gift for their loved ones. Rather than explaining the advantages of products, win buyers with your knowledge. Help buyers, establish trust factor, and drive more sales out of it.
Be effective with shipping
Amazon provides one of the best shipping services. They have created the largest chain of shipping service providers all around the country. Prime members are delivering products in just two days, and that too for free. And by paying a few more bucks, they are delivering products the next day and the same day. It takes a lot of work to compete directly with their shipping network. But there are a few more ways to win the game of shipping too.
You can win buyers by creating offers for shipping. You can offer free shipping with the minimum threshold value of the cart. Create offers like free shipping on the minimum cart value of $50. Reports say that 48% of buyers add more products to their cart to qualify for free shipping. And apart from these offers, deliver products in a shorter time than your buyers’ expectations. Don’t directly compete with Amazon, but be different from them.
The final thoughts on competing with Amazon
The war between small-scale retailers and Amazon is real. And in the majority of cases, Amazon is winning. That is also a truth. But there are quick ways to compete with them. Apply all the above strategies to your eCommerce stores. Apply your creativity and marketing mind to it. If you can’t beat them, go sideways with them. Achieve maximum engagement with your buyers. And get the best results from it.
Thanks for reading till the end. If you have more creative ways to compete with Amazon, feel free to comment below. And now, let’s talk about our services. Softpulse Infotech is a leading ecommerce website development company. We care about our client’s business and needs. Our innovative team is dedicated to delivering the most effective eCommerce solution to clients. If you have any custom needs for your online store, contact our executives now.
