When it comes to e-commerce marketplaces, nothing compares to the bustle of Amazon, inviting hundreds of thousands of sellers every day. As a seller, things are likely to get pretty rough till you gain a ‘competitive advantage’ to stay atop. This requires a thorough Amazon competitor analysis, which lets you gauge where you stand and what strategies lead on the platform.
What is Amazon Competitor Analysis?
Competition analysis on Amazon is the process of examining and evaluating the weaknesses, strengths, strategies, performance, and offerings of competitors who sell similar or related products on the Amazon marketplace. This analysis provides insights into how competitors position their products, how is their product quality, how they promote their products, what is their listing content, why they attract customers, and drive sales.
Benefits of Amazon Competitor Analysis for Sellers
Whether you’re a small business owner or a big name, it’s crucial to know what you’re up against to build the right strategy. Remember, you can’t step into a soccer field without knowing who the opposing team is. It could be a local team (weak competition) or perhaps even world-leading champions (strong competition).
Amazon competitor analysis is the bridge that gets you to the other end of the curve, i.e., optimizing your sales strategy to outperform the competitors. But taking a closer look, there’s a myriad of benefits competitor analysis brings you, including:
Understand Market Potential
There’s no denying the immense potential Amazon holds, but analysing competitors’ standings tells you exactly how profitable your niche may be. Are there enough buyers? Are competitors thriving or barely making sales? Once you study your competitors, you can answer these questions. This lets you decide if the niche is worth pursuing and whether it requires a spot-on strategy.
Identify Trends & Consumer Preferences
A deep Amazon competitor analysis allows you to quickly catch on to trends and explore what your customers love at the moment. Depending on your product, it becomes easy to discover the colours, features, or bundles selling like hotcakes. This way, you can align your offerings with your customer needs and even make the needful tweaks within your current listings.
Set Competitive Prices
In a marketplace as dynamic as Amazon, your price strategy can practically make or break your sales. Too high a price could mean losing your customers to the competition, while too low means undervaluing your offering.
A comprehensive Amazon competitor analysis allows you to set competitive rates for your products. Plus, looking into your rival’s sales history also tells you a lot about how prices fluctuate over time.
Identify Gaps to Make Your Product Stand Out
Even if your competitors appear to be doing great, remember – they’re not perfect. Looking into their reviews and identifying gaps within their product strategy opens you up to a world of opportunities. While this may take a bit of hard work, it lets you position yourself in a ‘compelling’ spot for the buyers. If done right, this is your way of adding the value that customers desire.
Marketing Insights
Simply creating a product listing and waiting for sales isn’t enough. It’s essential to invest in marketing efforts to increase your product’s visibility and attract more shoppers, ultimately driving sales.
Analysing how competitors promote their products can provide valuable insights about the keywords your competitors are ranking for and the promotions they’re running. Ultimately, you can work on your advertising campaigns in ways that draw more audience.
1. Identify Your Competitor on Amazon
Begin by searching on amazon with various relevant keywords and product names to uncover a broad range of options. Identify the top-ranking products that appear in the search results.
Identifying competitors on Amazon is a crucial step in understanding the marketplace, pricing strategies, and consumer preferences. Focus on the products that have similar designs with yours. Analyse high-performing listings by examining their sales data through tools like Helium 10, prioritizing those with strong sales velocity and consistent rankings. Compare the price ranges of these products to understand competitive tiers. Pay attention to their product’s ratings and review. Evaluate the visual presentation, including product images, infographics, lifestyle visuals, and A+ content, for creativity and professionalism. Note the listing categories and browse nodes competitors use. Identify the unique selling proposition (USP) competitors highlight.
- Direct Competitor
Direct competitor refers to a seller offering a product that is nearly identical to yours, targeting the same audiences, their products have a design, functionality, or features closely matching yours, and their pricing aligns with your product’s range.
- Indirect Competitor
Identify products that aren’t direct competitors but could be considered alternatives. These might target the same customer base with a slightly different value proposition
Analyse top competitor’s listing to understand what works in your category.
By understanding how competitors position their products, use keywords, engage customers we can develop strategies that will help us in making our product stand out.
Assess Your Competitors’ Product Listings:
The best way to begin a solid Amazon competitor analysis is by deeply analysing your competitors’ product listings. Ideally, create a separate document/spreadsheet to track what they’re doing smart. The basic areas you should evaluate include:
Product Titles
Since the product title is the first thing a buyer sees, watch closely how your competitors craft their titles to catch attention. This will give searchers a clear idea of whether the product is the best fit for them.
Also, check if your competitors are using the keywords without cramming too much. This helps you analyse anything they’ve missed that you can add to your title to make it more appealing.
If you find optimizing amazon’s product titles tricky, you can turn to Helium10. Simply log in to their Listing Builder, add your keyword list, and the tool will do the magic for you!
Product Descriptions
Next up, monitor your competitor’s product descriptions. The best ones are clear, short, and reader-friendly — no keyword stuffing, fluff, or repetition. View the description from a buyer’s perspective, and ask yourself if the brand could’ve done a better job.
A detailed Amazon competitor analysis includes looking at the benefits the rivals are highlighting. Now, use this information to craft a better description that makes customers feel confident about their purchase decisions.
Images/Videos
Since customers are buying virtually, the images and videos make a huge difference. See whether your competitors are using high-resolution photos, their photo angles, and the number of images that work for them. Customers love product videos, so if your competitors aren’t adding them, it’s your time to shine.
For instance, if you’re selling “aesthetic lamps”, add videos or images of how they light up your space. The more you nail your infographics & lifestyle images, the higher you rise above the competitors.
Bullet Points
Buyers tend to love brands that value their time. It’s no surprise why bullet points or quick facts are fantastic strategies to put your product features out there. If your competitors focus too much on style, you can highlight functionality or how your product solves their problem.
Note: Regardless of what your competitors are doing, follow Amazon’s bullet point guidelines to keep things neat and impactful.
2. Check Competitor’s Product Review and FAQs Sections
A major part of your Amazon competitor analysis is understanding what customers are saying about the competitor’s products. This works like a map to refine your Amazon strategy. According to Business Insider, positive reviews hold enough power to increase sales by up to 20%. Simply put, reviews let you gauge your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses and what buyers love or dislike about their offerings.
When analysing competitor’s reviews, here’s what to look for:
- Quality vs. Quantity: Are customers sharing detailed reviews or just one-liners? Also, check how often they’re dropping reviews. This helps you understand how much the product (and the competitor brand) means to the buyers.
- Positive vs. Negative: Next up, identify what customers love about the product and what they dislike. Use these reviews to improve your products and to avoid running into these issues.
- Ratings & Responses: Notice how competitors respond to negative reviews. If they’re not addressing them, use this opportunity to build trust with the audience by doing so.
Also, don’t forget to check out the product’s FAQs section of your key competitors. Look at what questions the customers are most frequently asking and whether sellers are responding to them actively. This helps you in two ways: First, you can check gaps within the existing products, and second, you can gain an edge by responding sooner.
3. Analyse Their Pricing Strategy
As a seller on a platform like Amazon, where buyers compare prices within seconds, you can’t afford to get your pricing strategy wrong. Think about it: If two competing products share somewhat similar reviews, buyers will always go for the cheaper option. To position your product right, monitor your competitor’s price points and what buyers think about it.
What Smart Pricing Strategy Looks Like?
You may want to sell at a lower price than competitors to sell quickly. Or perhaps charge a premium for the product. But in reality, smart pricing is offering top-notch value while staying competitive. Here are two perspectives to consider:
- Lower Price: While lower profits can get you quick sales, it often takes away your profits. In some cases, this may lead potential buyers to doubt your quality.
- Higher Price: Charging higher works only when you give your customers a reason to pay a premium. Amazon competitor analysis lets you know exactly where there’s a gap. If you’re able to provide extra value, it’s possible to get them to pay more.
4. Analyse Their Targeted Keywords
Quite obviously, checking out Amazon’s competitor keywords is a key part that no competitor analysis is complete without. The keywords you target drive visibility, engagement, and sales, so it’s critical to know the keywords your competitors are ranking for. While most sellers think this is tricky, it’s actually simpler than you think.
A bonus tip? The product titles almost always have the main keyword. For instance, if you’re researching a Bluetooth earpiece market, the competitor’s products might be ranking for phrases like “wireless earbuds” or “Bluetooth headphones.”
The best part, however, is that multiple keyword research tools like Jungle Scout, Helium 10, and Sonar (a free tool) make the process a no-brainer. All you have to do is find the competitor product’s ASIN, enter it into the tool, and discover a list of keywords the big names in the market usually rank for. Add them to your listings, and you’re golden!
5. Analyse Their Marketing Strategy
Whether you’re selling as an individual seller or running a full-scale business, analyzing your competitor’s marketing strategy is non-negotiable. If they’re incredibly successful in the marketplace, they’re likely doing something differently. Keep a keen eye on how they’re promoting their products, which targeted keywords they are using in ads, and capturing a major chunk of the market.
This helps you learn whether they’re running social media ads, sponsored campaigns, or email marketing. With tools like Sonar, Helium10, and Sellics, you can learn the following metrics about your competitor’s marketing campaigns:
- Click-through Rates: Are their ads getting enough clicks?
- Conversion Rates: Do these clicks actually turn into sales?
- Cost-per-click (CPC): How much are they spending on their advertising efforts?
These factors decide where to direct your budget. For example, if your competitor is chasing a short-tail keyword like ‘wireless headphones,’ you might opt for a more niche long-tail keyword, ‘noise-cancelling Bluetooth wireless headphones.’ The result? You can target a more specific audience, which is likely to be your ideal customers.
6. Track Your Competitors’ Sales and Market Share
Other key metrics to assess during Amazon competitor Analysis include your competitor’s sales and market share. Wondering why they matter? Well, the sales metrics tell you whether the product is lucrative enough, understand market trends, and predict your profits.
The best part? You don’t have to guess the numbers – there are multiple tools out there that track your competitor’s sales in a flash, including:
- Helium 10 Amazon’s Sales Estimator
Helium10’s Sales Estimator is a free Chrome extension that gives you insights into competitors’ monthly sales and their potential share of the market.
Once you gather this information, compare their sales records with yours to see if they’re doing better. If that’s the case, you might have to tweak your listings advertising strategy or perhaps introduce a modified version of your product.
FAQs
How to Study Your Competitor’s Product Quality on Amazon?
Studying your competitor’s product quality on Amazon requires considering multiple factors. For instance, analysing their product reviews (both positive and negative), product listings, and ratings helps you see what customers think about their products. Helium10 enables you to track and review trends. You can also order their products to assess the quality first-hand.
How Much Time Does a Thorough Amazon Competitor Analysis Take?
Initially, a thorough Amazon competitor Analysis takes around a few weeks, depending on the tools used. It requires gathering sales data, reviews, pricing trends, and marketing strategies to monitor your competitor’s market standings. Nonetheless, ongoing analysis needs regular updates, so you’ll need to put in a few hours weekly.
Which Tools Help Track Your Competitor’s Activities on Amazon?
Tools like SellerApp, Helium10, and Semrush are fantastic options for tracking competitors’ core activities on Amazon. In the initial phase, however, we recommend manually testing and checking competitor’s standing and their activities (along with the tools).
Conclusion
A thorough Amazon competitor analysis is the first step to thrive on the platform. Once you know what and who you’re competing with, it becomes easier to refine your strategy in ways that help you stand out. Time to watch the competition and reach your dream targets!
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