There is a lot of competition on Etsy and it’s only growing. What tools are you using to make sure you’re a step ahead of your growing competitors?  My number 1 tool I use to help analyze my client’s shops when conducting shop critiques is a Competitive Analysis! It doesn’t have to be as complicated or as scary as it may sound either. Read on to learn how to conduct a competitive analysis for your shop!

WHAT IS A COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS?

A competitive analysis helps you learn the ins and outs of how your competition works. It also helps you identify what they’re doing right and opportunities where you can easily one-up them by using a strategy they haven’t taken advantage of. (Hubspot)

HOW TO CONDUCT ONE FOR YOUR BUSINESS

A simple template to complete a quick and easy competitive analysis for your business!

  1. Gather a list of at least 3-5 main competitors, but no more than 10. You want to make sure you have a large enough list to gather enough data to pull from. Don’t pull more than 10 to keep from overwhelming yourself. Focus on the top performing, best matched competitors only.
  • Open an excel spreadsheet that you can save and keep updated. Think about the key factors you use to evaluate your business — make those your columns and your competitors the rows. Above is a simple template to show you how to set your spreadsheet up. You can create as many columns as necessary to effectively evaluate your competition – these are just some ideas to get you started! You may also want to include: content engagement, content strategy, promotions etc.
  • Start your investigative work and complete your spreadsheet! Make sure to analyze all areas your competitors are showing up – not just Etsy. Ex. Social profiles, their own website. Sign up for their email newsletter and see what kind of campaigns they are running and how frequently they are sending them!
  • Draw conclusions.
    Take a look at your findings and see if there are any trends between your competitors. What are they doing/offering that you are not? How could you become more competitive?

Once you’ve pulled all of this information – it will be easier to conduct a SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats) analysis based on what you’ve found! Adding a competitive analysis to your process will make you a more informed business owner. You’ll be able to make educated decisions on new programs, product launches and changes to your marketing strategy!