Online storefronts are the way of the future when it comes to how consumers find and acquire their goods. With the global e-commerce market reaching a worth of US$3.64tn in 2023, it’s understandable that a growing number of sellers want a piece of that pie.
Many have turned to platforms like Shopify to open and host their digital venues. Currently, 4.36 million websites are powered by Shopify, meaning the competition is stiff.
To make it in this overpopulated market, you have to stand out from the crowd. You can accomplish that goal by carefully analyzing what strategies are working for your competitors and adapting them to fit your needs.
To stay ahead of the curve, it is essential to analyze your challengers and implement strategies to outsmart them continuously. That way, you can drive more traffic to your store or discover better suppliers for your wares.
Understanding Competitor Analysis
Performing in-depth analysis and gathering information on your biggest competitors will make you privy to the inner workings of their business and reveal the secrets of their success.
The goal of the Shopify competitor analysis is to identify the following:
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Opportunities
- Threats
This SWOT technique can glean valuable data about other Shopify stores, but it can also be applied to your business. Having a clear overview of what your competition is doing right or is failing at and knowing which areas of your operations need refining is a winning strategy that will catapult your Shopify to the next level.
Key Aspects of Competitor Analysis
An exhaustive analysis of your competitors will give you the boost you need to stay ahead in the e-commerce market. But success depends on many factors, and it can be overwhelming knowing what aspect to look into first. During our research, we found that it was most productive to put the main focus on the elements below.
Website Traffic
This is a good way to figure out where the majority of visitors to any website are coming from, their age, demographics, and gender. Knowing where to concentrate your efforts when launching targeted ads and marketing campaigns can save you money and increase clicks.
You can also analyze other metrics like monthly visitors, page views, bounce rate, and engagement. You can compare your monthly statistics to the competition’s and see which areas need improvement.
Product Research
The products you offer are the basis of your success. Researching your competitor’s product catalog will give you their best-selling items, information on emerging trends and hip products, and customer satisfaction.
Most importantly, using tools like Koala Inspector will reveal the wholesale retailers or manufacturers they use to stock their Shopify. With that information, you can compare your suppliers and switch if necessary.
Pricing Strategies
If you’re having difficulties determining how to price your items, it’s imperative to understand how successful Shopify owners are pricing their stock.
Using a Shopify store sales tracker tool will help you determine the price point of their most sought-after items and give you an insight into the price of products that are not selling that well. That valuable data will help you determine competitive prices for your offerings.
Marketing Tactics
This tactic includes looking into the competition’s SEO, social media, and email marketing strategies. You can use specialized online tools to track your competitors’ backlinks, social media engagement, and keyword rankings.
See where the competition is focusing their marketing efforts and which campaigns have the highest CTR conversion, then replicate their actions and drive traffic to your Shopify.
Tools and Techniques for Competitor Analysis
Compiling and analyzing such large quantities of data is a daunting task, even for the most tenacious of entrepreneurs. Luckily, there is a range of free and paid online tools and plug-ins you can use to perform a detailed Shopify competitor analysis.
The tools we use most often include:
- Facebook Info and Ads – Facebook recently added this free feature to make their ads and Pages more transparent. It provides information on every ad that a particular page currently runs across Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and Audience Network. That will give you a clear picture of the type of campaigns other stores invest in and recreate their strategy.
- FadFeed – This is a Chrome extension that you can download for free. It also focuses on Facebook advertising and lets you populate your FB feed with nothing but ads from your other sellers. If you know your biggest competition and they use Facebook to sell, this tool will make it easier to study their marketing tactics.
- Ahrefs – The profitability of any e-commerce business is linked to the organic traffic that the site receives. That mostly depends on search engine rankings, and a platform like Ahrefs offers paid tools that show you how you rank compared to similar shops. It analyzes the keywords they rank for and who is linking to their shop.
- Moz Link Explorer – This is another paid tool that will show you the domain authority and backlinks of any website. Just enter your competitor’s URL and get a detailed overview of metrics like link data, ranked keywords, and their authority.
- Google Analytics – One important aspect when trying to succeed as a Shopify owner is understanding the ins and outs of your operations. Google Analytics provides you with precious insights into the core of your business. It’s also a great way to track if the changes you’ve implemented have the desired results.
- Koala Inspector – Koala Inspector is our very own custom-made Chrome plug-in with a free version and more sophisticated paid packages. As Shopify entrepreneurs, this is the tool we use most of all as we built it for our own needs. It is a specialized Shopify competitor analysis tool that combines the functionalities of every other platform mentioned above. It lets you look at product catalogs, pricing, marketing tactics, traffic, bestsellers, and more, all in one place.
How Koala Inspector Can Empower Your Competitive Edge
As stated before, Koala Inspector is our go-to tool when we scope out the competition. It simplifies the process of inspecting other Shopify stores because it aggregates all relevant metrics into one place.
The user-friendly interface is well-organized and gives you the information you want with a single click.
When you visit a competitor site, you can fire up the plug-in on your Chrome browser and instantly be privy to their inner workings. Koala Inspector automatically collects data on your competitors’ shops and stores it in one central location.
Everything you need to know is available at a glance. Just browse through the different tabs and get the full picture in real time.
Instead of bouncing between different apps and tools compiling data from different sources, Koala Inspector is a one-stop shop that lets you save precious time and energy. With one click of the mouse, Koala Inspector will provide you with metrics like:
- Bestsellers
- Item pricing
- Site traffic
- Active ad campaigns
- Used retailers
- Shopify theme
Analyzing Shopify Competitors with Koala Inspector
Koala Inspector is a powerful tool for Shopify competitor analysis that can give you a deeper understanding of your competitors and help you develop an effective competitive strategy for your business.
Using Koala Inspector is super simple and doesn’t require any special skills to master, and you can follow the given steps to get started.
Download Koala Inspector
Naturally, the first step is to download the Koala Inspector Chrome extension and enable the extension on your Chrome browser. Next, create an account and choose your monthly plan. Koala Inspector is free to use, but it also offers a Professional and Ultimate Plan for unlimited sleuthing.
Add Your Competition
Visit the Shopify stores of your biggest competition and start analyzing. Track up to 50 stores and know whenever they implement changes in their day-to-day operations. You can even sign up for email notifications and watch their every step.
Study the Structure
Discover how any Shopify store is set up, from the theme to the apps. Knowing the top themes your competition is using can spare you from endless scrolling in the Shopify theme store. The same goes for any apps they are using for email marketing, importing reviews, or implementing a subscription service.
So, when you come across a Shopify theme that catches your eye, you’ll instantly know how to look for it. Or, if you think an app might be of value to your operations, just click it and be taken to the landing page.
Check the Product Catalog
Next, head over to the Products tab and get an in-depth overview of the product statistics. The plug-in will show when the last product was published, the most and least expensive items, how many products are listed, and the median price of everything. You can compare those amounts to the pricing structure in your venue and adjust them to be more competitive.
The New Products tab can help you discover emerging trends and hot new items on the market. Another useful feature is the best-selling items filter, which allows you to track Shopify sales of the most popular goods.
Analyze the Traffic
Koala Inspector will present you with valuable revelations regarding a site’s web traffic. When you have inside information about audience demographics and geographical locations, you can better prepare your marketing ads and campaigns to target a specific audience.
Save Your Favorites
Once you’ve analyzed the range of products on offer and discovered the ones that sell the most or fit your brand’s ethos, you can favorite them by clicking the little heart icon. Add or remove as many items as you wish, and curate the perfect inventory for your Shopify. That way, you’ll always know if your favorites are still selling or if it’s time to focus on new inventory.
Export the CSV File
When the list of favorite products is complete, Koala Inspector makes it easy to export them in a CSV format and upload that file directly to your storefront. That is also a one-click automated process, populating your Shopify with items, prices, and descriptions instantaneously, leaving more time to focus on improving your e-commerce business.
Find New Retailers
Last but not least, this add-on will help you expand your network of suppliers. If the quality of items in a certain shop impresses you, or you think they have higher-end stuff, Koala Inspector will make it easy to figure out who their supplier is. That removes the guesswork when you want to find high-quality wholesale supplies.
Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses
Having this wealth of information at your fingertips is essential to identifying the strengths and weaknesses of other competitors. Careful analysis of their statistics can lead you to breakthroughs that can later be applied to improving your e-commerce undertaking.
Savvy store owners will leverage every advantage to come up on top, and this tool can help you make that happen.
Here are some tips on how to use Koala Inspector to identify the strong points and blindsides of your biggest competition:
- Notice top sellers and worst sellers – The Product tab displays all the relevant data related to a store’s inventory. You can see which products sell the most and which are falling behind. That is a good gauge of what is evergreen inventory and what may be a passing fad. The Shopify sales tracker is also how to judge demand and supply. Even if a product is popular, the market may be oversaturated, resulting in a decline in sales.
- Review marketing campaigns – Koala Inspector makes it easy to find the ads Shopify owners have active and the platforms they’re running them on. If you notice a gap in the market or a platform or social media app that is not used to its full marketing potential, you can tap into that potential. It will also display the keywords, which you can incorporate into your marketing strategy.
- Discover emerging trends – Reviewing a large pool of product data makes it possible to perceive new and upcoming trends in the market. There might be an uptick in sales on a new product in several stores, but because you have insider data, you can go full in on that trend and make a profit before anyone else realizes what is happening.
- Compare price points – By tracking your competitors’ prices over time, you can pinpoint how many items sell and adjust your price tags accordingly. Not only will this maximize your profits, but it will also push out stores that overcharge their customers.
Best Practices for Outsmarting Your Shopify Competitors
Having access to this abundance of information, data, and statistics doesn’t mean much if you don’t implement it in your business strategy. For your e-commerce store to grow and be profitable, you must constantly make little adjustments and implement new strategies to encourage growth and profitability.
Here are 6 tips and strategies for leveraging the insights gained from competitor analysis to outsmart your Shopify competitors:
- Identify your top competitors – See which Shopify stores are selling products or services similar to yours and analyze their operations. Pay close attention to items that generate the most revenue, their pricing system, and branding. Find a unique niche in that market and focus on providing standout goods at competitive prices.
- Thoroughly analyze their stock – Use tools like Koala Inspector to follow their top-selling items and see if sales are going up, stagnating, or decreasing. Drop any products that are no longer profitable, or if you notice a new trend emerging that aligns with your brand’s ethos, be the first to capitalize on it.
- Review their marketing tactics – Carefully study where and how other shops advertise their wares. Because marketing is a substantial financial investment, they often concentrate their efforts on one or two platforms and run traditional marketing campaigns. Take full advantage of all marketing opportunities and use social media apps to their fullest extent.
- Implement changes to your store as needed – Actively use the knowledge you gain from studying other businesses to improve your own. Add or remove products as needed, stock things that are in vogue but keep them, but don’t fill your Shopify with current crazes. Constantly invest in marketing and keep the SEO of your site optimized.
- Monitor your progress – Study your analytics as well, and always be aware of how your business is doing. After implementing a new variable, keep a close eye on your metrics to see how it performs. Many vendors don’t observe the inner mechanics of their shop, which is detrimental to success.
- Develop a unique brand presence – Many Shopify owners don’t put much thought into the visuals or message of their store. The result is many run-of-the-mill-looking websites without any flare. Develop a distinct brand voice, and set yourself apart from the rest.
Final Notes
Ongoing Shopify competitor analysis is essential for any business that wants to stay ahead of the curve in the e-commerce space. Keeping an eye on what your competitors are doing right and wrong will give you an idea on how to steer your Shopify.
Many moving parts comprise a successful business, which means there are many variables to look into and scrutinize.
Luckily, tools like Koala Inspector exist to facilitate that process. From pricing structures and product range to marketing efforts and customer satisfaction, you can have that available with just one click.
So download Koala Inspector today and crush your competition with statistics and data. The e-commerce market constantly pushes forward, so ensure you don’t get left behind.
