Why is eCom Competitive Intelligence a Need for D2C Brands?

Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) brands sell their unique products without the intervention of middlemen. The D2C retail structure involves the manufacturer, advertising/website, and consumer. This approach is followed by Licious, Zivame, Lenskart, Wow Skin Science, BoAt, and many other brands because it offers significant benefits, including higher profit margins for the manufacturers.

According to a recent eMarketer report, D2C ecommerce sales account for $111.54 billion or 14% of the total eCommerce retail sales. The D2C models disrupt the traditional retail market. They enhance customer engagement, offer more brand management control, build higher profit margins for the manufacturer, direct customer interaction, and help to collate consumer data.

Besides these key advantages, brands can build stronger consumer loyalty and expand market opportunities. It means manufacturers no longer rely on sales from retailers in single geography and directly interact with customers, fostering longer relationships by creating targeted marketing campaigns.

3 Benefits of eCom Competitive Analytics for D2C Brands

Fashion & accessories, consumer electronics, FMCG, and home decor are set to take $43.2, $30.6, $20.8, and $5.4 billion of the D2C market size in India by 2025. On the other hand, D2C ecommerce sales are bound to reach $174.98 billion by 2023 in the U.S. eCom Competitive Analytics can help to scale your business by acquiring a portion of this forecasted market share by offering the following advantages:

Gives Power Over the Competition

D2C ecommerce is highly competitive and requires close monitoring of the advantages and disadvantages of the competition. Pricing intelligence, share-of-shelf, stock availability, etc., are some of the factors brands need to focus on to achieve this goal constantly on eCom marketplaces.

Moreover, monitoring the performance of product listings is an everyday challenge because it demands continuously analyzing consumer behavior on eCom platforms. The current pattern of the customers can help the brand curate recommendations and marketing strategies such as gifts or discount coupons.

According to a source, 40.5% of internet users bought products on Amazon due to recommendations and reviews. So, curating an impeccable recommendation marketing strategy is also a priority for ecom marketers. Similarly, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for hygiene and safety peaked. So, brands started using these aspects as part of their product delivery and advertising strategies across different ecom platforms.

As per another source, the demand for microwaves, dishwashers, and washing machines also increased in the same period. So, brands that offered these items could have the edge over the competition by continuously monitoring stock availability analytics to find reasons for stockouts.

Optimizes Customer Experience

eCom marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Big Basket, etc., follow a typical behaviour and search pattern using search engines, navigation, category, etc. The eCom stores use their parameters/algorithms to deliver a sound customer experience, from visiting the homepage to after-sales services.

D2C brands using eCom marketplaces also want to boost their discoverability and visibility. They often use keywords in their product and company page listings for achieving this goal as a part of it. Reviewing eCom Competitive Analytics helps brands to assess their progress in achieving this goal versus their competitors.

Moreover, the data highlights each category's top performer and bottom feeder. Therefore, brands can find their areas of improvement and use actionable insights for boosting their performance on eCom platforms. D2C brands also enhance the customer experience and increase conversions/sales.

Curates Enhanced Buyer Personas

Product listings on eCom marketplaces create buyer personas usable for online marketing and advertising. eCom Competitive Analytics helps brands understand their buyer personas and compare them with the competition. The insights reveal the customers' preferences based on patterns and data points.

Curating such insights helps D2C brands to build even more personalized marketing and advertising activities that can drastically increase conversions/sales while boosting the loyalty base. Moreover, creating segregated buyer personas becomes even easier and helps target areas of opportunities that would otherwise have remained unexplored.

For example, finding the common words used for your product listing versus the competitor helps differentiate buyers' beliefs on different brands and the most likable features/qualities. So, prompting consumers by including usable features on product or company page listings can gain more traffic and conversions.

Besides knowing the factors that can enhance competitive edge, brands also receive alerts for MAP violations and KPI deviations through eCom Competitive Analytics, which enable them to sustain their brand reputation.

Takeaway

The growing eCommerce market demands constant evolution and creativity in ad campaigns from advertisers, publishers, and marketers. However, collating data without analyzing the competition can be fatal, as it slows down the organization's growth.

Moreover, eCommerce's competitive intelligence is vital for enhancing the marketing and sales campaign, increasing consumer loyalty, maintaining brand reputation, and increasing profits.

mScanIt proves the most useful suite that analyzes competitor and personal growth for achieving these goals. It even detects real-time results based on the brand inputs and enhances brand safety. The suite also enables brands to understand consumer behavior and execution compliances, giving them an edge over their rivals.