Retailer Tactics for Competing With Amazon, Part 2

In part one of this two-part blog series, we discussed the retail giant Amazon and how smaller companies in the e-commerce space can compete. Amazon may feel like they control the entire industry, but there are actually plenty of weak points they present where competitors can find their niche.

At SEO Werkz, we’re here to help with this and numerous other internet marketing services, including mobile-responsive web design and general user experience. These are the areas where the right strategies can help you carve out a nice presence for your targeted market despite the presence of Amazon. Here are a few other areas we recommend prioritizing.

Online and Offline Services

Amazon is known for having something for absolutely everyone, but they’re not as well-regarded when it comes to specialized, personalized products and services. There are ways you can distinguish yourself here to many customers, both online and offline:

Offline: For many businesses, a physical storefront is highly valuable for many reasons. Not only do you offer customers the experience of looking at and touching products in person, you also have a location to build a presence in the community through various events. If it’s right for your business, you can do things like host classes, promote product testing events and find numerous other ways to engage with your potential client base. These are all areas Amazon simply can’t compete with you in.

Online: We can help you find customized, personalized online solutions to make customers feel special and prioritized. Some businesses might look at specific product customization or individualized packaging, while others might look for various mailers or social media connection opportunities that promote products through the customer.

Mobile Solutions

Mobile shopping is a massive segment of the overall retail experience, and it only continues to grow as mobile payment technologies like PayPal and Apple Pay become more and more popular. This is another area where Amazon can be beaten – it has a mobile site, of course, but there are fewer opportunities for it to be engaging and properly branded.

On the flip side, smaller businesses like yours can dominate this area. Ask our pros about several ways you can optimize your site for mobile usage and draw clients into an experience that feels much more unique and individualized.

High-Quality Service

Through every other effort you make here, maintaining great customer service is vital. For online-only services, this means great pages and solid support information, complete with a phone number that, if at all possible, connects customers to a real person to handle issues. Customers should have ways to find solutions to their issues online if possible, normally through an FAQ or similar page, but there needs to be a backup here in case they still can’t resolve things this way. Amazon doesn’t provide phone numbers to call in many cases, meaning this is a huge area where you can distinguish your business from them.

For more on how to separate your e-commerce business from Amazon, or to learn about any of our online marketing services, speak to the staff at SEO Werkz today.