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Research the market landscape and determine your shop's unique positioning in our series on finding new customers
Previously in this series, we discussed what a target audience is, how to research your customer, building a customer persona, niching down with the “so what” test, and using all of these insights to talk to your customer.
It doesn’t matter if you run a hobby shop or a full-time venture — if you are looking for new customers, knowing who they might be, what they might be looking for, why they might be looking for it, and where they spend their time are all important.
We’ve drilled down pretty far on the who, what and why, so now we’re going to zoom out and look at the where — the overall market.
A good understanding of what’s already out there in the market gives us a better picture of where we might find those customers!
To do that, we need to look at who else is operating in the market and how they are doing it. Of course we are about #communityovercompetition — so while others might refer to this as “evaluating ‘competitors,’” we’re not going to use that term.
Even if you’re a vintage record shop and there are 30 other vintage record shops in your province or state, each one has their own unique selling point.
Completing customer personas, researching the market and exploring how to strengthen your brand are all things you can do to communicate that unique selling point to potential customers.
Remember: there are more than enough customers to go around. The purpose of this entire series is to help you identify which customers are the right ones for you.
Poke around a bit online, on social media, at markets or in your city to make a list of 3-5 shops that are similar to yours and/or that you aspire to be like.
In other words, these can be a mix of shops that you feel are on par with where you are currently at, ones like yours that you perceive as being more “successful” than yours, and ones that are #goals.
A simple SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) chart is the easiest way to evaluate the position of a business in the market. (For Champion members: Access a template in the community space.)
Resist the urge to get sucked into comparing your shop to the ones you chose!
Be honest about what they do best and where they could improve, and try not to let it reflect on where you are currently at with your shop.
The whole point of this exercise is to get the information you need for self-improvement/shop improvement — *not* to feel like you are behind in some way.
Information is power, and feedback helps us to grow. Laying it all out on the table is the best thing you can do for your business.
Use a different SWOT chart for each of those shops you listed above. Use bullet points or short phrases to answer the following:
What is the shop doing well?
Strengths are internal factors that give the business an advantage over similar businesses.
Examples include:
What could the shop improve upon?
Weaknesses are internal factors that put the business at a disadvantage over similar businesses.
Examples include:
Continued below
Continued from above
What could be beneficial in the short, medium or long term?
Opportunities are external factors that could benefit the business.
Examples include:
What could cause problems?
Threats are external factors that could harm the business.
Examples include:
Let’s say you run a vintage decor shop that specializes in ’70s items. You sell on Instagram and you offer local pickup.
Here's an example of a SWOT analysis chart for a shop similar to yours:
Now that you’ve filled out SWOTs for those other shops, use the completed ones to inform your own.
Do a SWOT audit for *your* shop. Think critically about your strengths, weaknesses and what could threaten your business, but focus particularly on the “O” of the SWOT.
Look at the WO sections you filled out for all of those other shops. Which ones can you turn into opportunities for you?
In our example, we listed a 70s vintage decor shop as having inconsistent drops and lack of findability. We also said they might be able to possibly capitalize on the 70s trend, especially with Etsy searches increasing.
You’re a 70s decor shop that sells only on Instagram too, and you might be able to fill those gaps. What can you do to improve consistency, findability and relatability? Would you consider getting onto Etsy to make your products available on more than one sales channel? Put it into your Opportunities section.
It might look like this:
Opportunities
After you've identified the opportunities for your business, turn them into micro-goals to see them through to fruition.
For the opportunities above, your goals might be to hold weekly drops, ensuring you have a shop handle with keywords, using a hashtag for #available finds, sending biweekly emails to show available inventory, creating weekly reels with a different 70s trend featuring items of inventory, learning how to open an Etsy shop, creating listings, opening the Etsy shop, promoting the Etsy shop, etc.
For more on setting goals that you are more likely to see through, Champion members can check out our Setting SMART Goals workshop recording.
By doing SWOTs for not just your own shop but the shops around you, you've now created a more fulsome view of your place in the market.
Identifying opportunities in the market and then actioning on them is a great way to eventually attract more customers.
Have more ideas for evaluating the market? Let us know in the comments!
