Achieving market intelligence has become more crucial for e-commerce businesses as the industry faces various challenges (Figure 1). Online businesses need to step up their game to stay competitive. This article explores 12 best practices to master ecommerce market intelligence, based on my decade of experience in web data extraction and analysis.
Ecommerce market intelligence refers to the process of gathering, analyzing, and applying information about the online market, consumer behavior, competitors, and emerging trends to make data-driven decisions.
As an expert in leveraging web data, I‘ve seen firsthand how actionable insights gained through market intelligence enable online businesses to identify new opportunities, optimize their strategies, and gain a competitive advantage.
Based on my experience, here are 12 best practices companies can follow to master ecommerce market intelligence in 2024:
Monitor Competitors Continuously
Keeping a constant eye on competitors should be a top priority.
1. Perform Regular Competitive Analysis
Carry out in-depth competitive analysis on a quarterly basis to understand changing dynamics.
Go beyond surface-level monitoring of product ranges and prices. Analyze competitors‘ marketing messaging, brand positioning, SEO strategies, social media engagement, customer feedback, market share, new hires, funding rounds, and more.
Look for potential partnerships, disruptions, or mergers that could impact the competitive landscape.
For example, in 2020 Walmart acquired technology from Aspectiva to better compete with Amazon by enhancing its search engine and product recommendations. Staying on top of such developments is key.
2. Track Competitors in Real-Time
Complement periodic competitive analysis with real-time monitoring of competitors‘ key metrics. This is where leveraging the right web data tools becomes critical.
For instance, a price monitoring API can track competitors‘ prices for core products on an hourly or daily basis. A drop in competitors‘ prices for high-margin SKUs should trigger your alert system.
Social media and news monitoring tools can track competitors‘ product launches, campaigns, executive moves, or other events as they happen.
Real-time intelligence ensures your strategies remain relevant even as market dynamics shift.
3. Benchmark Performance
Benchmark your performance metrics like traffic, conversions, LTV, NPS, etc. against top competitors.
This competitive benchmarking analysis reveals where you lag behind rivals and what you excel at. The insights can guide your improvement efforts.
For example, if your conversion rates, mobile response speeds, or social media engagement is below par compared to leaders in your niche, double down on enhancing those areas.
Derive Insights from Data
4. Harness AI and Big Data
Leverage big data analytics and AI tools like machine learning and predictive analytics.
Analyze millions of data points on past sales, web traffic, market trends, search queries, social buzz, reviews, and more to construct predictive models.
This can forecast demand changes, pinpoint new opportunities, and provide other market intelligence way before human analysis could.
Amazon‘s data prowess, for instance, helps it optimize inventory, surface relevant product recommendations, adjust prices, and predict customer needs.
5. Conduct Multivariate Testing
Take A/B testing to the next level with multivariate testing.
Test multiple elements like page layout, copy, images, calls-to-action, etc. simultaneously instead of just one factor.
The added complexity provides richer insights into what resonates best with your audience.
For example, an outdoor gear site could test a product page with a video demo, customer photos, detailed specs, expert reviews, and special discount code altogether.
The winning variation gives a blueprint for optimizing other product pages.
Understand Shifts in the Market
6. Invest in Ongoing Market Research
Conduct in-depth market research at least twice a year to supplement real-time monitoring.
Analyze trends in market size, growth rate, consumer segments, needs, pain points, seasonality, channel preferences, and macro factors influencing your industry.
Compare findings with previous years to spot the delta. The insights help align strategies with market dynamics.
7. Monitor Emerging Trends
Look beyond current markets and competitors. Identify embryonic trends that could impact your industry in the coming years.
Study global innovation, conduct future-focused consumer research, analyze patent filings, and track startup funding and technologies.
For example, Chinese retailer JD.com is exploring drone delivery networks as a future innovation.
Early discovery of such shifts allows you to devise forward-looking strategies.
Decode Your Customers
8. Analyze the Customer Journey
Understand how people discover your brand, what motivates purchases, and how you retain customers.
Identify pain points across the buyer‘s journey through surveys, user testing, and tools like FullStory that replay sessions.
These insights help improve conversion and retention at every touchpoint.
9. Leverage Cohort Analysis
Study customer cohorts who share common characteristics like acquisition channel, purchase frequency, first product bought, lifetime value band, etc.
Compare metrics across cohorts to identify your most valuable customers.
Catering to the high-LTV cohorts has an outsized business impact.
For example, an outdoor retailer may find customers acquired via paid search buy more frequently than via organic traffic. Optimizing paid search then becomes critical.
Cultivate a Culture of Learning
10. Foster a Growth Mindset
Encourage teams to embrace curiosity, flexibility, and a culture of continuous learning and reflection.
This enables deriving strategic insights from successes and failures rather than a fixed mindset where past decisions rigidly guide the future.
11. Test Disruptive Innovation
Carve out resources to experiment with disruptive ideas outside the core business.
This could include exploratory projects around drones, AI, AR/VR, blockchain, sustainable packaging, etc. applicable to your market.
A few may redefine your future market position.
Take an Ethical and Global View
12. Monitor Global Markets
Look for opportunities to apply learnings from international markets to your local context.
For example, live-stream selling gained rapid popularity in China before spreading to other geographies.
13. Commit to Data Ethics
Handle data collection and analytics with care, especially personal or third-party data.
Follow best practices around informed consent, data anonymization, responsible usage, and proper disclosure.
Unethical practices like web scraping copyrighted content can damage reputation and invite lawsuits.
Prioritizing ethics builds customer trust.
Key Takeaways
Mastering ecommerce market intelligence requires:
- Continuous monitoring of competitors
- Harnessing data and analytics
- Understanding market shifts
- Decoding your customers
- An agile, ethical, and global mindset
With these 12 best practices, you can turn market intelligence into strategic advantage and sustainable growth. Let me know if you need help executing any of these approaches – I would be glad to advise based on my experience.
References
- Statista – Retail e-commerce sales growth worldwide from 2014 to 2025
- Weller, Chris. Competing with the Retail Giants
- Smith, Cooper. Ecommerce Trends to Watch
- Paliwal, Deepanshu. Advanced Analytics Models
