I was talking to a fellow eCommerce store owner the other day about various things. Like adding ground bacon to ground sirloin to create delicious hamburger patties and if she’s going to buy Justin Beiber’s new fragrance.
Somehow along the way, we got sidetracked from the juicy conversation and moved on to a new subject – ordering from our competition. Now before you get all nelly on me and say, “why would I ever want to give those bastards any of my money?” hear me out.
Ordering from the people you’re constantly trying to kill on the SEO and PPC battlefield is important, and it’s something I do all the time. I have a five-point checklist that I use when I order from my competition and you can use it to:
- Website Check: What are they doing on their website that is good and what are they doing that is bad. Take notes of how the shopping experience is for you. Are there things they are doing that you should be doing on your own site to help conversions? What are they doing that turns off a shopper and make sure you’re not doing it on your own site. And most importantly, is it easier to order from them then you? Take note of item pricing, free shipping promos along with shipping methods and rates and stack them up to what you offer.
- Post-Sale Check: Once your order is placed watch for communication from the store. How do their order confirmations look and sound? Do they provide real-time tracking? Did you automatically get added to their email list? Were you kept in the loop from the time your order was placed to the time it was delivered? Did you get any special offers or coupons post sale? You will be surprised at how well some companies use the post-sale but pre-delivery time to make the customer feel like the order they just placed is the most important one ever received – that boosts customer confidence big time.
- Box Check: Here’s the big one for me. When the delivery guy steps out of his hot truck and trudges to your front door with a 75 pound box of rock salt, don’t be like a 3 year old on Christmas morning. Take some time to look at the box. Look at the shipping label, are there any stickers or printing thanking you for your order or the name of the company printed on the box? Lets not stop there, open it up. What kind of packing material was used, was the merchandise clean and packaged properly? Was a receipt or packing slip in the box. And most importantly, what kind of marketing material was included with your order? Any surprise free gifts?
- Whoops! Check: Say your 75 pound bag of rock salt arrived damaged. What to do! Well, even if it didn’t arrive damaged, now is the time to check on their customer service. Pick up the phone and say that you just got your order and there’s a little problem, but you don’t want to make a return, you just want to let them know. Was the rep you talked to friendly and did he/she show empathy for your problem? What did they offer to do for you either now or in the future?
- Email Check: Any eCommerce store worth that 75 pound bag of rock salt is going to use your information to market you with special offers. How soon after your order did you begin to receive those marketing messages? Were they compelling enough to make you buy again, or did you unsubscribe after a few? Did they do a good job at making you come back and buy again?
Keeping an eye on your competition is important, but just watching what they’re doing on their website isn’t enough. You have to be one of their customers to fully experience how they do business and whether or not they are a real threat to your bottom line or not.