E-shop War II

Past article sharp #jakobritva have you read?

I wrote in it about strategy for e-shops up to CZK 1 billion in turnover with long-term competitive advantage. In this newsletter we will break it down in detail. Let's start the shaming.

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Small e-shop

Some of you have wondered that a small e-shop can actually be quite large.

I understand that behemoths like Temu, Allegro or Amazon are beyond the imaginations of mainstream e-shoppers... at the same time they are part of the market. The Czech Republic is a country of small e-shops. AND mini... micro... nano... e-shops. In recent years, multinational behemoths have taken notice of us.

Ignoring is not a useful way of thinking strategically. You are in the market with Alza, Tema, Heureka, Amazon and a bunch of micro e-shops. It doesn't make sense to mentally cut off part of the market and compete with just someone. I understand that just the notion hurts. At the same time, this is reality.

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Long-Term Competitive Advantage

A feature that allows you to make more money... and at the same time the competition simply does not copy it. Perhaps you are an exclusive distributor of a powerful multinational brand. Or you have a strong brand yourself.

☑️ Yes, long-term benefits exist.

❌ No, it is not easy to build them.

If it were simple, then everyone would have them... so they wouldn't be benefits. We solve them on Strategic thinking.

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The strategy of a small e-shop

The strategy may be relevant for e-shops that have decided not to pack it, have a long-term competitive advantage and have millions of crowns a year for self-development. How does it work? You focus on the customer and get the most out of it.

1  Get to know customers

2 ️ Sharpen the brand

3 ️ Sharpen communication

4 ️ You will begin to work with customer data in detail

It takes years. Do you want to be ready for autumn 2025? Start yesterday.

1 ️Customer Research

You can put together data from interviews, keyword classification analysis, competition analysis, e-shop behavior analysis, mystery shopping, user testing, design probes... <těch metod může být hodně> and you will find formulas in them.

I know, you know your customers. At the same time, it is possible that you do not put emphasis on the same things as them. At the same time, it's possible that that knowledge is unevenly dispersed throughout your organization. Therefore, it is important to start with research and gradually introduce it as standard internal activity on a monthly basis.

We do it that way too. Over the past two months, we've explored 12 different ideas in different ways. And another 6+ awaits us in September and October. It surprises me every time, what's all about people don't know, or have I stopped emphasizing it.

Good research is not done on its own. What we watch out for:

👉 Engage in research more people, not a lone researcher. Loneliness distorts.

👉 Part of the research should be customer and product analytics. That's where you have business.

👉 Search for patterns in data both separately and in a group. You will get richer insights.

👉 You can outsource customer research competencies at the first stage. Long term is you want to build internally.

O research I once did he wrote on our blog. We train your future researchers to work together Implementation of your projects. AND upon Strategic Design.

2 ️Branding

Branding is a set of activities that reinforce your story. In a variety of connected ways, you sharpen what your customers, employees, or fans have to say about you. Good branding uses data from research. Sounds ezo. It's expensive. At the same time, a strong brand is one of There are few long-term competitive advantages. Brand strength is relative to the competition, so it's a never-ending job.

Why does it work? Brands help people create their own identity. People need to grab something in these difficult times. So they buy Lamborghinis because other cars are for socks. Or they're a good mom. Careful gardener. Reliable manager.

“Nobody gets fired for buying IBM. “
‍Anonymous from a long time ago

👉 Brand is a brand and it's not a logo. Your brand manual is probably just a visual style manual. That's not enough.

👉 Start with yourself. Describe your tale. Then figure out how you will tell him and how you will support him.

👉 From the brand you want Make your customers pay more than others. Not for everyone to know you. You're not that big.

👉 Brand is not reputation. Brand is Strategically controlled and Systematically supported reputation.

For your branding activities reach out specialists.

3 ️Communication

People need to be excited about what they find at your place. Sharpen your work with the customer based on his needs, aspirations, fears or myths in the head. Simplify its passage through the e-shop. Give him the right information, features, activities,... Push him when needed. Learn to work with him. Short term and long term.

👉 Content, content, content. King, queen and kingdom. Forget pixel-perfect graphics. Solve the content.

👉 If you've done your research and have a reasonably positioned brand, it's easy. Otherwise, you will spend money on nothing.

👉 The most important elements to promote sales are credibility and persuasiveness.

👉 You want a technical solution that allows you to develop your work with the customer. Quickly.

For e-shops we create an assignment to make your customers really excited about what they find in you.

4 ️Data

All previous activities will introduce a number of changes to your work with the e-shop and you will need to find out what really worked and what did not. You create a data warehouse. You will link information about customers with Marketing activities. Introduce reporting. Implement workflows over dates based on days or weeks. You start to get better at what you do.

👉 The point of data is to find out, What Really Affects Your Business and what levers you have to make it better.

👉 Few can REALLY work with data. You don't need numbers. You need to find out where do you thrive and where not. At the level of content, channels, campaigns, brand, technologies...

👉 Data has three areas. Technical settings. Ability to read data. Willpower. You outsource the first two. You need your own willpower.

Our Analytical Department sets the measurement, reporting, data warehouses in analyzes the data.

It takes years. Want to be ready for Fall 2025? Start yesterday.

Or wait until Oct 7, 2024 for our webinar E-shop war where we will not only go over this strategy in more depth.

“I then realized that having unique technology and being able to make unique products are not enough to keep a business going. You have to sell the products, and to do that you have to show the potential buyer the real value of what you are selling. “
-- Akio Morita

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Reading for the weekend

Nike: An Epic Saga of Value Destruction

Epic waste of money, potential and energy. Nike “invested” billions of dollars. The result is better marketability. And less money. Because the CEO is “data driven”.