There are a lot of ecommerce businesses out there.
It can seem like a great idea to start one and that’s great, but while it’s an opportunity it’s also the issue.
If you think it’s a good idea there are many others that think it’s a good idea too.
And it’s pretty easy to launch a basic website to get started and you might not even need a new website if you look to sell on Amazon and/or Etsy.
But just because it’s easy to launch an ecommerce business doesn’t mean that many stick around. In fact, not many will find the success they’re looking for.
To make sure you’re one that sticks around it’s important to differentiate yourself.
And that includes being different from the biggest sites including Amazon and Walmart.
Here are some ways to do that.
1. Merchandise
The biggest and most obvious way to be different is your merchandise.
In retail and ecommerce it always comes back to the merchandise.
And if you’re selling items that are on Amazon and Walmart or other sites you’re going to be facing a nearly impossible task.
You’ll never beat those companies on price, shipping and recognition.
So you can forget selling popular merchandise that others have and that are widely available.
But you can stand out and be different by offering the things people want, but can’t find anywhere.
Duh. I know that’s obvious, but taking that approach is really the only way you’re going to make a go of it with an ecommerce business.
It means making it yourself or finding sources that are exclusive enough so your sources won’t sell to Amazon next year and ruin your company.
This might also include limiting your merchandise offering. The more you try to be everything to everyone the more you won’t become known for something.
2. User Experience
User experience involves your ecommerce website.
It’s a little tricky obviously when you’re selling on Etsy because what you get there you have to stick with and I think Etsy is really good with their design and user experience.
But you can sell on Etsy and do something different with user experience on your site.
I like the idea of limitation. It’s usually a bad word like you have limitations as a basketball player.
But limitations in business are good in the sense that you narrow your focus and limit ways that you’ll work to improve and grow.
You can limit your website in ways that you’re not trying to do everything like daily deals, email signups, tons of products and things that you normally see on a website.
Pick one thing and focus on being the best at that with user experience whether it’s one item each day or really focusing on selling items through email only or something with social media.
Limit the experience and you’ll often create something really unique and memorable and probably even better than the traditional ecommerce experience.
3. Target Customer
Building the limitation concept is the idea of limiting your target customer.
This is one of the most difficult things for entrepreneurs and marketers to do. Human nature doesn’t want us to limit the people we sell to. We want to sell to as many people as possible.
But the more you expand your target customer profile the more generic you become. You’re doomed to blend in.
But if you focus on a narrow target customer and actually turn away the general customers you can grow an ecommerce.
If you’re already in business then look at your customers. Pick your best customer or who you think is the best going forward and focus only on them.
When you get feedback from customers it’s good to listen, but it doesn’t mean you should do everything every customer says.
When you limit your focus on target customer you can become unique, but it requires turning away some potential customers.
It also means you can become more efficient with your merchandising, shipping, marketing, etc. And that can give you an advantage too.
4. Presentation & Design
To a lesser extent you can stand out with presentation and design.
“Pretty” might be the way to think about this, but that doesn’t always need to be the case. It is for one type of customer, but for others they would rather look at really simple design; design that is comfortable to them when they’re shopping.
You also know that many people get frustrated by ecommerce sites that have too much clutter, are too slow and too difficult to use.
You can provide a presentation that handles those simple things better than everyone else probably along with one of the other items on this list and you can stand out.
5. Personality
Finally, you can differentiate on personality. Zappos is probably the most recent example of this. It can be sustainable, but it has to be a cultural thing at your company. You have to live and breathe it.
And it doesn’t mean being quirky and outgoing. That could be the way you do it, but you can take on other personality traits and emphasize those in everything you do including promotion, merchandise, etc.
Biggest Takeaway (Setup Limitations)
The big takeaway for this article is that you should embrace limitations. When you limit what you’re doing with your business you’re going to have more focus and you can set yourself up for better growth by being different than other ecommerce stores out there.
While everyone else is trying to market to everybody you can be ultra-focused and grow a business that they won’t be able to match.
