Our search online for a Cisco phone, and the PPC results we received, demonstrate a real problem many ecommerce websites suffer from. Can you tell the difference between Amazon.com and Books.com? How about the difference between Walmart.com and Target.com? OK, so the colors aren’t the same and they aren’t operated by the same company, but how about at a deeper level: are they that different?
Much has been written about positioning since the concept was introduced to the world of marketing in the early 1970s. You hear about positioning so many times that the word can almost become meaningless. Yet, with thousands of ecommerce sites offering very similar product lines and looking almost identical, either these sites are ignoring this very simple marketing concept, or differentiating themselves is much more challenging online.
The following principles are essential when defining your positioning:
It is not about your business, your experience, or who you are. It is about how your customer will benefit by using your product or service.
In other words, the benefits must be unique to your site. This is much more challenging with technology nowadays. Less than a day after Amazon.com offers a new service, many ecommerce sites will copy the new idea. Many ecommerce sites suffer from “me-too” syndrome. Catalog listings look very similar, product pages are designed the same way, and visitors expect to see product reviews in every ecommerce site.
The benefits must be strong enough to convert a site visitor into an actual customer.
It is great that you know what sets you apart from your competition; now make sure every visitor to your site knows what is different about you. Focus on the unique benefits you offer to clients that they need or must know about.
At a very basic level, ecommerce websites in the same vertical market sell the same products. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to differentiate them based on the product itself. Instead, any successful ecommerce site must resort to using other methods to establish its unique value proposition. To start on the right track, you need to understand what customers are really buying from your site. If you think that the online shopper is buying just a product from your site, you will struggle in the best-case scenario and fail in the worst-case scenario. When a consumer buys something from your site, he should be buying more than the product itself. He might be buying the comfort of a 100% satisfaction guarantee, or a fast shipping policy at no extra charge, or even the unbiased product reviews your site offers. You need to spend time understanding whatever the customer is really buying from you; then design your site to clearly convey that value to your visitors.