Online marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra have big marketing budgets for attracting, converting, and retaining online shoppers. Additionally, customers also love to shop from these marketplaces due to their extensive product range across categories, low price, free or fast shipping and additional resources like reviews, ratings, and more.

‍

Well, it can be challenging for Shopify store owners to compete with such massive marketplaces. However, most of the features and tactics marketplaces use to incentivise shoppers can easily be replicated for your Shopify store.

‍

To your surprise, you can sell on your own Shopify store and attract both marketplace shoppers and others who want a D2C (Direct-to-consumer) experience with some impactful strategies.

‍

In this blog, you will learn how a Shopify store can stand apart from the competition and compete against online marketplaces.

‍

How can a Shopify store compete with online marketplaces?

‍

1. Leverage branding opportunities

‍

Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra are all household names as they have all built a brand synonymous with online shopping, and you need to do the same. However, these marketplaces primarily focus on their brand identity, and the brand identity of the brands that sell on these marketplaces comes secondary. This is exactly where you can capitalise on branding.

‍

Here's how you can ramp up your brand awareness strategy:

• Choose a Shopify theme that reflects strong branding through storytelling videos, prominent logos, and customer testimonials
• Highlight your brand's expertise through unique product descriptions and content
• Create social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and keep them active with regular posts about your products, customer experience, and brand story.
• Invest in paid ad campaigns on Google and social media to get your brand name and products in front of your target audience.

‍

2. Utilise SEO

‍

With Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), you can drive organic traffic to your Shopify store. SEO-friendly content will ensure that your homepage and product pages are indexed and findable on every search engine. Shopify offers built-in settings to create SEO-friendly pages.

‍

Here's what you need to do:

• Update meta fields like title, description, URL slug, automatically generating sitemaps, 301 redirects, and canonical URLs.
• Adopt a long-tail keyword strategy that can help you to beat Amazon and other marketplaces in the search results.
• Use keyword research tools such as Keyword Tool to identify keywords, research the competition using Google Keyword Planner, and then target them using your website and product page content.
• You can also use the built-in SEO features in Shopify

‍

3. Build customer trust

‍

Online shoppers are naturally risk-averse, and online marketplaces appeal to this trait by offering new and first-time shoppers a name they can trust. Now, you can do the same on your Shopify store with trust badges.

‍

Here's how you can increase your credibility:

• Guarantees for quality, satisfaction, and delivery dates
• Guaranteed safe checkout and fully Secured SSL Checkout
• Secure payments and accepted Payments badges like Debit cards, Credit cards, UPI, and more
• Accredited Business and rating badges
• Free shipping or over a minimum order
• Free returns or easy returns and exchanges
• Google Customer Reviews and Trusted Store badges

‍

4. Provide value

‍

87% of online shoppers rely on Amazon to compare a product's price. But, entering a price war with online marketplaces means you risk damaging your profits and losing customers. So, it's best not to compete on price alone.

‍

Here's what you can do:

• Give special product upgrades, personalisation, and training programs
• Provide exclusive products or collector's items (limited stock) which are only available to your members
• Commit to sustainability with eco-friendly processes, products or packaging
• Provide 24*7 customer support, live chats and toll free contact numbers for support
• Have a customer-centric returns policy and ensure an easy returns process
• Add customer reviews on the home page, product pages, or footers
• Offer multiple payment methods like debit cards, credit cards, UPI, digital wallets, and more
• Ensure a quick and simple checkout process
• Provide product recommendations based on customer order history, wishlists, and search history
• Collaborate with social media influencers and celebrities via paid advertising or shoutouts

‍

‍

5. Offer fast and free shipping

‍

Fast and free shipping is one of the top purchase drivers, and online marketplaces use it to attract customers. You can also offer an amazing shipping service to stay ahead of the competition. For that, you need to determine a strategy to achieve three things simultaneously—achieve lightning-fast shipping speed, cover the cost of free shipping and reduce the shipping costs.

‍

Here's what you need to do:

• Invest in multiple warehouses to fulfil your orders from multiple locations while increasing shipping speed and reducing shipping costs
• Partner with a 3PL provider like Eshopbox that allows you to split your inventory and store it closer to your customers. This can help you reduce shipping costs and transit times—enabling you to afford express shipping on your Shopify store
• Moreover, Eshopbox handles high order volumes and has strong tie-ups with domestic courier companies. Thus, you can avail services with national carriers at substantially discounted shipping rates

‍

‍

6. Invest in customer experience

Online shoppers flock to the big marketplaces because they know what to expect. You can focus on satisfying your customers, who will soon become your brand advocate.

Here's what you can do to delight your customers:

‍

• Offer real-time order tracking with a branded page
• Send proactive shipping notifications
• ‍Create a seamless returns experience
• Ensure high order accuracy
• ‍Curate an exceptional unboxing experience with custom packaging
• ‍Offer product kits, combos and bundles to increase Average Order Value (AOV)

‍

7. Introduce customer loyalty program and subscriptions

‍

You can nurture existing customers while attracting new ones. Loyalty programs ensure continuous growth for your Shopify store as it acts as an incentive plan for the customers—increasing your Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV). Whereas, a subscription program is a great way to reduce uncertainties in sales and ensure steady cash flow.

‍

Here's what you need to do:

• Include great perks, personalisation, and minimal friction in the loyalty program
• Offer redeemable points for every purchase
• Introduce subscription boxes to ensure monthly spend

‍

Bottom line

‍

If you want to meet customer expectations and compete with ecommerce marketplaces, Shopify store owners need to ramp up their order fulfilment capabilities and deliver a delightful customer experience. Fortunately, 3PL providers like Eshopbox can help Shopify stores to grow faster by taking order fulfilment off their hands and enabling them to focus on core business operations. You can also put your ecommerce business on hyper-growth with Eshopbox Plus, the first ecommerce acceleration platform. It will help you grow on ecommerce marketplaces, D2C, and other digital channels while you focus on building winning products. You can also adopt a multichannel selling strategy to meet customers on the big marketplaces and then continue that relationship on your Shopify store.