Competition is Good!

Competition is good for business, Competition proves that there is a market hungry for your product or service.  It is important whatever kind of business you are in to know what the competition is that you face. 

It is important to take a look at your competitiors, identify how they promote and market key products, identify selling prices, try and work out their online strategies for keyword targeting, website linking and site content.

To make money online requires that you be aware of which competitors make changes to their marketing strategies, when they change their fixed prices, offer promotions or stop selling a particular product and start selling other products. 

Whilst the compeition are not going to give you the answers if you email them and ask them why, but watching your competition means that you will over time, learn to identify peaks and troughs in the market. Developing and learning any business means continually re-evaulation and evolving as the market changes.

Listen to the news, join organisations specific to your niche market, read magazines to obtain information about new technologies and developments in your field. 

This will enable you to be proactive in sourcing new products, and checking it out with your competition to see whether they are selling these new products.

Pricing Strategies.  It is important to identify what you competition sells a similar product to your for.   

 For example, if fixed prices on identical items are set at £15.00 it does little good for you to have a fixed price of $35 on that same item.

Likewise, if a competitor makes a change to their sales strategy which means that you can sell that product at a lower cost than they can then, this will weaken their lead on the market and you will have the opportunity to jump in and capture sales, particularly if you are selling on eBay.  To make money on eBay requires that you see and then respond to those sales opportunities

Before you decide to sell any product online, particularly eBay examine the competition before you list new items for the first time. By understanding what the competitors who sell that item are doing you are positioned to make adjustments that could let you lead the pack with your new listing.