Increasing numbers of prospective business owners are setting up their ventures online in the realm of Ecommerce. Now, there are various reasons that so many people are opting for this means of selling goods to consumers. Generally speaking, Ecommerce requires low levels of commitment and proves relatively cheap to set up.
Unlike setting up a traditional brick and mortar businesses, you don’t have to find an appropriate commercial property, which means that you don’t require a deposit or for you to sign a lease agreement. This means that if things don’t work out, you won’t have to continue meeting payments on your rent agreement for months into the future.
If things do go well, you still benefit, as you won’t have to dedicate a large portion of your profits towards rent payments and overheads such as commercial gas, electricity, and water bills. Ecommerce allows you to set up a site, and you’re good to go. You’re not tied to any agreement and you can close things down with the click of a button should you change your mind. However, seeing as Ecommerce is becoming more and more popular, more and more people are engaging with it and the market is becoming more and more saturated. This is problematic. Let’s take a moment to understand issues that come hand in hand with a saturated market and consider some ways to overcome them!
Problems Associated with a Saturated Market
So, what’s the issue with a saturated market? Well, when there are endless other people out there doing the same thing and offering the same products that you offer, customers have more choice and are more likely to spend with your competitors rather than you. You are going to find it extremely difficult to convince people to buy with you. To pull a long story short, you’ll essentially have to significantly cut your prices to lure people in. This means reduced profits and less money for you in the long run!
Overcoming a Saturated Market
If you’re not willing to cut prices and minimise your profit, there is another way to overcome a saturated market. The key is to offer something that nobody else is offering. If you’re the only company offering a particular product, people will have to come to you if they want it. There won’t be as much competition and you will take all of the profits!
Coming Up with Something Innovative
If you have something completely unique and innovative, you aren’t going to have any trouble standing out from the crowd. Instead, of convincing people why they need your product over someone else’s, you can focus on promoting your product in its own right without comparison.
Identifying a Gap in the Market
If you don’t yet have a genius idea, you might be better off identifying a gap in the market. Take a look at different products that already exist and consider how some tweaks could create a new product that is in improvement or that fills a gap in buyer’s needs, wants, and preferences.
Differentiating Your Product
If your product is similar to other products on the market, people are likely to opt for whichever is cheapest. So, take active steps to differentiate your product. By focusing on a small feature that differs, you can make your product out to be completely different to other options out there.
Just take a look at the proposed difference between “RC” and “remote control” toys at My RCtopia. If customers are presented with “RC” and “remote control” without any emphasis on the difference between the two, they are likely to lump all of the products into one category. If you insist that there is a difference between the two and differentiate between the two with emphasis, they become completely different products.
Conducting Market Research
If you feel that you have come up with something that could prove profitable, it’s important that you carry out market research. This allows you to identify current market trends and to see whether your product is truly unique and that you don’t actually have competition.
Remember that if a certain product doesn’t exist and there isn’t any competition, there may be good reason for it. Perhaps it’s been tried and failed. Maybe there really just isn’t an audience or demand for it. Market research will help to give you confidence that your product can work and that you might simply have been the only person to think it up and create it so far!
Patenting and Copyrighting
Once you’ve decided what approach you are going to take towards creating innovative and unique products, you need to make sure that you can protect your ideas. Anything that you think up yourself or come up with is your intellectual property. You can protect this legally, preventing others from copying or mimicking you. Patents mean that you are the only person who can produce a particular product for a set period of time, guaranteeing that all profits from the product are yours to keep.
Copyrighting means that others cannot copy aspects of your business and products such as design, colour schemes, fonts, taglines, or even jingles. If you find that others are mimicking or copying what you have produced, you can send a cease and desist letter to the culprits. They will then have to stop what they are doing or face legal action. This protects your profits and ensure that you haven’t carried out a whole lot of work for someone else to take what you earnt!
As you can see, there’s good reason that the market is relatively saturated at the moment. But the good news is that there are ways to stand out and ensure that you can still make a success of your business. Hopefully, the above information will help you to achieve this! Not only can you provide the marketplace with something new and truly contribute something to society, but you can make a whole lot of money out of the venture too!