Researching Market Analysis

This page deals with the market for your product, how this effects your offline business and how the online market may differ.

To start with your market analysis, we can look at the activities of your competitors online. Just as we did with determining your niche market, run a few searches on some search engines for your product. Try them at the three of the important ones www.google.com, www.altavista.com and www.lycos.com. when you have found some competitors, remember this is a global market so include any from far away, have a good look through their website.

Make a list of all the things they offer (and possibly just as important, the things they don't). Your list should include:

Their location:delivery charges and times issues.

Website popularity: There was once a fad among novice web designers to add website hit-counters, very handy if not wildly inaccurate at times) Word of mouth is another useful tool, do your clientele know about their website and what do they think about it.

Website development: Have they upgraded the look of the website? have the prices increased or decreased? Has the sales pitch changed? how easy is their website to use?

Achievements: Can you find out what sells and what doesn't for them? Are they getting many new customers or is it just the existing customers using their website?

Summary

Collecting as much information about your competitors as possible can save a lot of time, effort and money. Some of the information you may acquire may not mean too much to you at the moment, but you you will learn how to use it to your benefit in later chapters.

Next, we look at the details of client analysis