Hi all. I know that competition can be fierce for the small business startup particularly ecommerce. I don’t want to stall starting my business too long, but I don’t want to fail at the getgo either. Any suggestions on doing market research?

When I first started, I was impatient; so only talked with friends and family. Good intentions maybe, but not gr8 info. So my first suggestion is to do your research right. Sure, talking with family is ok, but they’re gonna be biased.

You have to decide what you hope to learn from the research…about your potential customers and products, or your competition. In ecommerce your competition is likely global so methods’ll be different.

Poorly done research can fail you as much as no planning and research. Your primary research should yield information about current sales and practices that you then analyze.

Getting the data can be done in a few ways:

• Interviews- phone, in person.
• Surveys- online, mail
• Questionnaires- online, mail
• Focus groups

how do ya really know what you want to learn?

It’ll depend on your business but some good questions to ask are:

• What are the most important factors when buying the product or service? Price? Packaging? Ease of shopping experience?
• What do you currently like or dislike about the product/service?
• Any suggestions for improvements?
• What’s a fair price?

These kinds of questions are good starts, but you can also analyze currently available data, just be careful to get current, reliable data.

Sounds like a lot for a sole proprietorship business. Don’t know if I’m up for that!

Well, depending on your startup money, you can hire it out but most individual business owners I know have done it themselves. Using email lists that you already have for the surveys and interviews may be something to think about.

Ever heard of Google alerts or use it?

Google Alerts is a service by of course, Google. It’s free and essentially is a notification service. You put in the keywords that you want to keep track of…and can filter by news, blogs, videos, groups. Valid search terms to help with your marketing are:

• Your site name--- (minus the https://www.wholesaleforum.com/discuss/www.), business name, your name.
• Product or service, either specific or broad, but too broad and you’ll get way too much to be worth it.
• Even customers and competitors

Google alerts is also a great way to keep track of industry news, how your competitors are doing as well as helping you stay on top of what’s being said of you, then you can respond quickly, and assess changes if necessary. Good way to get some data that’s already available.

Now, that sounds like a great help for me since I’m in this venture solo. Easy to get carried away on the enthusiasm of a new venture but gotta succeed! For me and my family, I got a lot riding on this!

I hear you. Enthusiasm is fine, but combined with a sound plan and good information and data, you’ll be more successful. Good luck.