If you’ve ever taken a business class or two, you’re probably familiar with SWOT analysis.
In case you haven’t, SWOT is a method for understanding the internal and external factors that impact a business’ success.
Think of it as a framework for methodically analyzing a business and charting out a long-term strategy.
While originally developed for large businesses, you’ll be surprised to learn that SWOT is equally useful for small businesses in fast-moving industries like e-commerce.
SWOT, which stands for “Strengths, αδυναμίες, ευκαιρίες & Threats”, will help you identify your strengths, spot opportunities and counter competition.
Σε αυτό το post, θα σας βοηθήσουμε να κατανοήσετε την ανάλυση SWOT – ακόμα κι αν δεν έχετε επαγγελματική εκπαίδευση – και να σας δείξει πώς να το χρησιμοποιήσετε στην επιχείρησή σας στο ηλεκτρονικό εμπόριο.
Γιατί να κάνετε μια ανάλυση SWOT?
Υπάρχουν δεκάδες μεθοδολογίες για την ανάλυση των επιχειρήσεων. Ίσως να είστε εξοικειωμένοι με μερικά από αυτά τα ακρωνύμια όπως:
- ΠΤΗΣΗ (Δυνατά, ευκαιρίες, Φιλοδοξίες & Αποτελέσματα)
- ΣΚΟΡ (Δυνατά, προκλήσεις, επιλογές, Απαντήσεις, Αποτελεσματικότητα)
- ΘΟΡΥΒΟΣ (Ανάγκες, ευκαιρίες, Βελτιώσεις, Δυνατά, Εξαιρέσεις)
Πλέον, αν όχι όλα αυτά βασικά βασίζονται στις βασικές αρχές της ανάλυσης SWOT. Αυτός είναι ένας λόγος που ακόμη και 50+ χρόνια μετά την πρώτη ανάπτυξή του, Η ανάλυση SWOT εξακολουθεί να είναι ένας από τους πιο δημοφιλείς τρόπους αναλύσει τις επιχειρήσεις.
Υπάρχει ένας άλλος λόγος για τη δημοτικότητα του SWOT: την απλότητα και την ευελιξία του.
«Δυνατά σημεία, αδυναμίες, ευκαιρίες & Οι απειλές» είναι διαισθητικές κατηγορίες που μπορεί να καταλάβει ο καθένας, ανεξάρτητα από το επιχειρηματικό τους υπόβαθρο. Αυτές οι κατηγορίες είναι επίσης πολύ ευέλικτες – ισχύουν τόσο για τις επιχειρήσεις όσο και για τους μη κερδοσκοπικούς οργανισμούς και τους κρατικούς φορείς.
Πέρα από την απλότητα, Το SWOT σάς παρέχει επίσης χρήσιμες πληροφορίες για την επιχείρησή σας, τόσο βραχυπρόθεσμα όσο και μακροπρόθεσμα. Με το SWOT μπορείτε:
- Κατανοήστε τα τρέχοντα και μελλοντικά σχέδια.
- Κατανοήστε την τρέχουσα και μελλοντική κατάσταση των προϊόντων/υπηρεσιών σας.
- Γνωρίστε τους ανταγωνιστές σας, πελάτες και τις τάσεις της αγοράς καλύτερα.
- Καταγράψτε ακριβείς στρατηγικές και τακτικές για την αντιμετώπιση των απειλών στην αγορά.
Τι ακριβώς είναι λοιπόν το SWOT και πώς μπορείτε να το εφαρμόσετε στην επιχείρησή σας στο ηλεκτρονικό εμπόριο?
Ας μάθουμε παρακάτω.
Τι είναι η ανάλυση SWOT?
Δεν γνωρίζουμε πραγματικά ποιος ανακάλυψε τη μεθοδολογία SWOT (αν και οι περισσότερες πηγές ισχυρίζονται ότι ήταν ο σύμβουλος διαχείρισης Albert Humphrey). What we do know that it was initially based on data collected from Fortune 500 εταιρείες.
Στην καρδιά της, the SWOT method believes that all the factors that affect a business can be divided into four categories:
- Δυνατά: Anything the business is currently good at, or that which could be described as its “strength”.
- αδυναμίες: Anything the business currently struggles with.
- ευκαιρίες: Current opportunities in the market that the business could exploit with its existing resources or skills.
- Απειλές: Market forces, such as a competitor or external factors (such as a change in local laws) that could threaten the business.
Από αυτά, “strengths” and “weaknesses” are internal to a business. “Opportunities” and “threats” on the other hand, είναι external factors.
In traditional SWOT analysis, you’d also classify your strengths and opportunities as “helpful” for your business growth. Weaknesses and threats would be “harmful”.
Βασισμένο σε αυτό, you get a SWOT chart – a four quadrant matrix like this:
Any business, regardless of its size of industry, can segregate its success factors into these four categories.
Για παράδειγμα, ας υποθέσουμε ότι έχετε ένα κατάστημα ρολογιών, τόσο εκτός σύνδεσης όσο και διαδικτυακά. Έχετε μια μεγάλη γκάμα από οικονομικά ρολόγια, αλλά το απόθεμα της πολυτελούς επωνυμίας σας είναι αδύναμο. Έχετε επίσης έναν ανταγωνιστή με μεγάλες τσέπες που ξοδεύει περισσότερο από εσάς στην τοπική διαφήμιση, αν και έχετε ισχυρή παρουσία επωνυμίας στο διαδίκτυο.
Η ανάλυση SWOT μπορεί να μοιάζει κάπως έτσι:
- Δυνατά:Μεγάλη γκάμα από οικονομικά προϊόντα; ισχυρό εσωτερικό ταλέντο ψηφιακού μάρκετινγκ.
- αδυναμίες: Κακή συλλογή ρολογιών πολυτελείας; κακή τοποθεσία του καταστήματος.
- Απειλές: Διαδικτυακοί και τοπικοί λιανοπωλητές ρολογιών; νεότεροι πληθυσμοί που δεν αγοράζουν ρολόγια; ανάπτυξη των ψηφιακών έξυπνων ρολογιών; λιανοπωλητές γενικής χρήσης όπως η Amazon.
- ευκαιρίες: Υπάρχον κατάστημα ηλεκτρονικού εμπορίου για να αξιοποιήσετε τη διαδικτυακή ζήτηση; αυξανόμενες πωλήσεις στην κατηγορία ρολογιών προϋπολογισμού.
Η απαρίθμηση όλων αυτών των παραγόντων θα σας βοηθήσει να βρείτε μια στρατηγική για να παίξετε τα δυνατά σας σημεία, αντιμετωπίστε τις αδυναμίες σας και κερδίστε τον ανταγωνισμό σας.
Πώς μπορείτε να κάνετε μια παρόμοια ανάλυση για το κατάστημά σας?
Ας ανακαλύψουμε.
Ανάλυση SWOT για ηλεκτρονικό εμπόριο
Προτού μπείτε και αρχίσετε να αναλύετε την επιχείρησή σας, you’ll need a few things to run a successful SWOT analysis:
- χρόνος: Depending on the size of your business, it might take anywhere from a few days to several months to do a complete SWOT analysis. Keep this in mind before you start the analysis.
- Δεδομένα (subjective and objective): A competent SWOT analysis requires lots of data. You’ll need objective data like traffic figures, inventory totals, financial details, και τα λοιπα. as well as subjective data like customer interviews, internal audits, και τα λοιπα.
- Benchmarks: Though not necessary, it’s good to have some industry benchmarks to audit your performance. Παρά όλα αυτά, you can’t claim that traffic generation is your “strength” if you can’t meet industry standards.
Παρακάτω, we’ll show you all the data you should have and how to use it during analysis.
How to do SWOT Analysis for E-commerce
Follow the steps shown below to analyze your E-commerce business:
Βήμα #1: Gather objective data
Your objective data – στατιστικά, traffic figures, sales data, και τα λοιπα. – give you hard numbers on your business’ performance. This will form the foundation of any analysis.
Here’s the data you should have before starting SWOT:
Current website traffic
Dig through your analytics to find:
- Unique visitors per month
- Pageviews per month
- τάσεις της κυκλοφορίας (up/down)
- % change in traffic MoM and YoY
- Ποσοστό αναπήδησης
Ποσοστά μετατροπής
Your conversion rate is the percentage of your traffic that turns into paying customers (or leads, subscribers or any other conversion event). Αυτό είναι, αν πάρεις 100 visitors daily and of these, 5 end up buying from you, το ποσοστό μετατροπής είναι 5%.
You should have conversion rate data for:
- Individual products
- Κατηγορίες προϊόντων (such as shoes/bags/accessories)
- The entire store
πιστότητας πελατών
How likely are your customers to return to your store and shop from you? Για αυτό, you can use the following data:
- Καθαρό Αποτέλεσμα Ανάδοχος (NPS)
- Νέο vs. επιστροφή τους επισκέπτες
- Αριθμός (%ηλικία) of repeat customers
Social media statistics
If social media is a large source of your traffic and customers, you should know the following numbers::
- Social media followers/likes across social networks
- Average likes/comments/shares per post (as percentage of total followers/likes)
- Growth in social media followers/likes MoM and YoY
Shipping statistics
Η ναυτιλία είναι critical for the survival of an E-commerce business. Make sure to gather data like:
- Average shipping time
- Shipping delay (εάν υπάρχει)
- Κόστος αποστολής
Customer LTV and AOV
LTV (Lifetime Value) and AOV (Μέση αξία παραγγελίας) often determine an E-commerce business’ long-term profitability. AOV is easy enough to calculate – it’s simply your total sales divided by the total number of orders.
To calculate LTV, use this formula:
(Μέση αξία παραγγελίας) Χ (Number of Repeat Sales) Χ (Average Retention Time)
Customer acquisition data
How and where you acquire your customers is an important part of your business’ success. You should have numbers like:
- Μπλουζα 5 traffic sources (in absolute numbers)
- Μπλουζα 5 traffic sources (in terms of conversion rates)
- Cost of customer acquisition per channel
- Discounts/promotions on different channels (such as a Facebook-only coupon code).
SEO data
Social brands might get away with poor SEO, but for most other E-commerce businesses, organic reach is a massive driver of conversions.
Run a quick SEO audit to find data like:
- Current rankings for target keywords
- Domain-specific metrics (total number of backlinks, number of linking domains, domain authority, και τα λοιπα.)
- Number of pages
- Number of ranking keywords
- Growth in total backlinks MoM and YoY
Customer service data
Dig through your εξυπηρέτηση πελατών data to find numbers like:
- Average number of support tickets per day, εβδομάδα, and month
- Growth in number of support tickets vs. growth in traffic/customers (drastic increase in support tickets without accompanying growth in customers is a sign of underlying service issues)
- Number of customer service agents and their performance
- Average number of support emails vs. on-site messages (via chat) vs. τηλεφωνικές κλήσεις
Efficiency metrics
How efficiently can you ship products and resolve customer problems? Pick through your data to find these numbers:
- Average turnaround time per customer query
- Average time for packing and shipping individual product(μικρό)
To gather this treasure trove of data, you’ll need to open multiple different tools. But once you have it, you’ll have a παρτίδα of insight into the things holding your business back.
Βήμα #2: Gather subjective data
While objective data and numbers are great, they can’t tell you what customers actually αφή about your store and your products.
They also don’t tell you anything about your employee morale, their work satisfaction, and any issues holding them back.
Σε αυτό το βήμα, you need to collect data like:
Customer interviews and surveys
Interviews and surveys – on-site, through email or over the phone – are some of your best tools for understanding your customers and what they want.
Παρακαλώ:
- What do your customers like about your product(μικρό) and your site?
- What do your customers NOT like about your product(μικρό) and your site?
- What improvements do they want to see, εάν υπάρχει?
Employee interviews
Your customers are only one half of your business’ success. The other half is a happy, productive team of people behind the scenes.
Interview your employees and managers to figure out:
- What do they feel about your business and their role(μικρό) in it?
- What would they like to change?
- What would they want to remain the same?
Εκτός από τα παραπάνω, you should also audit your internal resources to answer questions like:
- What skills do you (or your team) specialize in?
- What skills do you need to hire/outsource for?
- What skills are not “in your DNA”, δηλ. skills you’ll have to bring in outside partners for?
Your goal in any subjective audit is to figure out the “one thing” you do really well (such as product design, εξυπηρέτηση πελατών, or marketing). Την ίδια στιγμή, you also need to find skills and areas you need to drastically improve upon.
Βήμα #3: Competitor analysis
Competitor analysis is the heart of the “Opportunities & Threats” in SWOT. You’ll want to devote a significant amount of time to this.
Start off by listing your major competitors. Then find the following data:
Product range
Dig through your competitor’s website and find answers to questions like:
- How many products do your biggest competitors sell?
- What is the overlap between their product range and yours?
- What new products are they planning to launch?
- What products have they discontinued recently?
Product pricing
Document the pricing for all their products you are competing against, as well as their shipping costs. Make an Excel sheet with their top selling products (that you compete against) and list their prices.
Current promotions
Are your competitors running any current promotions (such as discount coupons, προσφορές, και τα λοιπα.)?
Αν ναι, how prominently are they advertising these promos (on their site, on their social media channels, σε Τυπώνω/digital/TV ads)?
Document all the promotions you can find in a separate document. Also note which products they are promoting heavily – these are either their best converting products or new launches.
SEO
For each competitor, find out their:
- Domain authority
- Total backlinks
- Total ranking keywords
- Top ranking keywords
Social media presence
Find out the following for each competitor:
- Top social channels (by total followers/fans)
- Top social channels (by activity)
- Average number of updates on each channel
- Average engagement rate for each post on each channel
Advertising spend
How and where are your competitors advertising their products?
Figure this out by asking questions like:
- Are your competitors advertising on Google AdWords? Αν ναι, what are their target keywords?
- Are your competitors promoting themselves through paid social ads? Αν ναι, what are their top social channels – Κελάδημα, Facebook or Instagram?
- Do your competitors have any video ads?
- Do your competitors sponsor any contests, podcasts, or email newsletters? Αν ναι, how long have they been doing it (a long-term sponsorship is likely to be profitable)?
- Do your competitors spend money on media buys?
Αν είναι δυνατόν, also find your competitors’ offline ad spend, including print, radio, billboard and TV advertising.
It’s also a good idea to collect your competitors’ creatives (ad images, αντίγραφο, Βίντεο, και τα λοιπα.). This can be the springboard for new marketing ideas.
Εξυπηρέτηση πελατών
The quality of customer service often makes or breaks competition. It can be difficult to get this data, but you can get an estimate by sending a support email/call and calculating response quality and time.
Επιπλέον, also figure out the number of customer support channels they offer (ΗΛΕΚΤΡΟΝΙΚΗ ΔΙΕΥΘΥΝΣΗ, on-site chat, τηλέφωνο, και τα λοιπα.). Which channel do they promote on their site? Για παράδειγμα, some businesses display their phone numbers prominently on their site while others focus on email.
Payment methods
What payment methods do your competitors accept? Is there an obvious payment method they are missing (όπως το Paypal)?
Website Design/Usability issues
This is mostly subjective, but a design and usability audit of your competitors can help you spot opportunities.
Figure out things like:
- Total number of checkout steps
- Marketing copy and design, especially above the fold
- Quality and quantity of product images
- Quality and depth of product descriptions
- Average number of reviews for each product
Επιπλέον, also note the E-commerce software they use.
Company metrics
Τελικά, find out some more details about your competitors, συμπεριλαμβανομένων τους:
- Company size (in terms of employees)
- Annual revenues
- Growth in revenues YoY
- Number of monthly visitors and pageviews
- Years in business
Βήμα #4: Understand market trends
What is the current demand for your product(μικρό)? How is demand expected to grow in the near and far future? Is there any pending legislation that can impact product demand?
Figuring out these trends can be hard since there is often little concrete data available. Ωστόσο, if you’ve been in business for a while, you likely already have a good idea of general trends.
Try to find out things like:
- Current and projected demand for your product(μικρό)
- Market trends that can increase demand for your products (παράδειγμα: a famous rapper recently started wearing shoes similar to yours)
- Market trends that can decrease demand for your products (παράδειγμα: new fashion trends favor monochromatic themes while you sell mostly colorful clothing)
- Legislation that might impact product demand (παράδειγμα: your local government adding a tax to imported products – such as yours)
- Market developments that can impact competition (παράδειγμα: new software drastically reduces cost to build conversion-focused E-commerce sites – which is your strength – and thus floods the market with new players)
This will be an open-ended enquiry. You don’t have to have exact numbers for each of the issues above; a general idea of the way the industry is moving and the impact it will have on your business is good enough to start with.
Βήμα #5: Map Our Your SWOT
If you’ve followed the four steps above, you’ll likely have a ton of data about your own business, your competition and your market.
Με αυτά τα δεδομένα, you can now start answering questions to zero in on your SWOT – Δυνατά, αδυναμίες, Opportunities and Threats.
Δυνατά
To find your strengths, dig through your data and answer questions like:
- What do you do better than anyone else in your business?
- What competitive advantage do you have over your rivals?
- What is your USP?
αδυναμίες
To spot weaknesses, find answers to questions such as:
- What are my shipping costs? Are my total costs lower than brick and mortar stores?
- How much do I have to spend on marketing? Does lower marketing spend mean that the barrier to entry is low (και έτσι, περισσότερος ανταγωνισμός)?
- What skills does my current team lack? Are these crucial to my business success?
ευκαιρίες
You can narrow down on your opportunities by asking questions like:
- What market trends can I take advantage of to expand my revenues?
- What competitor weaknesses can I exploit?
- What technologies can I use to increase efficiency?
Απειλές
To narrow down on threats, find answers to questions like these:
- How big is the barrier to entry? How likely is it for a new startup to tap into my existing market?
- What are the chances that a bigger rival will move into my segment?
- Are there any regulatory or legal hurdles that might impede my growth?
These are just a few questions to kickstart your SWOT analysis. As you gather and analyze data, you’ll spot obvious strengths and weaknesses you can exploit to fuel growth.
Για παράδειγμα, if your analysis shows that you have strong design talent while your competitors have barely any presence on social media, you can use your design strength to outmarket your competitors on social channels.
Ομοίως, if you have a strong manufacturing base that can quickly turn prototypes into finished products, you can use it to spot trends and bring new products to market faster than your competitors.
If you do all the five steps above, you’ll be in a much better place to understand your business, your competition and the market forces that affects your success.
Πάνω σε εσάς
SWOT analysis isn’t essential to E-commerce success, but it definitely helps. Instead of playing it by the ear, a thorough SWOT analysis will help you chart out a long-term strategy for success. Armed with this document, you’ll be able to spot trends faster than your competitors, mitigate your weaknesses and focus your strengths.
Here’s what you should takeaway from this post:
- Gather both subjective and objective data about your site and your business before starting any SWOT analysis.
- Analyze your competitors as rigorously as you analyze your own business and its strengths/weaknesses.
- Understanding external forces – market trends, legislative issues, και τα λοιπα. – is the crucial for finding opportunities quickly
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