There are many different approaches to doing a deep dive into comparing your product to your competitors.

Sellers often just look at images and reviews so miss some really vital components. Tinkering with images and using review comments to try a improve your copy is such a small part of the overall process.

Sure, you need to chart your own course and not get (too) diverted by competitors activities but you can’t be blind to them either!

So how do you find a balance and actually make sure your listing is as good as it can be on a regular basis?

We asked MarketingByEmma to put together a guide that you can get done in a couple of hours. Their use of AI along the way takes this whole process to a new level. They offer a free listing analysis  as well which we think is great value.

1. Describe your product in the simplest possible terms

Example: “Bluetooth earbuds,” not “2.45 GHz Bluetooth earbuds for sport.”

If it’s absolutely critical that a particular product feature be central to your analysis, you can add maybe one qualifier. Example: “Waterproofbluetooth earbuds.”

Try not to get narrower than this; you want to view as much of the competitive field as possible. 

2. Setup your internet browser

Use incognito mode, private tabs, anonymous browsing, or whatever it’s called on your particular browser. 

This will make sure your search results are as organic as possible. Any data about you, your personal search history, location, etc., will skew the results that you see.

3. Amazon Search

Use your search term from Step 1 for the“simplest possible term” that a buyer may look for in your target product. We’re using waterproof Bluetooth earbuds to start our review process:

4. Ignore any “Sponsored” results

Look out for any other markings that indicate a result is appearing higher in your search because the seller has paid for a spotlight.

5. Search listings with the highest reviews

Scroll through and find the 3-5 product listings with the highest number of reviews. Page 1 or 2 should give you all you need. Open these listings in new tabs. Note that TOZO is dominating this page so grab their best example and find other brands.

For this example, we’ll look at these two listings by TOZO and Donerton. 

You have already determined that these listings are doing well; now you need to figure out how and why.

At a glance, does it seem like a professionally created listing? This can tell you a lot about where a company stands in terms of professionalism, cash flow, and the likelihood of longevity.

The ideas in this graphic aren’t bad, but the text is inconsistently formatted, and a little off grammatically. Within seconds, you can tell that you can get an edge by being a little more careful with spell-checking and editing.

Tech Tip 1: You can use ChatGPT to correct your own grammar, but if you do, read the output carefully. It may add unnecessary wording or flowery language in an attempt to fill in the blanks. Repetition and cliched language are dead giveaways for an over-reliance on AI. You may be better off using spell check tech, like Grammarly, Quillbot, or Google Labs, to catch your typos.

Look at the Titles. These reign supreme for search results. What keywords do you see? How is the Title formatted?

We think both brands’ titles are a little rough, but Donerton wins in this case for including formatting marks in the form of commas. Proper punctuation makes it easier to absorb bits of information:

Next, check out the photos. Are they exciting? Is the graphic design good? Do they prioritize lifestyle photography or more abstract infographic setups?

Donerton does a better job at making an emotional connection through the use of lifestyle photography that implies a lifelike audio experience.

Read the bullets out loud. How does the phrasing sound? Is there substance to the content? Do they prioritize features or benefits? How’s the grammar? (Don’t worry about being a grammar expert; go with your gut.)

While Donerton has an edge elsewhere, their bullet points are a bit weaker than TOZO’s:

All lowercase text looks great on an indie rock album cover, but here, it seems a bit weird. Formatting is awkward, keyword placements are less than subtle, comma placement is incorrect, and there are some typos that could wreck the seller’s chance of making a sale. Read some sentences out loud; does this text inspire your confidence?

Tech Tip 2: Here is where a language model chatbot can come in handy. You can copy and paste a listing’s bullets into ChatGPT, Bing, or another chat tool, and ask it some questions about the listing’s writing style, voice, and mistakes. We recommend asking just one question at a time, and making your questions pretty specific. The more focused your prompts are, the more focused your answers will be.

A+ Content: What’s the balance like between text and imagery? If it’s text-heavy, does it have a reason to be? If it’s photo-heavy, what is the visual style? 

Bluetooth earbuds are simultaneously experiential, emotion-activating devices and fairly technical, so it makes sense that both of these sellers have adopted an even balance between imagery and text.

7. Study the reviews

Don’t read every single review or every single word. You want to feel out larger trends.

At the very bottom of a listing’s reviews, you can click “See All Reviews.” The page this link takes you to shows the most helpful positive and critical reviews up top. Make note of things your competitors are doing right. Think about how you can emulate those things without coming across as a copycat.

Make note of things your competitors are doing wrong (or what shoppers think they’re doing wrong). Shoppers will call out sellers for everything. Be sure to differentiate between more legitimate complaints and complaints stemming from mismanaged expectations or deficient knowledge on part of the customer.

If a customer is wrong—if they don’t know how to use your product, for example—they won’t be the only one. Always manage expectations.

Both TOZO and Donerton have lots of reviews indicating problems with earbud pairing. This is an expectation to research and manage. Never underestimate the difficulty of making your product truly compatible with other products.

There are also negative reviews for both questioning their waterproof ratings. The IPX8 rating sounds super-official and regulated, but it’s not. Some sellers play fast and loose with “waterproof” because it’s a word that sells. Don’t be like them.

Tech Tip 3: Use ChatGPT to summarize customer reviews. Start by giving ChatGPT several product reviews and then ask questions such as: “According to these reviews, what are customers’ top 5 pain points with this type of product? What are the top 5 benefits? What occasions do customers buy these for?” And so on…

8. Analyze

Put together a list of do’s and don’ts based on what you saw. From our examples above, we could say:

Devote some time to spell-checking, editing, and reading out loud. If grammar isn’t your strong suit, ask your friendly neighborhood English teacher, journalist, or Marketing by Emma to help!

Be really careful with your claims of things such as compatibility. Expect product returns, and work to mitigate that problem.

Set soft expectations for things like “waterproof.” Most “waterproof” earbuds are just resistant to things like sweat and a little rain. Getting something to be truly waterproof at depth is really hard, and why make the claim anyway? Who’s listening to today’s top 40 hits while scuba diving?

Put together a list of gaps in the competitor’s approaches that you can fill. As an example:

Want a competitive edge? Make sure you’ve got great engineers crafting your device’s firmware. Bragworthy beginnings are always a great selling point.

One negative review noted that the earbuds didn’t have a volume control. Build one into yours!

Start with the assumption that the market is saturated and ask yourself how you can stand out.

If you want your product to be perceived as better, the best thing to do is make your product better. Fill gaps left by your competitors.

Presentation is everything—if you sell a great product with fuzzy photos, terrible text, and confusing benefits, customers will stay away from your product listings.

You might be able to make a really nice product with great construction, solid firmware, and excellent features. But you probably haven’t reinvented the wheel. If you want your product to stand out, YOU need to stand out as a seller. Make service a priority, and develop a unique brand identity. Both of the above brands probably try too hard to imitate Apple, diminishing their chances to set themselves apart.

 9. Articulate

The reams of notes you’ve assembled have served their purpose. Now you need to articulate your approach into a guiding statement. It could be its own statement or even part of your branding documents. 

This articulation is good for you; it makes it easier for you to make decisions quickly and confidently. You’ve already made the decisions, in a sense.

It’s immensely helpful to any writers, designers, or photographers you contract. Set a clear expectation and your contractors will love you.

10. Stay connected with trends

Vigilance is key; don’t spend 100% of your time on Amazon seller competitor analysis, but do stay aware of shifting trends.

Take Action!

Here’s the culmination of your research and planning phase—use your guiding statement from Step 10 to:

Identify your needs

What do you need to change about your product, brand, or marketing?

Define your goals

What exactly must you accomplish to meet your needs?

Set your plans

How will you meet your goals?

Once you’ve spruced up your product, gotten fine photos edited, and written your listing, observe your listing’s results. Even if you like them, don’t rest on your laurels from these selling-on-Amazon tips. Take a break, regroup, and continue to search for new ways to refine your product, your listing, your customer outreach, and your overall ecommerce selling.

There is so much information packed into this blog from MarketingByEmma. Their free listing analysis is a good shortcut so make sure you take advantage of this as you search for an expert in this area that best meets your needs.

As always, ask us anything. If we don’t know the answer, we’ll know someone who does!