Retail Competitive Analysis 

When developing your retail competitive analysis, these are the questions you should be asking and the sources of information that you can use to gather that data. 

The questions you need to ask:

• Where is your competitor located?
• What are the competitor's strengths?
• What are their weaknesses?
• What are your competitor's annual sales?
• What is the company's product line?
• How do the products compare to yours, in terms of quality, appearance and any other criteria?
• What is their price structure?
• What are the company's marketing activities?
• What are the company's supply sources for products?
• Is the company expanding or cutting back?
• What do they do better than you?

Sources for information about your competitors:

• Online Searches are a quick method of finding competitive information. However, this search will only provide information that has become public.
• On-site Observations of the competitor's parking lot, customer service, volume and pattern of suppliers' deliveries, etc. can yield useful information about the state of the competitor's business.
• Surveys and Interviews can yield plenty of data about competitors and products. Research surveys and focus group interviews generally provide more in-depth perspectives from a limited sample.
• Competitive Benchmarking is used for comparing the organization's operations against those of the competitor's. In making specific comparisons within an industry, an organization gains information about common marketing practices, available work force, and suppliers.