Who doesn’t love rooting for the little guy? Those rousing tales of the underdog that beat the big guy seem to just entice the attention of the masses. Those timeless tales of battling against all odds, of formidable foes that tower over heroes, of triumphant ends that favor wit over brute strength.
As e-commerce wonders like Amazon and Alibaba take on conventional retail giants, the fight for e-commerce glory can be found taking place between those colossal champions that once dominated the landscape and the small, agile newcomers.
Their numbers seem to be growing into a formidable ‘Army of Davids’ and as a similar narrative to that of David vs Goliath unfolds around us, we look at the online arena and see highly motivated and savvy small business owners standing up to the intimidating, incredibly powerful and heavily funded e-commerce giants.
This can be seen as a story of the every-man/woman, underdogs of the current e-commerce stage duking it out with long-reigning champions but what can we learn from the tactics of these brave heroes? What lessons can this epic battle yield?
Fill the gaps
As the Davids of e-commerce plot and plan their way to glory, a three-year-old startup emerges as a sought after ‘arms dealer’ in this raging war. Boomerang Commerce was founded by former executives of eBay and Amazon, to help smaller retailers stand up to e-commerce giants through the dynamic management of prices.
35-year-old CEO Guru Hariharan has designed Boomerang to beat Amazon at its own game on pricing after he noticed a clear analytical divide growing between Amazon and others. His platform helps retailers match their competitor’s discounts without hurting profits and can be a win-win solution that sets competitive prices while realizing strong bottom line growth through testing multiple pricing strategies. As of now, Boomerang is used by five of the top 10 US retailers including Sears, Staples and Groupon Goods.
Work on your aim
David didn’t beat Goliath head-on in a battle of strength, instead, he used a sling to topple the giant. As a smaller outfit, it can help to really know your enemy’s weaknesses and today, you can find a new breed of e-commerce businesses carving out niches and building traction through precision and agility.
Entrepreneur Maxwell Kantz, founder of fledging jewelry brand Amant New York, has successfully put this tactic into practice. Armant crafts a luxury jewelry item specifically for men, called TieDrop; a small silver or gold ornament that hangs on a fine chain from the center of a tie knot. The company built a new category of product in a saturated market by focusing on a unique marketing strategy that required a hands-on approach and narrow targeting to engage a demographic that was looking for something which stands out.
By spending marketing dollars on high-potential customers and focusing on consumer education as much as aesthetics, Amant was able to strike with impressive precision, building a new brand in a very old industry.
Customer experience and internal efficiency
Ultimately, the Davids of e-commerce have to focus on crafting the best experience for their customers, nurturing individualized service and attention as integral parts of their product offerings. Being devoted to each individual customer can be a way for you to stay ahead of these Goliath businesses.
Internal efficiency is just as important. Growth often brings a multitude of challenges which require innovative solutions. Manage your internal databases and integrate your inventories into one system. With a clean and organized back end, your e-commerce machine can truly be ready for the battle ahead.
Stock Sync is changing the game for e-commerce inventory management. With a huge number of integrations, your e-commerce store can now sync stock from various suppliers and sources such as Etsy, Walmart, eBay and more. Your intelligent Stock Sync app gets all your stock nicely fitted into format and you can even set it to automatically download latest stock items from your suppliers via download links. There are plenty of other features and functions that you shouldn’t miss out on as well. Head on over to the Stock Sync website to get your online shop synced up with the future.
