When a competitor is running circles around you

Awhile back I watched my 2nd grade daughter play in a for-fun soccer game.

About midway through the match, her team started to slow down and was struggling to move the ball.

By the end, they were barely able defend the goal.

The reason why?

Fatigue.

They only had 5 players on a team of 4 while the other team had 8 players.

That meant each time one player on her team subbed out, the entire other team subbed in fresh players.

Over the course of the hour, their fatigue was clear. There aren't very many second graders who have the conditioning to run for an hour with only a handful of breaks.

I see some Shopify stores doing something similar.

They want to "take on Amazon" or "own the market" right after they launch their store.

Charging ahead against the entrenched competitor can work for a while but if the competitors are larger and have more resources, they can just "sub out" their team while you can't recover.

In soccer there's not much you can do, you are always directly opposed to the other team. If they do well, you do poorly.

But you don't have to go directly head-to-head against anyone in business. You might operate in the same environment but if it's going to tire you out to do the same thing a competitor does, you're better off doing something different and finding your own path.

Take away their size advantage by playing a completely different game.

Or do what my daughter did and start learning how to deal with the struggle. In her case it was over after an hour, but it could be years to deal with a struggling business.

One thing you can do to play a different game is to better understand your customers.

That means looking at their behavior and actions to adapt your marketing.

Using the data your Shopify store already has, Repeat Customer Insights can find patterns and recommend potential opportunities.

Eric Davis