The holiday season is officially here, and it’s a huge chance for your business to shine. But let’s face it competing with big players like Amazon can feel daunting. They’re everywhere, and they’ve got the kind of reach that small businesses can only dream of.
So, what can you do to stand out during these busy months? Pietro Saccomani, founder and CEO of MobiLoud provides some straightforward strategies to help your business grab attention and make the most of this holiday season.
Using Your Strengths As An SME To Level The Playing Field:
Having a niched business comes with many strategic advantages that just don’t work at scale. It’s easy to overlook, but you understand and care about your customers’ needs in way more ways than a giant corporation. You can cater to your audience’s unique interests, and passions, and speak their language which makes it much easier to connect with them on a deeper level. Here’s how niche businesses can level the playing field:
Build Unique Experiences To Share With Your Customers:
As a smaller business, you can consider building specialised tools or experiences that resonate deeply with your niche audience. For instance, if you run a niche marketplace for used football equipment, create engaging experiences specific to football enthusiasts. Think of fun quizzes with personalised product recommendations powered by AI, or interactive features that provide buyers with a unique and customised shopping journey.
Give your audience on-site experiences that show you understand their passions, and go the extra mile to show them there are real people behind the scenes who care about providing a level of service they wouldn’t get elsewhere.
Become A Staple In Your Community:
Small and medium-sized businesses can gain a competitive edge by becoming active members of the communities most likely to be interested in their offerings. Unlike corporate giants like Amazon, SMEs can foster genuine relationships within these communities, providing unparalleled value and earning trust.
Embrace Your Uniqueness:
Rather than trying to compete on price, SMEs should embrace what makes them unique. Highlight the distinct qualities, values, and passions that define your brand. What sets you apart? By doing so, you can appeal to customers who resonate with your authenticity and passion and want to be a part of your brand’s journey.
Personalised Messaging:
To stand out, try crafting messaging that speaks directly to your ideal customers. Imagine you are talking to just one person – your ideal customer. Understand their desires, show them that you deeply understand their interests, and engage with them. This is something that larger companies just can’t do: interact and connect on a personal level.
Developing And Nurturing Your Loyal Customers:
Instead of solely focusing on customer acquisition, invest in keeping your best customers around. Strong customer retention is important to any business. Keeping loyal customers not only encourages repeat sales but also increases the likelihood of word-of-mouth recommendations. Customer retention programs such as loyalty cards or membership schemes can be a great way to make individual connections and keep people coming back time and time again.
Inbound And SEO:
While inbound takes time to generate results, growing businesses should consider investing in an SEO strategy to build a strong owned channel. Focus on niche terms, address specific questions, and target customer challenges that larger players like Amazon might overlook. Identify low-hanging fruit and create valuable content that directs interested customers to your site.
The Technology Playing It’s Part In Supporting SMEs:
As a small business, you’ve got to be scrappy. You don’t have the endless budgets of larger competitors so being smart with where you invest your hard-earned revenue is crucial. Thankfully, the past few years have given us a huge boom in affordable and accessible tech to empower SMEs with the same tools as industry giants. Here are some of the technology trends reshaping the e-commerce landscape for scale-ups:
User-Friendly E-commerce Platforms:
There are a growing number of user-friendly e-commerce platforms and third-party vendors for every vertical. Whether you’re a small local shop or a business trying to expand your reach, you can find an option that’s best for your needs.
Remember, it’s important to shop around and keep your business in mind. Make sure you choose platforms that give you the freedom to scale – so avoid anything that requires long-term lock-ins or makes it difficult to switch. This is less of an issue once you’ve hit a certain size, but when you’re still growing, it’s important to keep your options open.
No-Code Tools To The Rescue:
No-code tools give you an easy way to add functionality to your website or create useful internal tools to help with business growth. There are a number of tools that can help you level up conversion rates, offer more personalised shopping experiences and even launch loyalty programs in just a few days. One of our favourite resources to find the top tools used by leading direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands is 1-800-D2C. You can also find great founder stories to see how small business owners are growing their brands.
Mobile Apps Made Easy:
Mobile traffic is at an all-time high, and will only continue to grow as your customer base gets younger. But 
mobile websites, while important, often convert much lower than your desktop traffic. This is where apps come in! App users tend to be some of your most loyal customers, so launching an app for your business could make sense to better engage your mobile-first shoppers.
Luckily, there are a number of app builders out there and services like MobiLoud that make building mobile apps for your brand affordable and stress-free. Apps come with a ton of benefits over mobile websites including higher conversion rates, more repeat sales, free push notifications, and one-tap access to your storefront.
Live-Selling and Creator Commerce:
The rising trend of live-selling and creator commerce gives brands the opportunity to establish direct relationships with their target customers. By becoming trusted voices in their niche, SMEs can forge deeper connections. Younger shoppers especially are more likely to engage with your brand if you show that you’re willing to speak to them on their terms.
AI-Powered Tools To Add To Your Toolbox:
You now have access to a growing number of powerful AI tools that can help you gain ground on larger competitors. Chatbots for example can take care of simple customer service queries, freeing you up to handle more complex issues.
Marketing is another area where AI can support you – making it easier to identify patterns in customer behaviour, offer more personalised support, and even help kickstart drafts for any marketing content. While AI isn’t a replacement for the human touch, it can help free up time and resources to put towards more important issues. This way, you can focus on what you do best: growing your business.
It’s important to remember the unique strengths of your small business when facing larger competition. Your close connection with customers and the community is a real advantage. It lets you offer personalised experiences and build trust in ways large businesses often can’t.
Think of this as your time to shine by using technology that’s now more accessible than ever. Tools like user-friendly e-commerce platforms and AI chatbots are not just for big players anymore. They’re there to help you get a better understanding of your customers, streamline your services, and connect with your audience in more effective ways. By combining your unique business qualities with these tools, you’re set to not just make it through this competitive season, but really stand out and grow.