Without understanding your target audience, the needs of the industry, what the competitors are doing or the market conditions, it will be difficult to create a profitable business.

Online stores are not exempt from this claim. The eCommerce and the digital world are constantly changing, so it is essential to conduct market research to better meet the audience and predict changes.

This is the way you can ensure that your business stays with interested and committed customers. By understanding your industry and your environment, you will be able to create competitive strategies to boost sales, because you will know what customers think and feel about your product or service.

However, market research in e- commerce is a bit complicated for many entrepreneurs. It can be difficult to track an industry in general, find reliable sources and accurate data, especially when it comes to business ideas or innovative products.

Fortunately, it is not impossible, it just takes practice and knowing how and where to look. In this post, we will share some useful tips to do a market research that will help you find valuable information on the Internet for your e -commerce store.

1. Identify influential people in your industry

To know your market niche, you can start through the identification of influencers, i.e., reporters, bloggers, twitterers or artists that are relevant to your industry. These are the people you should follow and strive to maintain a relationship at every opportunity you have.

But it's not about going to any character with many followers, you need to be able to detect influencers that listen to your ideal customers. Through them you can identify conversations, the content they share and things that worry you about your industry.

But how do you identify influencers that can provide you with valuable information? To do this, you must first define:

• Who is your target audience?
• Where they are present on the internet.
• What people are following.

Once you have this information, Google can help you find influencers. Use specific keywords on a topic and the results can show you blogs or profiles that are commenting on it. Analyze your content, features and find patterns that may be useful for your business.

Also, once your business is established, make contact with them to get them to promote your business is a good way to win customers and credibility. You can read more about influence marketing in this post.

2. Search for news about your sector

Undoubtedly an excellent source of research are news sites, many reliable sites show interesting data, such as research publications or surveys; And expert conclusions that can be of great help.

You just need to identify trusted sites that focus on your audience, including e- commerce sites (to keep up with the news).

Some places where you can find statistics or interesting research are:

• MarketResearch.com
• Marketing Sherpa
• Econsultancy
• AMAI

You can use tools like Feedly to collect interesting posts or use Google alerts to receive notifications when you publish interesting information about the topics or news you want to know.

3. Follow your competitors

This advice is more as a learning resource, it is not about developing and monitoring your competition to copy their strategies. It's about staying abreast of how they approach strategies and attract your audience (especially if your business is new).

Following your competition to know what customers think, how they catch your eye and what channels they commonly use makes it easier to focus your efforts in the right direction.

While there is no way to get accurate sales data from competitors, it is possible to know how popular your products are on e-commerce sites like Amazon.

Remember to monitor the competition to get data to keep you informed of what they are doing, not as a step-by-step guide you should follow. Every business must be original and find a value proposition that they provide to their customers.

4. Ask your audience

No one better to know relevant information than your potential clients. Although this seems obvious, some entrepreneurs overlook the process of getting opinions from real clients for fear that the results will not be what they expected. However, if you want to provide useful solutions for your customers, you need to listen to them.

There are different ways to ask questions to your audience, Quora is one of them. You can take advantage of Quora by asking questions to experts in your area, many of them take the time to respond with valuable content, or to customers.

Search for online forums or communities where your clients interact, so you can get their opinions on specific topics or ask specific questions. Also, you can have a look at reviews or reviews of products similar or equal to yours. Sites that allow users to add comments is an excellent way to get information on how people perceive the product, common issues, or what they like about a particular product.

5. Consider testing your website

Since you are going to invest a good amount of time and resources in your research, it is best that you make sure to gather the necessary information to direct your business to success.

However, it is easy to lose some detail in the process. Do not forget that important part of your business is your website, so the usability and user experience tests should not be left behind. When you are analyzing competitor sites, trends and customer comments, also pay attention to details that relate to the website.

Even if you have the opportunity to test your site with potential customers, you must, you will get valuable information to help you create a friendly site.

Start your research

Carrying out a market study is not easy, it is spatial when you are new, and you do not have a big budget that allows you to hire an agency that does the work for you. However, with a little creativity and determination, you can find the information you want.

We hope these tips will help you get started with your market research. Do not forget that this is a process you can not do without if you want your online business to succeed.

What are you doing to conduct an adequate market research? We would love to read your recommendations in the comments.