How To Research The Competition For Your Fashion Business: A Blog Post That Outlines The Process You Should Follow When Doing A Competitor Analysis For Your Fashion Brand

One thing that fashion businesses often struggle with is conducting proper competitor research. Needless to say, conducting competitor research for a fashion business is crucial for the success of any marketing strategy. Competitor research means to identify who your competitors are and what they are up to. 

Doing this will help you narrow down your competitors' list to identify your direct competitors, those you are competing with by offering similar products.  However, the process of competitor research is easier said than done. Narrowing down to your fiercest fashion business competition can be tricky. Below we have presented the various ways by which your fashion brand can conduct efficient competitor research. 

1. Social Media

Social media platforms are one of the best ways to ensure proper competitor research. Whatever type of fashion business you may be, it will be a terrible mistake to ignore the power of social media. 

You can learn a lot about prominent competitors by visiting their business profile pages on popular social media platforms. Some of these popular platforms are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, etc. This will give you a very good idea about who your direct competitors are.

Instagram, in particular, has been found to be a particularly good platform for conducting research on competitive fashion businesses. This is because of the presence of a large number of fashion brands on this platform. Similarly, other platforms like Twitter and Facebook are also very efficient for conducting fashion-related competition research. 

On Twitter, using specific hashtags can present a multitude of fashion brands similar to you. Consider that you are a clothing business that specializes in vintage clothing. In such a case, you may search for topics like #vintageweardesigner, #vintagewearbrand or #emergingvinatgewearbrand, or #upcomingvintagewearbrand. 

Pinterest is another amazing social media platform for identifying competitors. Here, there is no need to use the "#" sign!

 One thing that you need to keep in mind while searching on social media platforms is that your competitors are of the same level as you. For example, if you are a new-entry fashion business, then make sure to look for businesses that are similar to you. Here, a well-established company can be considered your competitor but not your direct competitor. 

2. Online Marketplace

An online marketplace is an e-commerce site that facilitates a connection between sellers and buyers. People also refer to it as an electronic marketplace. Here, the management of all transactions takes place by the website owner. 

The online marketplace is an easy and highly effective way to find competitors. There is hardly any clothing business that won’t be available on an online marketplace in the current era. 

But what are good online marketplaces to conduct competition research? Well, you can try popular online marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and Moda Operandi. These are all very reliable places to conduct competitor research.

3. Industry Events

Attending industry trade shows is a great way to learn about competitors. Various types of clothing manufacturers are present at such events, consequently, many clothing businesses attend as well. This would be a great opportunity for you to identify relevant apparel competitors. 

You can also talk to clothing manufacturers in person to learn more details about competitors. The manufacturers can tell you about the performance and capacity of your competitors. 

4. Your Clients

This is one of the old-fashioned ways to identify clothing business competitors. What you have to do here is simply ask your clients regarding their shopping choices. This would provide you with reliable primary data from which you can identify your direct competitors. 

The locations which your clients use for shopping could well be considered as your direct competitors.  You may ask relevant questions like what makes your competitors unique or why do they prefer it? Seeking answers to such important questions will enable you to prepare for efficient manufacturing and marketing techniques.

Conclusion

Any fashion business can derive plenty of benefits from competitor analysis. Thanks to the advent of modern online channels, the process of fashion competition research has become a lot simpler. Hopefully, the ways mentioned above will be beneficial for your fashion brand in competition analysis.

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