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4.3 Selecting and Developing a Product

The selection of the right product is critical.In fact,the choice of a product can make or break your business.With the right products,you even stand a better chance at keeping your customers.The idea is to keep your customers forever by continually offering them a valuable product,thereby diminishing your costs of reaching and appealing to them.Wise product selection is therefore the key to your business success.

How do you choose the right product to sell? Here are a few tips to help you narrow your focus and hopefully select the product that will work for you.

4.3.1 Website Positioning

Website positioning is a series of activities which implies choosing the target market or target users for your website.The core of website positioning is to find or build the core differences of the website,and then establish a brand image and a concept of differentiation in the mental model of consumers.

(1)Category Correlation Analysis

In terms of category correlation,it can be divided into boutique stores and pan-product stores .Boutique stores focus on the selection of products to create a single category of products,thereby driving the whole vertical market.Pan-product stores are difficult to become popular,but their product lines are richer.

(2)Product Category Analysis

Firstly,you should select a category related to the market you want to enter.Secondly,you need to find out which products are most concerned and loved by customers.Finally,look at the classification of each sub-category under the main classification,and dig down layer by layer.

4.3.2 Industry Analysis

To run your store efficiently,you need to know your market dynamics.Industry analysis is crucial for sound cross-border e-commerce management.Porter's five forces analysis(Figure 4-6)is the best way to learn about your industry.

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Figure 4-6 Porter's Five Forces Model

(1)Intensity of Industry Rivalry

There are multiple factors that can impact the competitive intensity within an industry:concentration of rivals,product homogeneity,consumer switching costs,excess production capacity,brand loyalty,network effects.

(2)Threat of New Entrants

The threat of new entrants is impacted by things such as:brand loyalty,cost advantage or economies of scale,switching costs,network effects,excess production capacity,government regulation,barriers to exit,investment in specialist equipment,high fixed costs,specialized skills.

(3)Bargaining Power of Buyers

Buyer power gives buyers the ability to squeeze industry margins by pressuring the suppliers to reduce prices or increase the quality of services or products offered.There are four major factors to consider when determining the bargaining power of buyers:number of buyers relative to suppliers,dependence of a buyer's purchase on a particular supplier,switching costs,backward integration.

(4)Bargaining Power of Suppliers

The bargaining power of suppliers refers to the pressure that suppliers can put on companies by raising their prices,lowering their quality,or reducing the availability of their products.There are five major factors when determining the bargaining power of suppliers:number of suppliers relative to buyers,dependence of a supplier's sale on a particular buyer,switching costs of suppliers,availability of suppliers for immediate purchase,possibility of forward integration by suppliers.

(5)Threat of Substitutes

There are three factors that can determine the threat of substitutes:consumer preferences for substitutes,relative price of substitutes,switching costs.

4.3.3 Product Development Analysis

(1)Product Development

Product development typically refers to all stages involved in bringing a product from concept or idea through market release and beyond.There are many steps to this process,and it's not the same path for every organization,but these are the most common stages through which products typically progress:

·identify a market need - often associated with a product requirement document(PRD);

·quantify the opportunity;

·conceptualize the product;

·validate the solution;

·build the product roadmap - can identify which themes and goals are central to develop first to solve the most significant pain points and spark adoption

·develop a minimum viable product(МVP)- the safest way to test an idea without risking all your money;

·release the МVP to consumers;

·ongoing iteration based on consumers' feedback and strategic goals.

(2)About PRD

①What is PRD?

A PRD is an artifact used in the product development process to communicate what capabilities must be included in a product release to the development and testing teams.

②What goes into a PRD?

The following is a basic outline of what should be included in a PRD:objective or goal;features; user experience (UX)flow and design notes; system and environment requirements;assumptions,constraints and dependencies.

4.3.4 Tools to Data Analysis

Data analysis is a process of inspecting ,cleaning,transforming and modeling data to discover useful information for business decision-making.

(1)Google Trends

It allows the users to see how often specific keywords,subjects and phrases have been queried over a specific period of time.

(2)SpyFu

SpyFu exposes the search marketing secret formula of your most successful competitors.

(3)KeywordSpy

You can get information about secret formulas that the most successful website owners are using for better exposure and lead generation .

(4)Alexa

It helps to get a free,automated website analysis to quickly gain insights into a site's strengths,weaknesses and digital marketing opportunities.

(5)Seller Center of AliExpress

It can provide the important data for sellers to realize the goal of digitalized operation. Hss0XT+jv2tzyhNNT0hULkVJVVZa6pKH04oY/lAofr7byzKBlwOhY1i+dJ9Ym6i4

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