Building a Competitive Amazon Strategy in Seven Steps
Amazon is perhaps one of the most competitive digital marketplaces and is only becoming more cut-throat by the day. According to Forbes, Amazon added 200,000 new sellers in 2020, a 45% increase from 2019.
The only thing standing in the way of becoming a consistently profitable Amazon business is a lack of a comprehensive competitive Amazon strategy. This article outlines seven actionable tips to help sellers pave the way to sustainable eCommerce success.

Selling on Amazon is arguably the easiest eCommerce way of making money. However, before you can make a dollar on the platform, you must know the kind of products to sell and fully understand how to leverage the platform to your advantage.
Whether you plan on setting up a side-business or a full-fledged enterprise, consider becoming a top-tier Amazon seller. It is one of the practical ways of doing online business, but you need to learn how to use a competitive Amazon strategy.
- What Is a Competitive Amazon Strategy?
- Sell High Value and Quality Products
- Identify and Study Your Competition
- Target Your Competitors’ Keywords With Amazon Sponsored Ads
- Set Optimum Product Prices
- Routinely Track Your Listings
- Fix Product Issues and Make Things Right With Customers
- Use Amazon Reviews and Ratings to Your Advantage
- Show Up Throughout the Buying Cycle
- Conclusion
You will inevitably face challenges that you must overcome to become an Amazon top seller. DataHawk seeks to understand such hurdles to give Amazon merchants fool-proof strategies that work for selling on the highly competitive platform.
The competitive Amazon strategy discussed below works, and if implemented accordingly, you will soon become a top seller. To learn more about developing a competitive Amazon pricing strategy, click here.
What Is a Competitive Amazon Strategy?

A competitive Amazon strategy can be defined as a long-term plan designed to obtain and maintain a competitive edge over competitors on Amazon. The outcome of such a strategy includes becoming a top-tier Amazon seller, creating a defensive position, and generating superior returns.
According to Michael Porter, a well-renowned academic known for his theories in business strategy, a generic competitive strategy comprises four business approaches: cost leadership, cost focus, differentiation, and differentiation focus.
As it pertains to Amazon, the objective of cost leadership means to become the lowest cost producer in a given industry. Differentiation focuses on distinguishing one’s product and ensuring that their products are unique and high-quality so that customers value such products over others.
The focus aspect rests on the foundation of choice; one must sell the lowest possible priced product in their category without compromising ROI while simultaneously distinguishing products from specific competitors and establishing a niche that satisfies customers’ needs.
Sell High Value and Quality Products

You can also cut your PPC spending by focusing efforts on collecting positive reviews. When done right, your customers are likely to leave a positive review. The more you get positive reviews, the higher your chances of making more sales in the future.
Whatever you choose to sell on Amazon, think about how the end-user will feel about it. You will increase sales and enhance Amazon reviews if you can personally use the product or recommend it to your loved ones. However, if you have reservations about the product, you will attract negative reviews, and soon, you will be out of business.
An effective competitive Amazon strategy is designed to give customers value. For example, consider coming up with a promo, gifts, or a beneficial PDF with helpful information about the product.
To pick a performing product to sell on Amazon, use common sense, which could be revolutionary for your customers. Keep in mind that if product manufacturers are cutting corners, the defect on the product will come out as soon as the consumer uses the product.
Identify and Study Your Competition

Therefore, in addition to optimizing your listing and making sure it is appealing, you should also go the extra mile and study what the most successful Amazon sellers are doing. For example, you can track changes to understand your competition’s listings and go back to your own to see how to make it better.
Of course, it can be tough to compete with many brands in your niche. For instance, it would not be right to pick someone selling spiritual books as a competitor if you sell fitness products. If you want to get started on the right foot, you need to identify the right competitors. To do that, you want to filter out Amazon sellers based on:
- Product features
- Number of orders generated
- Pricing
- Customer reviews and ratings
When you filter out the competition’s metrics this way, you get direct competitors selling to customers similar to yours, and you can use this aspect of the competitive Amazon strategy to differentiate your listing. Once you have identified and studied your direct competitors, the next step is to track them.
Target Your Competitors’ Keywords With Amazon Sponsored Ads
Set Optimum Product Prices

The pricing of any product is pivotal for the success of a business. How you set your prices can make or break your enterprise. Keep in mind that if you are not competitive enough as an Amazon seller, you risk losing the Buy Box along with your rankings.
If you want to stay on top and keep making sales, set a competitive price for your products. The pricing also plays a role in how your business rank on the listing. For example, if you set the correct prices, you can drastically improve your performance and seller rankings.
Set Pricing Alerts on Competitors’ Products
DataHawk’s customizable Amazon Products Alerting Tool empowers sellers to make intelligent business decisions. The tool allows sellers to monitor their competition by receiving notifications related to product price changes. Such alerts can provide you with the edge you need to strategize and boost your business ahead of the competition.
Routinely Track Your Listings

It is paramount that resolving negative reviews is part of your competitive Amazon strategy. One must address low inventory and poor ranking before they escalate into business-threatening problems. Scraping competitors’ product listings enable sellers to see their products from the consumers’ point of view. You want to get the complete picture to help you find new and innovative solutions and boost your rankings ahead of your competitors.
Amazon Scrapping
For example, analytics and optimization software like DataHawk helps Amazon sellers, vendors, brands, and agencies manage their business and simultaneously increase sales, optimize margins, boost productivity, and gain insights. Amazon scraping unveils the data you need on competitors’ prices and research. It gives you access to real-time monitoring and seasonal price shifts to enable you to provide your customers with better product offers. You can easily access the data you need for many purposes, such as:
- Competitor testing
- API creation for your app
- Comparison shopping
Using a web scraper to acquire data on your competitors can benefit your Amazon business in the following ways:
- Help you track competitors’ sales rank and profitability
- Discover competitors’ products that are doing great
- Check out top-selling listings in your category so that you can model them
- Use product search results to boost your listing marketing campaigns
- Use review information to see how management and product optimization are doing
When you are ready to use Amazon scraping, make sure to engage reputable scrapers for the best services. When done correctly, scraping can be pretty effective in staying up to date with your competition.
Fix Product Issues and Make Things Right With Customers

Keep in mind that when you make a mistake as a seller, the customer will contact the brand. You need to seize such opportunities and engage the buyer on a personal level. As an Amazon seller who wishes to be superior, you should always:
- Fix product issues in a timely manner
- Be willing to sacrifice your time to make customers’ happy
- Seek to understand your competitors’ product
- Sustain healthy relations with shoppers
Use Amazon Reviews and Ratings to Your Advantage
- The possibility of making your product better than your competitors’. When you scan through both the negative and positive reviews of sellers selling similar products, you learn to improve your product functionality and features. As you go through the reviews, sellers can also take note of features that can solve buyers’ problems as registered in their dissatisfaction with the competitors’ products.
- The amount of demand for the product; the level of demand for a product is a crucial factor, especially for more prominent brands and novice sellers trying to get their products out there. Look at the volume of engagement and reviews, and that will give you a better idea of the level of demand the product has on Amazon.
- Insights on how to build your brand by targeting the right buyer persona; you probably know that buyers’ mindsets keep changing from one product to another. For example, a customer looking for a golden ring is likely interested in style and quality instead of the price. However, a student shopping for shoes is most likely to look at value for money. You, therefore, need to market your brand and fashion it to reach your target market.
Show Up Throughout the Buying Cycle

Many aspiring Amazon sellers are looking for ways to reach more potential customers but with a tight budget. A competitive Amazon strategy demands accurate product listings. You do not want to limit your customer reach by not using branded or high-volume keywords.
When a buyer is about to make a purchasing decision, they make more specific searches. They will begin with simple search terms and get more specific once they are ready to purchase. For example, a shopper looking to buy a phone may ‘search mobile phone.’
As the buyer closes into making the purchase, they often get specific to a particular budget range or phone model. Therefore, do not hesitate to use long-tail keywords as part of your competitive Amazon strategy because they are your best bet when you are looking to generate more sales.
Conclusion
In sum, to foster sustainable eCommerce success, you should sell high-value products; identify and study your immediate competition; set optimum product prices; routinely track your listings; fix product issues; use Amazon reviews and ratings to your advantage; show up throughout the buying cycle.
Amazon is focused on more business, and part of your competitive Amazon strategy is to follow suit. By implementing the seven tips listed above, you can transform your eCommerce business and become the top Amazon seller in your product category.