9 Ways to Check Your Gift Basket Competition
Whether you’re new to the gift basket industry or a veteran designer, you’ll either be: 1) the new competition that existing retailers watch, or 2) a veteran retailer watching the new competitor.
How to Start a Home-Based Gift Basket Business includes a chart to document everything you find out about the town newbie. Here are nine ways designers tell me they spy:
1. Call to ask theme questions or to learn if the phone is manned by a live person or machine.
2. Enter the store posing as a customer (supermarket executives do this all the time at new supermarket openings).
3. Send a friend or family member into the competitive shop for a look around.
4. Attend the grand opening or open house event.
5. Pay a college student to monitor the store’s walk-in traffic on a weekday and weekend day.
6. Visit the county clerk’s office to review the store’s recorded vital statistics (this public record is open to everyone).
7. Learn (by phone, review of public records, etc.) if the store has a Web site, and review the online location.
8. Set up alerts in Google and Yahoo! to learn if store management releases grand opening news to the media.
9. Monitor your local newspaper for new store announcements.
Above all, I endorse respect for other people’s property while completing your research. No questions outside of what a customer would ask, no hidden cameras, no sabotage.
This past summer, a rivalry ensued between two ice cream truck drivers who sold their frozen products to the same community. One accused the other of assault and showed police where the competing driver allegedly hit him in the head.
It was all a hoax.
The injured driver hit himself in the head to try and remove his competition through arrest. He was charged with issuing a false report and paid a stiff fine. None of us need to go that low when competitors come to town.
Curiosity about a new store is natural. You want to know why an owner chose to open in your area and will do what’s possible to learn the truth. How do you complete your espionage?
Related Article: Competing with the Real Competition
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4 Responses to “9 Ways to Check Your Gift Basket Competition”
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Gift Basket Books
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Welcome, from Shirley George Frazier
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Drop Shipping Sources
Hi Shirley,
I’m not good at espionage so I just walk in and identify myself to new competition in town. But instead of asking questions about their business, I ask how I can help them as a fellow business owner.
This will open the door to learning about their business, but with the intent of cooperating, referring or maybe even partnering.
Some business owners will be shocked by this openness and will fear that there is some trickery involved. But most appreciate the straightforward approach and will become an ally instead of an enemy.
Hi Flora,
What - no binoculars, no spy cam?
Okay, I’ve never used such technology, but over on this end of the U.S. (east coast), I don’t know of one designer who would not be suspicious of the competition entering their shop, even with olive branch extended.
Hey designers, is Flora’s method more your style, or do you wear dark shades as cover?
I have met several of my “competitors” while attending local business meetings and classes. I always introduce myself and exchange business cards with them. People are always amazed by this, but I believe you gain more by becoming an ally than an enemy. You never know when you’ll get a big order and run out of a necessary item; having a local basketeer who may be available to help pack a megaorder also never hurts. Each business has its own style and customer. If you compete only by price, you can never win. If you recognize each “competitor” has having the same challenges as you, you can better empathise and find win-win situations for both of you. I also refer customers to gift basket businesses closer to where they need the basket to go to save them hefty delivery fees. Remember, you can’t possibly be all things to all people!
This is wonderful news on how you build your business by creating allies rather than take a defensive approach.
You’ve explained this masterfully, and I can tell that this attitude wins you a lot of business and referral sales.
Fantastic!