Retail Market Research, Business Market Research, Market Research Strategy

Market Research Consultant

Whether it is a new business or a new product or a new market, it is market research that could reveal whether customers will accept the idea or not. Failing to read the market and the market trends could be a make or break factor for businesses. Even the grandest of the brands are not immune to the market realities. From something as simple as adding a new item into a restaurant’s menu to taking a business offshore, market research is required to understand and assess the viability of such business decisions.

What has drastically changed over the last two decades is the growing importance of the internet and online platforms like search engines and social media in understanding collective customer behaviour and preferences. And thus, of the two main types of market research, secondary research is emerging as the more effective and efficient one for both domestic and international market research. Even the top market research companies are aware of the rising trend in online business market research.

For a retail business market research is crucial. It will help you to understand the consumer’s choice and preferences. Be it online or offline Retail Market Research is essential before starting a business.

Challenges in Market Research

Challenge with primary research

In market research, the single biggest challenge is the logistical barrier. Businesses have two options here - primary research or secondary research, done in-house or through the services of market research companies. Prosperous countries in Africa like South Africa, Morocco, Namibia, Tunisia, Rwanda, Senegal, and many others have over 50%+ internet penetration. These countries together are home to about 140 million people. Another advantage of secondary research is time-saving and economy. So, what is a challenge as primary research becomes an advantage with secondary research. Many entrepreneurs see this as a roadblock instead of adopting the smarter route. Retail Business Market Research will help you to understand the market better to start your own retail business.

Mapping competition

Gauging the intensity of competition is never easy. This has to be done on multiple parameters like product-line competition, pricing competitiveness, competitor’s influence over the supply chain and distribution channels, brand perception of the competitors, competitors’ channel-wise performances, and so on. Businesses, domestic or foreign, often have to rely on the limited perspective offered by the market research firms and are left high and dry on expert and actionable insights pertaining to retail and eCommerce. They may never get to correlate the recommendations with statistical validation on something as critical as competition mapping.

Comprehending pricing strategies

Understanding the quanta and frequency of existing businesses tinkering with their price tags sheds light on the prevalent market structure or system, regulatory intervention, nature of consumer behaviour to price changes, rigidity in the costing side, etc. Comprehending these elements involves some amount of experience and expertise. Done right and it could help a business formulate effective pricing strategies.

Forecasting Demand and Trends

Determining the size of a market is really an open-ended thread. All one can do is start looking in the right direction. It may not be always possible to know what numbers your competitors are selling. But that would not reveal the market’s appetite or potential. It would also not divulge the potential demand for a new product or throw any light on which direction the market trends are shifting towards.

If you are planning to start your own retail business Retail Market Research Strategy can be formulated through keen Retail Market Research

Understanding the market situation and business positioning

The potential of a business or product idea is relative to the market situation. If the UVP is strong for a given market, the idea can be expected to work well. The opposite is true for when the niche is weaker. So, a business’s UVP and brand positioning strategy are highly dependent on the results of a market research. The depth of the significance of good market research is often undermined.

Missing actionable information

A business is facing attrition of employees’ is information. ‘A business is facing attrition due to poaching’ is a better piece of information because it leads to a possible actionable scenario. If a market research is only a shade of numbers and statistics alone, it is no less than a dictionary without alphabetical order; with important content but of hardly any utility. Good market research must lead to insights for informed decision-making.

How YRC can help: a glimpse

YRC’s retail market research services deliver a thorough and comprehensive assessment involving the key market variables leading to actionable insights and not just presenting a blend of statistics. Our motto in retail market research or eCommerce market research is not only to present the market realities with facts and figures but also to help clients in informed decision-making. Here’s how we do it.

Market Overview

Our Retail Market Research Strategy follows a multi-layered approach for market segmentation that includes types of distribution channels, product lines and product categories, groups of end-users (gender, age groups, etc.), product features, etc. A detailed segmented view helps in better targeting and brand positioning.

Competition Analysis

We know how important it is for any business to decode competition to be able to formulate effective marketing strategies. For better product/service design, pricing decisions, channel strategies, or branding and promotional campaigns, competitors analysis as a part of a market research is a must and it is an integral part of our market research service.

Sales Channel Analysis

All products need not perform equivalently well on all the channels. We shall assess and identify the best channels for different product lines. This will include formulating a comprehensive channel strategy for brick and mortar, eCommerce, and omnichannel.

Demand Analysis

Accurate demand forecasting is one of the cornerstones in assessing the commercial viability of a business idea or marketing initiative. Our demand analysis goes beyond stating systematically-arrived numbers and shall present demand statistics across product lines and segments.

Price Analysis

The optimal price range is the space within which a business can tinker with the price tag. If you fail to maintain margin flexibility, you will also fail to counter competitors’ marketing tactics with price variations. Our price analysis covers not only the factors of costing but also various other market dynamics including competition for sales maximization and long-run profitability.

Trend Analysis

As businesses, we must always bear in mind that customers nowadays do carry out their own bit of research on the internet. They search for relevant content, compare products, read reviews, post queries, and so many other things to make informed purchases. We strive to keep our trend market research assessments relevant and up to date.

SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis could be considered as the report card of market research. It must reveal the position of a market and the industry in the light of what it means for a business enterprise. This is exactly what we intend to cover in our SWOT analysis.

Recommendations and CTA

Based on our research findings, YRC will present its recommendations and Call-To-Action. Our market research activities may end here but our perseverance to serve our clients from ‘idea’ to ‘implementation’ shall go on.

We are a boutique retail consulting firm. To know more about our services or if you have any query, drop us a message and we will get back to you.

Market Research