Small business retail advice: how to compete with big business competitors

Here at Tower Systems we only work with and support local retailers ranging from small shops to modest size family businesses with several outlets. We don’t sell to big business.

We have seen many local retail businesses compete with big businesses. The most successful have done well by not competing directly.

This is our advice today. if you have a big business competitor, spend less time looking at them and what they do and spend more time on what you do and how you can make your business more interesting, useful and healthier, because the healthier you are the better you will be.

Don’t compete on price. Price based shoppers are not loyal. They are not.

Be smart about this. Compete on value as value is appreciated. People who experience value will vie back again and again.

Using our Tower Systems POS software you have a range of options for competing on value. yes, the software itself helps you do this. It has facilities built into the software than enable this, that help you pitch value at the transaction level and after the transaction.

Small business retailers often express frustration at big business competitors: they have more money for marketing, get better supplier deals and often have lower overheads per dollar of revenue.

In our experience, there is little to be gained from worrying about these things, which we cannot change. There is more to gain from focussing on points of difference we can leverage.

For example, using our POS software, you can bundle items to make price comparison difficult or impossible, you can offer a loyalty pitch big businesses will not offer, you can be flexible in how and where you pitch products while big retail businesses are structured and, usually, inflexible.

Bundling is particularly useful as you can create a bundle unique to your business, which feels like it is a value proposition unlike anything they have seen to that point. While this is a product by product task, it is in these small steps that you can find success, by changing shopper perspective and winning business more direct competition may have denied.

The best way to compete with a big business is to not be in their lane. Create your own lane, your own playing field where big businesses are air a disadvantage. Our Tower Systems POS software can help you do this.