Marketing & E-commerce Monitoring: which media to follow?

Market intelligence is an essential practice for companies, regardless of their size or sector of activity.

It consists of monitoring and collecting relevant information about your market and your competitors, but also of following the major trends and developments related to your sector of activity.

Let’s take stock together of the different media on which you can carry out comprehensive and effective market intelligence work.

Why is it so important to carry out constant monitoring?

Understanding the market

Market intelligence enables companies to better understand their market, including customer needs, preferences, emerging trends and growth opportunities.

Knowing the competition

Conducting market intelligence also allows you to monitor the actions and strategies deployed by your competitors, to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and to adapt accordingly.

Make informed decisions

Having up-to-date information will provide you with concrete elements enabling you to make more informed decisions in terms of marketing, product development and commercial strategy.

Anticipate changes

Marketing intelligence helps to anticipate market developments and prepare for potential changes, enabling a faster response to new opportunities or threats.

Identify new opportunities

Constant monitoring can also help you to identify new market niches and potential new partnerships, as well as enabling you to discover innovative ways of promoting your products or services.

Better understand your customers and the needs of today’s consumers

By conducting market research, you will be able to identify the best trends in your market and thus offer products or services that more precisely meet the needs of your customers.

Boost the overall performance of your e-commerce

Through a comprehensive analysis of the various elements mentioned above: market, competitors, trends, etc., you will have all the cards in hand to adapt your offer to the needs of your customers and increase the overall performance of your e-shop.

Which media should you follow to conduct effective e-commerce/marketing monitoring?

There is no shortage of monitoring tools, but here we have listed the main media you can rely on to help you in your deliberations.

Communication media of your CMS: Shopify, Magento, Prestashop, etc.

It may seem obvious, but it is a good idea to follow the various communication media of your CMS, whether it be the newsletter, the blog, the community or physical & digital events.

• announcements of new key features for your CMS
• advice articles on how to best manage your business (legal, logistics, marketing, etc.)
• customer case studies using your CMS to help you find inspiration & learn about best practices

E-commerce media

In addition to the many topics covered in the E-commerce / Retail / Marketing media, key aspects are present that are not always relayed in other media, in particular:

• Topics related to economic/geopolitical news
• The relay of research work: for example, market studies on a particular sector, reports related to consumption, computer graphics on the key figures of a commercial event of the year (Black Friday, for example), etc.

Here are a few examples (non-exhaustive) of marketing/e-commerce media to follow for your market intelligence work:

• E-commerce Nation
• E-commerce Magazine
• E-marketing.fr
• Journal du net

Podcasts

Podcasts are a great monitoring tool, ideal if you’re in a hurry, but still want to find inspiration and take a step back, which is often necessary.

With generally short formats (although this is not always the case), podcasts can be listened to anywhere and can even be followed while doing something else.
Here are a few (non-exhaustive) examples of inspiring e-commerce/marketing/entrepreneurship podcasts to listen to without moderation:

Here are a few (non-exhaustive) examples of inspiring e-commerce/marketing/entrepreneurship podcasts to listen to without moderation:

• Le Panier
• Les Digital Doers
• The Secrets of e-commerce
• The e-commerce café

YouTube channels

That’s right, YouTube isn’t just for watching videos of funny cats and innovative make-up tutorials!

Here are a few examples of inspiring E-commerce/Marketing channels you can follow:

• StrategeMarketing
• Yomi Denzel
• Web Marketing Tuto
• Yann Leonardi

Social networks

Social networks are obviously also an excellent way to carry out effective monitoring of both your sector of activity and your competitors.

• Access to information in real time
  Social networks are often used to share news and updates in real time. By following reliable sources of information, you can be quickly informed of relevant events in your area of interest.
• Following trends
  Social networks allow you to see what is popular and trendy. You can identify the hot topics of the moment, which can help you adjust your monitoring accordingly.
• Follow experts
  Many influential people share their expertise on social networks. By following them, you can get valuable information, analysis and opinions on specific topics.
• Interact with the community
  Social networks offer the opportunity to discuss and interact with other professionals and enthusiasts in the same field. This can help you get different ideas, recommendations and perspectives.
• Personalise your information flow
  By using the personalisation features of social networks, you can create an information flow that precisely matches your monitoring needs.
• Competitive intelligence
  You can follow your competitors on social networks to obtain information about their activities, announcements, trends and strategies.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many relevant media available to enable you to carry out the most comprehensive and effective monitoring possible.

• Newsletters from Marketing, E-commerce & Entrepreneurship experts
• Webinars and other online events
• Physical events such as trade fairs: Paris Retail Week, One To One Retail E-commerce in Monaco, etc.

Remember that regular monitoring will only benefit your business and help you better understand your marketand adapt your product/service offering more effectively to your target audience.