The success of a business is determined by multiple factors, and one of them is precisely market research. You might think that innovative products, a well-functioning website, or partnerships with popular influencers are the key to your business’s success. But how would you reach all that without serious research? Besides helping you stay one step ahead of the competition, good research also gives you the ability to anticipate and reduce risks and challenges along the way.
Over the years, the Sameday team has helped numerous entrepreneurs expand their businesses with reliable and fast deliveries. In our conversations with different business owners, we see one common thing – thorough research and a well-thought-out action plan are the most reliable paths to success.
In this article, we have prepared everything you need to know about how to conduct market research, what it includes, and what the steps are to achieve quality results and take your business to the next level.
Also known as marketing research, this is the process of collecting valuable information that helps you better understand your target market. In other words, if you plan to start a business – regardless of the field – your first step should be market research. It will give you answers to key questions such as:
What are the needs of the consumers?
What improved products can you offer?
Who are your competitors?
How can you improve the customer experience?
How do you attract potential buyers?
What are the most suitable marketing strategies to increase conversion rates?
These are just some of the guidelines you should consider when conducting such research, but comprehensive analysis also includes elements such as the social, political, cultural, or technological context, known as PESTLE analysis.
Based on all the collected information, you will not only have a complete perspective on your business, but you will also be able to outline a much more realistic marketing strategy, business plan, and development plan.
In addition, market research will help you analyze additional factors that can affect your business – such as choosing a courier service. Product delivery is more than just logistics – it directly affects sales and customer satisfaction. Good examples of this are our services easybox and Sameday point.
Research shows that businesses offering our lockers as a delivery option can increase their sales by up to 25%. The reason? Customers love the freedom to pick up their orders at a convenient time for them, without having to adhere to the couriers’ working hours.
You might think that your business is doing well without investing time and resources in market research. In the long term, however, it is extremely important. Without it, it is difficult to understand in detail what your customers want, how to improve your products according to their needs, and how to reach them more effectively to increase your sales.
In short, here are the three main reasons why market research is important:
Most companies today use a customer-oriented approach, focusing on the needs and expectations of their clients. Research shows that companies with such an approach generate 60% higher profitability. But to successfully apply this approach, you will need the corresponding information and data.
Conducting market research will not only provide you with statistical information about your customers, but it will also give you valuable insights into their preferences and needs, allowing you to highlight them in a way that attracts their attention. With the gathered information, you can create a marketing strategy that turns potential success into reality.
Market research is not only for entrepreneurs who are just starting their business or launching a new product. Regular market research can help you discover new growth opportunities, such as: untapped parts of the market, potential business partnerships, or what needs to be improved in existing products to increase their success.
Risks come with running a business, but there are many ways to minimize them, and one of them is conducting market research. This method will help you determine whether there is demand for the products you want to sell, as well as where to find potential customers.
The reality is that around 95% of new products launched each year fail, and the most common reason is that despite innovations and great features, the product fails to capture people’s attention. You may have thought about creating an innovative device or a unique business with niche products, but the fact that something is original does not necessarily mean it will be successful. That is precisely why it is important to conduct thorough market research before starting to execute your action plan.
A complete and comprehensive market research contains information from several key areas of importance for any business, such as:
Industry and external market environment – The goal here is to understand which external factors (economic, social, technological, and political) can affect your business and to prepare strategies to adapt to them.
Customers – The goal is to build the most complete and realistic profile of your buyers by studying their needs, preferences, and behavior. This will help you offer products and services that are exactly in place.
Competitors – The goal is to analyze your competitors, understand the advantages they offer, and determine how you can create a competitive edge with your products, services, or marketing strategies.
At this stage of your market research, you should review as detailed information as possible about the political, economic, social, legal, and cultural framework of the regions or countries in which you want to operate. External factors can affect your business more than you imagine, so it is recommended to start your research with them. If you decide to operate in a foreign market, then do not forget to add religion to your checklist.
Here is the main information about the industry and external environment to include in your market research:
Laws and regulations regarding business;
Market demographics (gender, age, income);
Market size and trends (e.g., the market tends to be larger during a particular season than another);
Marketing channels;
Sociographic data (e.g., beliefs, attitudes, interests, lifestyle, behavior, habits).
The more information you have about your customers, the more accurate your buyer profile will be, which will help you target the right people. Who, when, where, and how potential customers should be part of your market research for a given product.
Here are the main categories of data to consider when researching potential customers:
Demographic data of buyers: This includes information such as age, gender, income level, education, and location, which can help you understand who actually buys your products or services.
Social and lifestyle trends: Understanding social influences, hobbies, interests, and lifestyle of your customers, which will help you determine how to position your product or service in their world.
Needs, expectations, and perspectives: What are the primary needs and expectations of your potential customers? What problems do your products or services solve for them, and how do they view your offering?
Attitude toward your brand, competitors, or similar products: What is the perceived value of your brand in the eyes of customers, how does it compare to competitors, and what is their willingness to choose you over other market options?
This part of market research involves collecting as much information as possible about your current and potential competitors, whether direct or indirect. Before you start the data collection process, it is advisable to review research that has already been conducted.
Here is what you need to know about your competitors to compete effectively in the market:
Current market share: Understand how large your competitors’ influence is compared to yours. This will show you what part of the market is already occupied by them and how you can position yourself to gain more customers.
Pricing: Know your competitors’ pricing policies and the differences in pricing offers. This will help you establish your own strategy.
Offered products, services, or experiences: Understand what products or services your competitors offer. What makes their offerings unique, and what can you do better or differently?
Courier services used: Since logistics play a big role in customer satisfaction, it is important to know which courier services your competitors use. This will give you information on how to optimize your own processes and offer a better service.
Marketing, promotion, and branding mechanisms used: How does the competition promote their products or services? What advertising strategies do they use and which communication channels do they prefer? Understand what works for them to discover how to stand out with your brand.
To compete in the market, you need to know your competitors down to the smallest detail. Only then will you know how to position and differentiate your brand from others, so that current or potential customers choose you.
People usually think that market research is only needed when starting a business. The truth is that it is just as useful when planning to launch a new product, change your marketing strategy, or enter a new market.
In addition to these cases, there are many other situations where thorough market research can be extremely useful, such as:
Discovering new customers and the best ways to reach them.
Analyzing existing customers – what makes them choose your product over a competitor’s?
Setting realistic goals and KPIs with clear, measurable indicators.
Recognizing new growth and expansion opportunities based on collected data.
Developing effective strategies, considering past and present trends.
Identifying major business challenges and finding the best solutions.
Assessing expansion potential – whether through new products, entering foreign markets, or strategic partnerships.
In other words, market research is not only for startups but also for businesses of all sizes. Whether you have a company with one employee or one with hundreds or even thousands, analyzing the market will help you find new growth opportunities, identify threats or problems, and also find the right solutions and, last but not least, maximize your profits and productivity.
If you want to understand more about your business or improve its effectiveness, you can conduct market research yourself. Although there are companies specializing in this field, sometimes the budget is limited, and the best solution is to perform internal research.
Here are the main stages of market research that will help you obtain comprehensive and useful information without missing anything:
The key to effective market research is correctly defining the problem. If you do not have a clear starting point, you risk collecting inappropriate data that will not give you useful answers.
To fully understand a problem, you need not only to identify it but also to find its root cause. Often, business challenges require a broader view – for example, if your sales stagnate, the reasons may vary: changed customer perception, intensified competition, new players with better prices, or even external factors such as the economic situation.
By analyzing these aspects, you will be able to make informed decisions and apply the best development strategies.
After analyzing possible causes of the problem, the next step is to create a plan for gathering information and finding solutions. Choose appropriate methods to obtain the necessary data and implement effective strategies.
Here are the most used techniques in market research:
Interviewing potential and existing customers
Conducting a survey that many people will respond to
Conducting tests to collect information related to your offerings
It is important to keep in mind that research can be qualitative, quantitative, subjective, or objective. For example, interviews will give you customers’ honest opinions, but this does not always reflect the general trend among all buyers. Therefore, it is crucial to choose the right technique depending on the purpose of the research – what do you want to achieve with it?
Usually, market research for a given product is based on quantitative data such as numbers, percentages, or exact indicators, rather than qualitative data such as observations or opinions. Nevertheless, experts recommend combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. This way, you will get not only numbers but also valuable insights and opinions that can help optimize your business.
Regarding interview questions, they should be clearly formulated and neutral so as not to influence participants’ answers. For example, the question “Do you think product prices should be lower?” may provoke an affirmative answer and distort the results, which is an example of subjectivity.
Once you have collected all the data and information, all that remains is to analyze it. When analyzing a series of data, it is important to look for trends or patterns, not a specific part of the information. If you focus only on one aspect, you risk losing the big picture or making hasty and unsustainable decisions over time.
It is important to remember that the goal of market research is to get a clear idea of the business and opportunities, not to confirm your own beliefs. If the hypothesis turns out to be wrong, do not try to change the data or interpret it to meet your expectations. You should strive for objectivity and use the information to make informed decisions.
It is not enough to generate a report with all the data and then continue with your business. The most important part of the entire process is to take action based on the information and conclusions.
Once you discover what is not working, create a well-structured plan with specific strategies and tactics that will help you solve the problem. For example, if ads do not reach your target audience, the first step is to analyze what is preventing reach and then develop new advertising strategies or adjust targeting. A similar approach can be applied to other business areas, such as management, accounting, or customer service. The key is to focus on finding the right solutions and creating a plan that will help you improve these processes and achieve the desired results.
Now that you understand what market research is, why it is important, and the main steps for collecting valuable data and information, all that remains is to get to work. Market analysis is not just a task of collecting data in Excel, but a true source of inspiration and opportunities for business growth. It gives you a clear idea of what works, what doesn’t, and how you can adapt to changing conditions to improve your productivity and competitiveness.
Through such research, you can discover new opportunities you have never thought of, as well as identify problems you never imagined but that require quick attention. Only with constant analysis will you be able to stay one step ahead of your competitors, generate more sales, and offer your customers products and services of the highest quality.
And since quality products and delivery are closely related, start delivering with Sameday now and delight your customers with a complete experience: a quality product, delivered in record time and in perfect condition! Choose the convenience of our easybox and Sameday point services to make every delivery even closer and more accessible.
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