Nick Latourette

5/23/2009

Competition

The primary objective of my sight is to provide a variety of DNA testing kits that I can sell directly to the user. After scouring the Internet I found that potential competitors to my own website fell into two distinct categories. The first category is comprised of sites that offer reviews and promote different gene testing kits. These websites are mostly blogs, like ThinkGene.com, and don’t actually offer any products. One of the few commercial websites in this first category is Genteology.com.

Genteology.com is a website that does not only pedal gene testing kits but also books and videos. The site offers users resources on genealogy, including articles, links to other informative websites, and updates on genealogical researching projects currently underway. They also include a calendar that posts genealogy related events. I came across this website via a link research page, meaning that Geneteology.com is already well established.

I have several strategies in mind to beat out this pre-existing competitor. For one thing, my site will offer an introduction to DNA and genetics so it can be used and understood even by those who have no previous experience in genetics. Also, Genteology.com, unlike my website, fails to address the social and ethical issues that its users may have about the products it is offering. The products page of my website will also be superior to that of Genteology.com because it will offer user reviews for each product. Finally, my site has the advantage over this one because it offers a wider variety of genetic testing kits. Genteology.com only offers genetic testing kits that give users information about their ancestry. My website will not only offer genealogy tests but also medical and miscellaneous (interesting tidbits about your genes) DNA testing kits. In fact, this combination of all the kinds of DNA testing kits sets my website apart from all of the other similar websites I have found (Including GeneticHealth.com and GeneticTestingKits.com).

The second category of competitors that my website will have to beat out will be the product sites themselves. My site plans to make money by offering a selection of gene testing kits that have recently appeared on the market. Consumers buy products from sites like mine, instead of directly from the company websites, because they are able to view and compare a large selection of items at the same time. However, the lack of variety amongst DNA testing kits my site can offer limits this value and gives the user little incentive to buy the products from me rather than their respective manufacturers. This means, at least initially, I will have to still view the DNA testing companies themselves as potential competitors.

 Evan without a wide selection of products my site can still offer the user more than the product websites. Although it cannot be considered unbiased, my website can still provide more objective information than the companies manufacturing the products ever could. Providing customer reviews and a couple critical assessments of each product will help my website gain the trust of my users and encourage them to buy products from my website rather than the company. My website also addresses social and ethical issues, which the company websites do not.

The novelty of the items offered on my website means that I do not have many competitors at this point in time. Many companies have suggested that they are in late stages of development of gene testing kits.  As more of them release their products, more sites that resemble mine will inevitably appear. This website is a little before its time and establishing a hold on the market early will be a significant advantage over future competitors.