Big brands are your only competitor that matters

In the software industry there are three main competitors for every piece of software:

1. Hiring someone to do the work, like an intern
2. Excel, Sheets, Word, and other general purpose tools
3. Just ignoring the problem

There is very little head-to-head competition except near the top. Most of the competition comes from someone doing it manually or creating something custom built. Both of which are more expensive.

For CPG stores and any Shopify store selling their own products your main competitors are:

1. Big brands
2. Forgoing the product

That means your marketing has to overcome inertia. Either the customer has to start consuming something new or switch from what they are currently consuming.

Both can be really difficult, but once you win a customer you'll still need to keep them. There's always the risk of a customer going back to the familiar big brand they can find everywhere or just stopping with your product.

That's why a solid customer development strategy needs to be in place to keep the customer responsive, buying from, and remembering your brand. You'll need to constantly monitoring their loyalty and try out new things to keep them around.

As for the rest of your "competitors", they really don't matter that much until they are much bigger brands. You could even partner up with them and work together on campaigns.

Eric Davis