How to Grow Your Market Share [+ Market Share Calculator Tool]

We’re told not to compare ourselves to our neighbors. That’s sound life advice, sure, but in the business world, it works a little bit differently.

To become a household name like Airbnb, Google, or Uber, you need to find ways to reach and appeal to the mass market. Then, you’ll need to have tactics and tools in place to convert that interest into sales, while at the same time focusing on online lead generation to future-proof your business.

From product innovation to price cuts, there are various effective strategies to grow your current market share. Here’s what you need to know about market share, a formula and calculator for working it out, and what to do if the number fails to impress your stakeholders.

Market Share: How to Grow Your Share [+ Market Share Calculator Tool Included]:

What’s Meant by Market Share?

Market share refers to the percentage of a market’s sales that a specific business can claim. It’s usually calculated for a set period of time, such as a quarter or year.

Let’s say you operate in the energy drink industry. If consumers buy 100,000 energy drinks per quarter and you’re responsible for 60,000 of those sales, it means that you have a market share of 60%. In this case, you can regard your business as an industry leader as you boast a large market share.

How Do You Work Out Your Market Share?

Working out your market share is pretty straightforward. All you need to do is take the total sales revenue of your business for a given period and divide it by the total revenue generated by your industry for that specific period of time. Then, take this answer and times it by 100 to get a percentage.

You can also tweak the formula slightly to work out how you compare to leaders in your industry. To do this, you’ll take your market share and divide it by the market share of your biggest competitor and times the answer by 100. This answer will show you what percentage of the market you claim in comparison to your biggest rival.

Alternatively, you can simply use our calculator. Not only is our Market Share Calculator free, but it will also free up time that you can devote to growing your market share (which gets covered in the next section).

How Can You Grow Your Market Share?

After you’ve worked out your market share, what’s next? You focus your attention and resources on growing it, of course. Study the following six tips and decide which approach makes more sense for your business or try a combination of a few.

1. Innovate

Whether it’s your product range or the way that you produce your products, there are multiple ways that you can incorporate innovation. Not only can it help to offer more value and/or an improved customer experience, but it also helps to differentiate you from competitors.

You can, for example, explore the possibility of adding augmented reality (AR). This type of innovative technology can be especially useful if you operate in the fashion or furniture industry. Artificial intelligence is another area to explore and is already used by several businesses to drive digital transformation. A tool like AI chatbots can increase customer satisfaction while decreasing workload.

In addition to helping you appeal to your current customer base more, innovation can also attract new customers. If your product in the past didn’t quite appeal to a certain group of customers, introducing a new element can attract their attention.

You can also specifically look at how technology can help you to make your website more accessible, whether that’s to mobile users or consumers with a disability. By ensuring that all members of your target market can interact with your website, you’ll be able to reach more. Plus, since there’s an increased focus on diversity and inclusion in marketing, it will also show to others that you’re an evolving brand looking to impact local communities positively too.

2. Prioritize customer experience

Customer experience is directly connected to cart abandonment, conversion, and customer loyalty. To generate more sales, it should be easy for customers to make a purchase. It’s that simple.

If your website is slow to load, they’ll go to your competitor.

If the checkout process is complicated, they’ll abandon their cart. And, if they really need that product, they’ll buy from your competitor.

You get the idea.

Every time that you lose out on a sale, your market share shrinks and your competitors’ shares grow.

3. Engage more

Whether it’s via social media or surveys, find ways to interact more with your existing customers. Not only will this help to drive customer loyalty, but it will also reveal ways that you can improve your offering and attract more sales.

To do this effectively, you’ll need to know via which channels you’re attracting customers. For example, if Instagram is your primary source for driving new leads, ensure that you have an active presence on this platform.

4. Explore the possibility of acquiring another business

If the market is less competitive, it’s easier to grow your market share. Buying other businesses in your niche can help you to “cancel out” rivals. On top of that, you’ll also get access to useful resources like marketing strategies, a team of experienced leaders, and, of course, a list of customers.

The truth is that there are several small businesses that don’t have the means to grow or simply aren’t interested in becoming a market leader. Many of them, though, will be interested in giving up their business for the right price.

5. Charge less

To grow your market share, you don’t necessarily always need to do more. It could be as simple as lowering your price.

This approach, however, won’t work for all brands. It’s also not always the best idea to go with the approach that requires the least effort.

That said, it’s still an avenue worth exploring. After all, to stay competitive in your market, your products need to be competitively priced, making it a viable strategy for markets where the competition is fierce.

Your goal should always be to offer value to your customers. That said, it doesn’t have to be solely in terms of asking price.

You can also explore the idea of offering discounts or other types of incentives from time to time. If your customers feel that they’ll be getting more value by buying from you, they’ll support you over your competitor, even though you’re charging the same price.

You can, for example, explore the idea of adding free shipping. A popular approach is to link this offer to a minimum spend. In this case, your customers are perceiving that you’re charging “less” for shipping than your competitors, even though they have to spend more to unlock this benefit.

6. Use data

Data can give you a competitive edge over your rivals. There are many ways in which data can help you. From major considerations like which marketing channels to zoom in on more to “minor” details like which color to introduce next to your product range, there are many choices to make and data-driven decisions will help you to focus your resources on what’s working.

You can, for example, check out a tool like PipeCandy, an eCommerce and D2C brand encyclopedia. It’s used by a brand like Microsoft that has a market share of over 70%.

It offers a marketplace intelligence platform where you can find insights on millions of online retailers. It also includes products like PipeCandy Analyzer (for Amazon product-level sales and market share estimates) and PipeCandy Researcher (for eCommerce trends and market share estimates).

Another tool that you can try is Pacvue Commerce, an enterprise software solution and one of the leading market intelligence tools. It includes a wealth of data that you can use to make informed business decisions, grow your share of voice and sales as well as lower your costs. Some of its standout features include customizable reports, side-by-side channel performance summaries, and competitive intelligence and benchmarking.

10+ Interesting Market Share Stats to Show You What’s Possible:

To give you a better insight into what market share looks like in real life, here are some interesting market share statistics that apply specifically to the eCommerce industry:

1. China has the biggest retail eCommerce market share, claiming nearly 50% of the market.
2. The United Kingdom generates just over a third (36.3%) of retail eCommerce sales, placing it in second position after China.
3. Somewhat surprisingly, the United States is only in seventh spot. South Korea, Denmark, Indonesia, as well as Norway are all ranked higher in terms of their retail eCommerce share.

Here are some other key figures about other popular industries that might help you to settle debates over who is bigger (not necessarily the best, though):

1. When it comes to computer operating systems, there’s no real surprise. As of the beginning of 2023, Microsoft Windows boasts a market share of 70.39%, making it the most widely used OS across the globe. Apple is in second spot. 
2. When it comes to internet browsers, Apple once again needs to settle for second place. As of May 2023, the Google Chrome browser had 63% of the internet browser market share versus the 21% market share of Apple’s Safari browser. All the other browsers have a market share of less than 5%. 
3. We all know that Google is the leading search engine, but just for giggles, here’s by how much. As of April 2023, its search traffic share was nearly 94%. Only 2.79% of internet users “Binged” information, while Yahoo!’s share was a dismal 1.1%. 
4. When it comes to tablets, Apple can finally claim the biggest slice of the pie. As of the end of 2022, Apple was the leading tablet vendor with a market share of nearly 50%. This number was calculated using the number of global tablet shipments. That should settle the Apple vs Samsung debate, at least for now.

By tracking changes in sales, you can also make predictions about market sizes and shares. Here are some noteworthy performances and forecasts to consider:

1. Since 2019, the global influencer marketing market size has more than doubled. It’s estimated that it will exceed $21 billion in 2023. 
2. Between 2023 and 2027, it’s expected that store-based sales for household and petcare products will decrease by 6%, proof that online shopping is expected to increase in popularity in coming years. 
3. The global ride-sharing market is predicted to grow by over 130% between 2022 and 2028, with Uber, Lyft, and DiDi being key leaders.

Wrapping Things Up

Keeping track of your market share allows you to see where you rank and compare against your competitors. If you’re unimpressed with your percentage, use one of the strategies discussed to boost brand awareness and acquire more customers.

If you’re happy with your current percentage, you can’t sit back and expect it to stay like that. In this case, your attention will shift to customer retention. Now is also the ideal time to see how you can improve your product.