Case Study: Competitive Analysis - University living

Objective

To perform a brief competitive analysis of the University Living business landscape and identify growth and improvement opportunities. 

Method

A 4 steps method is used for this analysis as follows:

1. Identify competitors

2. Strategic Differentiation

3. Comparative feature analysis

4. Identify the scope of value offerings.

Comparative Analysis of Value proposition

We can analyze the value proposition based on 3 parameters:

● Strategic differentiation

• How our current product is strategically placed i.e. What is our model? ○ Is it different from other competitors' models in terms of revenue generation?  What are the pros and cons of it

• What is the geographical footprint?

● Functional differentiation

• How is the product placed in terms of features and services offered to the customers?

• Is there any differentiating feature? if there are which are those for each of them and based on heuristics which has the most impact?

• What kind of functional service is a strength of the product and should be adopted as soon as possible 

● Actual Product Usage Experience ( UI/UX)

• How are the user experiences of the Products Different 

1. Identify Competitors

Through a collection of Google keyword searches, the following competitors are identified: 

1. Amberstudent - https://amberstudent.com/

2. Uniacco- https://uniacco.com/

3. Nestpick-  nestpick.com

4. Spotahome - spotahome.com

Website Analysis of University Living Among Competitors duration (Oct-22 to Dec 22)

Disclaimer- Website traffic analysis doesn’t give the complete picture of whole business operations (Marketing and sales (inbound + Outbound)). Hence, certain observations based on this data would need more input for deeper discretion. 

Overall  traffic performance comparison 

• Spotahome, Nestpick, and Amber students are globally popular. 

• However, University living is second only to Amber students in India. 

Traffic and Engagement

•  University living falls 5th in global traffic (in comparison to these 5 platforms). 

• Nestpick and Spotahome prove to be global leaders. 

Geographical distribution traffic among the top 10 countries

Geographical distribution of University Living website traffic

• India, the US, and Australia are the top 3 regions visiting the University Living website.

The above metrics gave us a brief overview of web traffic distribution on the 5 student accommodation providers that helped us gain a rough idea about the market distribution of the 5 companies. However, this does not represent actual sales and other important metrics. 

2. Strategic differentiation

University living	Offers housing and accommodation targeting the student market.  Provide a variety of value-added services around the core value proposition.
Uniacco	Offers housing and accommodation targeting the student market.  Provide a variety of value-added services around the core value proposition.
Amber student	Offers housing and accommodation solutions targeting the student market.  Provide a variety of value-added services around the core value proposition.
Nestpick	Aggregator of housing and accommodation from other providers such as Amber student, Uniacco, Roomstay, etc. It’s like Trivago for housing and accommodation spread primarily across Europe.
Spotahome	Offers housing and accommodation solutions to the general market not targeting any specific niche.

Key Takeaways:

• University living, Amber Student and Uniacco offer housing and accommodation services targeting the niche market of students. 

• Nestpick is an aggregator platform that fetches offers from housing and accommodation service providers. Like Trivago does for hotels. 

• Spotahome offers housing and accommodation solutions to the general market not targeting any specific niche. 

• From Web traffic analysis, the Top 5 countries where University Living is active are India, the UK, Australia, the US, and Sri Lanka

3. Comparative Feature analysis: Functional features with user experience

Features/Company	University living	Amber Student	Uniacco	Nestpick	Spotahome
Room replacement	Yes	No	No	no	No
International Money Transfer	Yes	Yes	No	no	No
Room essentials	Yes, Selling directly at our e-commerce.	yes, But partnered with kit providers and the student has to request for quotes. This gives options to students however, this breaks the intended action.	No	no	No
airport pickup	Yes, contactless option.	Yes, but students have to request quotes. That breaks the user's intended action.	No	no	No
Education loan	Yes, the Best feature integration with UI	Yes	Yes	no	No
Student internships	Yes	Yes	No	no	No
Forex	Yes	Yes	No	no	No
Health insurance- oshc	Yes	No	No	no	No
International SIM	Yes	No	No	no	No
Job search	Yes	No	No	no	No
guarantors	Yes	Yes	No	no	No
student bank account	Yes	Yes	no	no	No
Travel Insurance	Yes	No	yes	no	No
luggage storage	Yes	Yes	no	no	No
food hub	Yes	No	no	no	No
Visa assitance service	Yes	Yes	yes	no	No
Scholarships	Yes	Yes	Yes	no	No
Mobile app	Yes	No	No	no	No
Price match guarantee	Yes	Yes	Yes	no	No
No deposit	No	no	yes	no	No
No visa no pay	no	no	Yes	no	No
No university no pay	No	No	Yes	no	No
User experience rating	User experience builds more trust at first experience. With features and services integrated in a user-friendly way such that every service is easy to find and access. Hence, 5	user experience is user-friendly and easy to use. However, the services are not integrated as compared to University living. Hence, 4	User experience is not immersive. It's a collection of pages with CTA to reach out. hence. 3	User experience is good and services and features are easily accessible. hence 3	User experience is remarkable.. Unable to access offerings comfortably. Hence, 2

Key takeaways: 

• In comparing features, the University beats all the platforms providing all necessary services specific to students looking for education abroad. 

• Uniacco offers economic benefits such as No Visa No pay, No deposits, and No university no pay, which differentiates it from competitors.

• Nestpick and Spotahome being generic housing providers don’t provide value-added services catering to the student segment. 

4. Recommendations (based upon both website and mobile app)

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To improve engagement.

1. Mobile app -  Offer internship recommendations to mobile app users based on their location and education. This has the potential to increase user retention on mobile applications. 

2. Mobile app - As the B2C market segment is moving towards community-driven. We should have a Community Forum feature to build a community of users where users can chat, and help each other. This feature has 3 main benefits: 

3. It may help build a long-term relationship with users and organization. 

4. It may help us learn more about user requirements and behavioral patterns

5. In the long term, this opens a gate for potential consumers (acquaintances, relatives, friends of current users, who might avail of our services)

To improve user acquisition-

1. Certain questions are required to understand the situation better

2. What is the current marketing strategy? Is it different based on the region?

3. What is the operational model of the organization across the regions?