Who are the major competitors in your industry? How do you find out?
Industry Codes ~ see next box
Mergent Online ~ Company & Industry Analysis Reports • Data on millions of public and private international companies • Select Industry Analysis tab to search for your industry (e.g., Textiles, Retail) • Selection Region - North America • Click Search
Conduct a keyword search using keywords about your business. From here, you can narrow the results further by redoing the search in the map or by clicking “All Filters” and using available options.
Know your Industry Codes before you begin your research.
There are two kinds of industry codes that you should know about - the Standard Industry Code (SIC) and the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Both codes are standards used by the federal government and private agencies in order to organize industries into like categories. All industries, whether they are manufacturing or service industries, can be found using one or both of these codes.
The SIC was established in 1937 by the U.S. Department of Labor and is used by both government and private agencies to classify industry areas.
NAICS was established by the Office of Management and Budget in 1997 to replace the SIC as new industries were created. It was created to compare business statistics among the North American countries.
SIC
5941: Sporting Goods Stores and Bicycle Shops
5661: Athletic Shoe Stores
NAICS
451110: Sporting Goods Stores
448210: Shoe Stores​
ReferenceUSA contains detailed information on more than 14 million U.S. businesses. ReferenceUSA records contain contact information, corporation information, company descriptions, management directories, and competitors. ReferenceUSA records allow users to view a company’s Corporate Family Tree. The custom search feature in ReferenceUSA allows users to set up a personalized search form to help identify and compare companies. Custom search options allow users to limit search results by business type, geography, business size and ownership type.
After launching ReferenceUSA, click on the link for "US Businesses" and then the tab for "Advanced Search":
On the Advanced Search page you can build a search that includes limiters for geography (zip code and radius from zip code), SIC/NAICS code (Business Type), and company size.
Click on Update Count (blue) then View Results (green).
Reference USA lets you download/export up to 500 company records at a time into excel. You can slice the data even further by looking at the other options available in the Advanced Search, just remember to Update Count when you add criteria before View Results.
Please remember that brand names and company names are not always the same and that not all of these companies are competitors.
