How To Pick A Niche For Your E-commerce Business

Okay, so you are tired of your office job, and you want to build a side business. Where should you start?

E-commerce is probably your best bet. Anyone can set up an online store, drive traffic to it using targeted ads, and make sales. It’s a pretty straightforward process!

However, a lot of people get stuck in the “I don’t know what to sell!” phase, and never launch their stores. Don’t make this mistake!

Here is how you can pick a winning niche for your e-commerce business…

Why do you need to pick a niche?

You might be wondering why do you need to pick a niche in the first place. After all, shouldn’t you be as inclusive as possible, and try to reach the broadest possible audience with your products? Well, no, you shouldn’t!

Trying to appeal to everyone usually leads to appealing to no one. When you have a specific niche, it’s easy to drive traffic to your store with targeted ads, and it’s easier to convert that traffic because you already know that they are interested in whatever it is that you are trying to sell. Meanwhile, if your store is basically a collection of random products without a single unifying theme, driving traffic to it and converting that traffic will be incredibly difficult. Don’t put yourself in this position!

Moreover, if you try to create a store that sells everything, you will be in direct competition with Amazon, the true “everything store”. Do you really think you can go against a company that is on track to a trillion dollar valuation? Ecommerce is hard enough as it is, there’s no need to make it even harder by going against the industry giant!

So pick a niche. The more specific it is, the easier it will be to promote your store, and the less competition you will have, so narrow it down as much as possible. That way, it will be crystal clear who your potential customers are!

Worried that your niche might be too small? Do your research on it. Are there any other stores that are doing well in that niche? If so, then it’s not too narrow, because clearly there is enough interest to fuel the growth of a serious business. Honestly, you are very unlikely to pick a niche that is too small, and you should be more concerned about picking one that is too big, because that is a much more common mistake that people make.

Keep in mind that picking a niche is the most important decision you will ever make in your business. You can’t make money by selling products for which there is no demand!. So think things through, do your research, and choose wisely. This is something that can make or break your business!

Picking a niche

You might feel overwhelmed by the importance of this decision. However, picking a niche for your e-commerce store is actually quite simple…

First, write down as many niche ideas as you can. Look at your interests, hobbies, and possessions. What are the things that you could sell online? Don’t overthink it. Let the ideas flow freely and make sure that you capture all of them.

Then, go through your ideas one by one and investigate them further. Which niches are you most passionate about? What are the best selling products? Who would be your competition? Take time to understand these things. You don’t want to jump into a niche without fully understanding its landscape!

Finally, once you have done your research, choose your niche! I’m not saying you should rush it, but at some point, you need to stop deliberating and start doing. Don’t fall into the trap of analysis paralysis. It’s just another form of procrastination. Make a decision and go with it!

You should aim to sell something that you are passionate about for which there is a lot of demand already. You see, if you only care about the passion, you might end up in a dead niche, meanwhile if you only care about the demand, you will find it hard to stay engaged. So do your best to find something that you care about that sells well!

Don’t be afraid of the competition!

One thing that is important to understand when choosing your niche is the fact that competition is good. Sounds counterintuitive, right?

Think about it. When there’s a lot of demand for a product, there will almost always be several companies catering to that demand. So don’t be afraid of the competition. It simply means that there’s money to be made in that niche!

I’d even suggest you to stay away from niches in which there doesn’t seem to be much competition because that probably means that there isn’t much demand for those products either. Don’t try to be a trailblazer if this is your first attempt at ecommerce!

Conclusion

You need to choose a specific niche and target a specific demographic if you want to get ahead in e-commerce.

However, the truth is that you will never know if your niche works until you actually try selling those products, so don’t overthink things.

When you aren’t sure which niche to pick, it’s better to just choose something, and go with it, than to waste time on endless deliberation.So pick a niche, open your store, and start driving traffic to it!

You can only learn to run a business by actually doing it. Yes, you are going to make mistakes, and the learning curve is going to be steep. But being in the trenches is better than staying in your comfort zone.

It’s 2018. Anyone can launch an online store with less than $100. It takes less than 24 hours to get it up and running. The truth is that you really don’t have any excuse. Enough is enough.  Stop dreaming about having a business… Go and start one!

The post How To Pick A Niche For Your E-commerce Business appeared first on Web Design Blog | Magazine for Designers.

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