One of the areas that confuse people on e-commerce business is how to pick a niche in ecommerce when all niches appear saturated. Before we move further, let us make some clarifications. No market or niche is saturated! Yes, it is a myth to say a particular market is saturated, so you will let it be. It all depends on your market angle. Have you ever heard of a man who became a millionaire from selling ordinary stones? That is the power of marketing. Nonetheless, picking the right niche for your e-commerce determines the success. And that leads us to this article on how to pick a niche.
Some think you have to go for an expensive niche, but that is not true. Iphones are costly, right, and the brand has a lot of loyal and genuine customers. But the fact is that about 50 percent of the world does not own an iPhone. So, that is not the best way to choose a niche. Instead, there are proven and seamless strategies you can follow on how to pick a niche for your e-commerce. Before that, Let us check the meaning of an e-commerce niche.
What is an e-commerce niche?
An eCommerce niche represents the specific category your business falls. As an illustration: fitness is a broad niche with many smaller niches such as food and nutrition, weight loss, exercise, well-being, physical fitness, running, abs and muscle building. So, when you choose a particular sector, everything you do will center on your chosen niche. You will focus on the niche’s qualities and the problems it solves for your target audience.
While you are sifting through this, it may look like some prospects are omitted. Do not worry. There is a market already for your niche. All you need is to focus on meeting the specific needs and solving the target audience’s pain points.
Besides, choosing a micro-niche will make you have fewer competitions, thereby ranking you higher than others.
Why do you need a niche for your e-commerce business?
While many companies like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba can sell just about anything successful, it should not be the framework for your e-commerce or startup. You need to take baby steps to ensure your business’s success. Another reason you need to know how to pick a niche is that the digital buying rate has significantly increased. Having a particular niche will open more opportunities for your startup.
Regardless, it would help if you still settled on a niche as soon as possible. Below are proven strategies that you can follow to know how to pick a niche for your business.
Follow Your Passion
It sounds like a cliche, but the easiest way to narrow down the right niche is to align it with your interests. Because it is an e-commerce, problems such as looking for the right customers and marketing your products are bound to happen. When they do, your passion and love for the niche is the only thing that can keep you motivated when the going gets rough.
Do Your Research
Making your findings is a way of knowing what has been going on and what will happen in the supposed passion that you pick. Conduct simple keyword research on the niche you choose. Let us say, for instance, Exercise. You will get a series of results from the search engine on Finance.
Now that you have the result, it is still not enough. You will probably be looking at a broad category like exercise to lose weight, women’s workouts, and exercise benefits. Then try a more specific keyword like ‘Types of Exercises.’ Good, right? We are now getting more and more precise. Then you keep narrowing it down until you find a valuable topic.
Research Your Competition
If you want to know how to pick a niche, you need to check what your competitors are doing. Your competitors here are companies, individuals in the same niche as you are, or who offer the same products and services. If it looks like the industry is full, you might not want to go into it. However, should you decide to go into it, you will know the hurdles you will cross.
First, you need to use Ubersuggest and SEMrush to check the keyword generated in (2). For instance, type “Types of Exercises” in the search box and click on search. You will get a lot of data on your search item. Scroll down to the section of ‘organic result.’ Right there is where you find your biggest competitors. And you can decide if you can compete with them or not.
Go for a high Product.
If you are not going to make some dough, why go for a business? Many startups believe that selling a thousand or a hundred or a low-priced product is the best since they are just getting started. They figure they will get past the price objection of consumers – instead, you should target high-money products.
Although you will have to make a thorough analysis of the consumers’ behavior to get it right, you will get easier. Doing constant promotions, writing sales letters, speaking to consumers on the phone will open more opportunities to scale your business than you think.
Have Resources and Access in Place
Another way you can beat the competitor in your niche is to have resources and assets in place. For instance, let us assume you want to sell women’s shoes. You can charge more if you sell women’s vegan shoes, which is more profitable than selling all women’s shoes. Now, if you already have a vegan certificate, you will have edges over others and have a buck of money quickly.
Go an extra mile
When I say no market is saturated, it means there are angles you can take to beat the competition and come up with an advanced formula for your business. For instance, fitness is one of the most saturated niches ever. Yet, new companies are coming up every day. For example, while many people are exploring fitness for kids, you can narrow yours down to fitness for special needs kids. Some parents go for any exercises because they do not see a
better alternative.
Before dollar shave come, there have been many shaving sticks out there that are probably better. However, they came up with an advertisement for a quality shaving stick that goes for a dollar, which the company will send to your doorstep. Is that not awesome! If you can develop innovative ways to push your products across to consumers, you are good to go!
Start from the Problem
As a business owner, your service is to the consumers. And that means you have to make sure your product benefits them one way or the other. Your product must solve a particular problem or pain point of the consumers.
If you are into fitness for special needs kids, what will the exercises do for them, and why do they need them? Dig deeper into your consumers’ pain points. Parents with special needs kids may need more home exercises than outdoor. You could provide an answer to this pain point by delivering indoor workouts for special needs kids. Sometimes, a consumer may not even realize there is a problem. You have to dig out the problem and make them see it.
Take a Stroll
Yes! Walk down your neighborhood to check out some existing businesses. They have more to teach than you realize. Pay close attention to what is working for them and what is not. See how you can build a successful eCommerce from their ways. Who knows? You might see a niche working well in mechanical engineering, then make an eCommerce out of it.
Follow the Trend
Checking the trends is a great way to check the popularity of your niche, which can fall or rise at any time. To get reliable results, you should use Google Trends to analyze your options across regions and languages. Google Trends uses graphs to compare the search volume of different users’ queries, so you can know how valuable the keyword is. Type your keyword in the search bar. You can check trends from a particular country, region, or language. A holistic data should guide you to your next step in e-commerce.
Get a USP
USP is what sets you apart from others. Every product has its USP. As an illustration: You are passionate about the exercises, your strength lies in thorough research about workouts for special needs children, and the market needs access to indoor activities for special kids.
Conclusion
Your e-commerce niche will determine your business success. That is why you need to get it right by knowing what it is and how to choose the right one. Choose a broad niche, keep narrowing it down till you get it right, do your research, go for a high product, identify the consumers’ pain points and find a unique way to enter the market.