Finding a specific niche is the first step to start an eCommerce business. You can simply observe it by looking over all the successful eCommerce businesses around you. E-commerce giants like Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, and Rakuten all started with a niche.
You will have a good chance to succeed by choosing a targeted audience and selling niche products. But this can be tricky because you will come over a long list of all of your passions and interests.
What is a niche
A niche can be defined as a specialized market or category that attracts a specific audience. The success of a new online business depends mostly on targeting the right people and niche. It focuses only on a fraction of the market. Niche selection helps to narrow the customer and helps to concentrate more on business. You might suffer if you choose all the products and categories out there instead of a specific category. Cause this will definitely increase the workload and you will end up with nothing.
Identify your passion
This the most important part of selecting the proper niche for your eCommerce business. You need to find a niche that suits your passion as it will help you grow your business and you won’t let go of it in the middle of the path. Following your passion increases the confidence in yourself. Build your brand on something you personally like and it help you to find the perfect customer for your products more easily. You will be understand their demands and expectations. Thus, it will result in quality product and services. Which you spread the name of your brand and bring more customers eventually.
Observe your competitors
You can learn a lot by examining and observing their websites and studying their way of marketing. It’s a smart move to join their email lists and follow them on social media.
Some other things to observe:
- Their niche targeting and strategy.
- What kinds of offers and promotions do they offer?
- How often do they communicate with their customers?
- Is their marketing so good that it drives you to buy their products or not?
- How are their customer support and refund policy?
- What do their customers have to say about their product?
Steps for choosing a Niche
You need to start by making a list of possible niches for your business. Find out the interests that you already participate in, hobbies that you can turn into a business, specialties, or training that you already have, and previous work experience that can be turned into a business.
Now, choose the top five ideas that you are most interested in and want to turn into a business. Pick a topic that you are passionate about because running a business takes a lot of time and commitment. If you don’t enjoy the niche, you won’t be much motivated to work hard to make it successful.
Once you have shortlisted the ideas, it’s time to do research on them to see which one has the best potential to turn into a profitable online business.
- Google search the popularity of each idea: You can look for a topic on search engines to find out how popular it is. Also, do Google search for keywords related to your niche. Keep an eye on a robust search results page: articles written about the topic, blogs, websites dedicated to the topic, products, and other online businesses in that niche.
- Don’t hesitate if it has good competition: Competitive niche means there is a market interested and ready to buy. If there aren’t any results for your topic, probably there aren’t many potential customers online.
- Keyword research: Try to use a keyword resource, such as Google AdWords Keyword Planner to search for the keywords you already looked up. You need to find popular search terms that lots of people are already searching for. A niche is considered strong when it has 10,000 searches per month for the main keyword and 50,000 total for related keywords.
- Do offline survey: Make time to visit your local stores or marts. If there are publications or products that cover your niche, then it is probably profit potential in that market. You can also look for digital products related to that niche or industry. This will help you to establish your expertise and market your business.
- Check affiliates: Search for affiliate marketing sites like Clickbank for products related to your niche. If there are many products available, that means you already have a ready market.
- Engage on social media: Search on social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook to see what hashtags and contents are related to your niche. And which are more popular and how many people follow or use them. This will definitely give you a good idea of how large the audience for your topic is.
While doing all this research, search for a broad topic as well as more specific aspects of that niche. This will help you narrow down your niche to the area that will be your specialty.
Once finished with your research, you will have a good idea of which niche is going to be the most profitable for your online business. You will also have ideas for products you can sell and what type of customers are interested in your niche. You can also use the keywords for search engine optimization.
With all this information, along with a clear niche, goal, and purpose for your business, the process of launching and growing your audience will be quicker, smoother, and more profitable.
Conclusion
The e-commerce niche you choose will define your business. That’s why you need to determine what it is and learn how to select one.
Choose a niche that already has a lot of assets and resources. Also, consider approaching it with an innovative standpoint.
Look beyond the category and focus on solving your potential customer needs. Don’t forget to look around the neighborhood and track recent and long-term trends.
Let us know which e-commerce niche is the most appealing to you!
