Finding Your Niche: Is There a Suitable Market for Your Product?
Thursday, June 16, 2016Lauren Macdonald
How to Become Niche Market Leader With eCommerce
So you’ve decided the eCommerce marketplace is the right business model for you—Terrific! But now you need to think about the products you’re going to sell and ensure they are products that people are interested in and willing to spend money on.
The best way to make your eCommerce business a successful one, is to make sure you find your
Niche Market. This means determining a small market segment that your product features will be aimed at satisfying. You’ll want to take into account the specific market needs of your target consumers, such as price range, production quality, and the demographics that your product is intended to impact.
So now you’re probably wondering how you should determine your niche market. One way is to vet your products against the following 5 conditions:
Condition 1: Added Value
The first thing you should ask yourself is whether or not your product has the potential to add value to those who purchase it. Whether your product is one that will solve a problem someone is faced with, help improve something they’re passionate about, or just make their life easier in some way, shape, or form, you need to identify and show potential buyers exactly how the product will be of value to them.
Condition 2: Market Size
If you go after a market that is too small, your product will not be of interest to enough people to make your business profitable. If you’re going to sell something online, there needs to be a demand for it in order to justify your effort. However, if your market is too large, there is a chance you will bite off more than you can chew and the amount of competition out there will be too stiff.
Here’s some tips on how to gauge a market’s size:
- Use Google’s Keyword Planner—If people are frequently searching for keywords that match your product description, that’s a good sign.
- Use social media—Are lots of people sharing/talking about products similar to yours?
- Do some independent research—Take a sample size of people and survey them to see how many would consider buying your product.
Condition 3: Trends
You don’t want to choose to sell a product that is going out of style. You can use
Google Trends to search for keywords related to your product and get data on their popularity across a long period of time. What you’ll want to do is make sure your product is growing in popularity so that your business will continue to grow and thrive in the future.
Condition 4: Competition
Having competition is a strong indicator that there is money to be made in this niche. If other people are selling something similar to your product, then there are most likely buyers out there willing to purchase that product. Check out our blog on how to identify your competition
here. Once you’ve identified your competition, you should analyze them and figure out how you can surpass them. One way is to
stay ahead of them in search engine results.
Condition 5: Potential for Repeat Sales
Ask yourself whether your product is one that you can sell over and over again to a customer that has purchased it in the past? This is one of the most ideal types of products to sell because it is income that will just keep coming!
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While there is always a lot to consider before starting an eCommerce business, evaluating your products against these 5 conditions is a great place to start in order to be successful. What strategies have you used in order to identify a niche market for your business? We want to hear your suggestions!