6 Parameters To Determine A Profitable Niche For eCommerce

Ecommerce, an offshoot of the internet boom is one of the fastest growing industries in the globe. According to a recent survey by Statista, around $1.86 trillion was the transactional value of e-commerce sales all around the world in the year 2016. This figure is expected to rise in the coming few years to around $3.9 trillion by the year 2020. If you are in the plans to launch a new online store, you will have to decide on what you are planning to sell. With the eCommerce industry starting to get crowded with time, choosing the right niche is the first step to success.

Let’s take a look at a few guidelines that will help you to zero in on a viable and profitable niche for your eCommerce venture or help you with new business ideas.

Market Demand

Before you start selling your product online, you will have to study the market and make sure that there is demand for your product in the market. One of the most simple ways of doing it is to check Google Trends. If your products are related to the existing trending topics, then you can proceed further. Popular topics on social media, though temporary, if studied properly can give you themes on people’s interests and unmet needs. Try online tools like Trendsmap to do exactly this. Check out the best selling products on existing eCommerce sites like Amazon, eBay and Etsy.

Drop-Shipping

Drop-shipping is the latest trend that allows you to sell items online without having any physical inventory. What it means for your business is that you can run your online store from any place without having to worry about inventory management on a minimal investment. In addition to that, you will be able to sell a really large variety of products at no extra cost. Always be on the lookout for items that have the potential to be drop-shipped, right  from the warehouses of the wholesaler or manufacturer. This in turn will help you to lower your operating costs, thus increasing your returns.

Value

The ultimate aim of your eCommerce shop is to make sure that you make a profit out of it. Therefore, you should take extra effort to make sure that your product pricing is right. Make sure to sell your products with a decent margin. If this is your first time running an online store, take utmost effort to price your products in the right bracket. Avoid cheap products as they offer very low overall margins.

Customer Retention

When you are choosing products to sell, try to avoid products which will be purchased only once and never return. Instead, try to focus on goods that you will be able to cross-sell, bundle-sell or up-sell. Giving a prompt while users are in the checkout process, will increase the likelihood of them adding those extra items to their purchase list, increasing your profits.

Scaling

When you are looking to grow and scale your firm over time, you will have to answer several questions before that. Do you think your product have mass appeal? Will it work as good in a physical store as well? What is the potential for growth in the future? What are the chances of increasing your product portfolio while scaling? Having a product portfolio that is scalable over time will allow you to make good profits over time.

Value Added Services

One of the innovative ways to add value to your service is by providing added information about the products that you are selling through your store. It is advised that you sell products that you have tried out yourself. This will help you to talk from personal experiences on how the product works and why it will help in improving customers’ lives. Such testimonials from your part will add authenticity and build trust with your customers over time and could impact your sales positively.

I hope this article was useful for you to learn about the the parameters to consider while choosing your eCommerce niche.. If you have any doubts with regards to this or if you are still unsure about its efficiency, let us know through the comments and we will be glad to help you out. If you have any suggestions regarding how we can improve the article, let us know them through the comments as well for us to improve.