Knowing exactly what product to offer these days can be very difficult; especially when you can find everything online. You may be thinking " this person is already providing this or that" or " I can find this product with this business and that business", so why should I do same? I believe these, and many other questions and thoughts, go through your mind each time you think about running an online business.
Before going into today's topic, I would like you to know that the online retail market is so wide that there are enough rooms for each and everyone of us.
Let's find your perfect product (s) - Niche
In finding the perfect product, you must start by asking yourself the right questions.
What product defines me best, my passion and my belief? How will I position myself on the online retail market? What should my business be known for?
To position yourself as an online retailer, you must be known for something, a particular product. Whenever that particular product is mentioned or searched online, your name or store should show up on the list. Your product should define you, your belief, your passion and your domain of expertise. In my blog post "Why should you start an online business?" I wrote about how important it is to love and be passionate about the product or service you'd want to sell or offer, same applies here. Your product should be something you are very much passionate about and in love with.
Now that you have an idea of what kind of product you want to offer or on what domain you want your business to focus on, let's narrow it. Have you heard of the term "niche" ? If no, let me explain it to you.
A niche is that specialized segment of the market for a specific category of products/items.
For example, if you are passionate about home deco, what segment of the home deco market, will your business be focused on? The segment you choose to deal in, is your niche. In this example, the list of niches will be as follow:
- Artificial flowers
- Paintings
- Blinds and Shutters
- Ceramic & Porcelain Vases
- Mirrors
- Frames
- lights
- Holders
- All other subcategories or type of item falling under " Home Deco" are niches under this category.
Let's look at another category such as "Women clothing", the list of niches will be as follow:- Casual wear
- Women sets
- Women panties
- Women sleepwear
- Jumpsuits & bodysuits
- Women coats
- Bra & brief sets
- Leggings
- all other subcategories or type of clothing falling under " Women Clothing" are niches under this category.
One interesting thing here is that, you can find a niche under another niche. That is when you want to narrow your selection and stand out in your choice of products.
Let's take for example, "Women Jewelries" which is a niche under the category of "Women Accessories". Here we would get niches such as earrings, rings, necklaces, bracelets, bangles and all other type of jewelries.
So, if you choose to specialize your business on " Women earrings", that is your niche. If you choose to focus on "Women's Accessories" in general, that is also your niche.
You may ask, why focus on a niche when I can sell many other products?
Focusing your business on a particular niche, demonstrates to your customers that you are an expert at what you are offering them. You will stand as the best option compared to another business that offers different types of product. They can easily identify to your brand and products, and remain loyal to you. Also you can easily have high profit margins.
Now that you have discovered your product, how profitable is it? You need to make enough research online to see how demanded is your product (s). The higher the demand, the more chances you have.
There are online tools one could use in determining the demand or the trend of a particular niche. I will elaborate more on that in my next blog.
When it comes to finding your product, choose a specific category or domain you feel very much comfortable with and have enough knowledge about; list all the niches one could find under it, and select the most demanded or the most profitable niche.
Do you own an online retail business? or planning to do so? Do you want to improve on your online retail business skills? if yes, then feel free to join our telegram community, where we will all be learning on improving our skills and taking our businesses to the next level.
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