Choosing a niche for an online store

Question

Electronic commerce

How important is it - a good choice of niche?
Let's say if I try to sell laptops now, how difficult is it?
What percentage of success is occupied by a niche and how to choose it correctly?

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I decided to add one of my comments to the post

... it's clear that many factors play a role in success. I'm also interested in how important the choice of product is. For example, does the narrowness of the niche affect the size of the margin? If I have a mediocre site, then where are the chances of getting a client better? In a competitive niche due to random sales or in a narrow niche due to the lack of an alternative? What are the main reasons for the emergence of niches? according to the idea, the market should quickly balance supply and demand, but some events are constantly taking place in the world (an explosion at focusim) and the market is losing balance (a sharp increase in demand for dosimeters), since what are the main factors for the presence of niches, they haven’t come there yet, there are too it is difficult to start, they have recently appeared and people have not had time to orient themselves yet ... something else?

Answer 1

I am not an expert, but if you are guided by common sense, then the niche greatly affects. Laptops are in demand, but the market is too competitive. You will have to work hard to attract buyers. Usually these are some kind of promotions, better service for the same amount, etc. On the other hand, if you choose a more specialized niche, the number of customers will be very limited. But if the competition is not big, the chance for a big profit is higher.

Answer 2

Well, if everything was so simple...
There are no ready-made recipes. No one will tell you the percentage of success, it is impossible to estimate.
Being guided by common sense - probably, it is important.
The more popular the product, the more buyers, the more willing to sell it, the more difficult it is to get promoted.
For a specific topic, the number of competitors can be estimated through market.yandex.ru/
The popularity of a topic can be estimated through the service wordstat.yandex.ru/
But again, if there are few competitors, although this is attractive, a catch is possible. Either a serious threshold for entry in terms of money or some other parameter, or low interest from buyers ...
In general, there are no other ways but to try.

Answer 3

Divide and Conquer (c)
The principle of occupying a niche comes down to finding a unique difference. Those. there should be something in your store that would distinguish it from others.
The most common differences are price (cheap price always attracts), proximity (orientation to a specific region / city) and quality (discounts, free delivery, repairs, etc.)

Answer 4

Here is a wonderful study habrahabr.ru/post/139752/

Answer 5

I'm busy with the same problem right now. The old shop works in too narrow a niche. I don't think I should try something wider.
In general, you need to answer 4 questions:
1. What is the size of the market? (you can search for open data, the turnover of market leaders, if a narrow niche - estimate by wordstat.yandex.ru)
2. What is the average margin in the niche? (request wholesale prices from suppliers and compare with retail prices)
3. What share of the margin does marketing eat up? (do research through Yandex.Market \ Direct \ Adwords \ Begun. SEO will be cheaper, but long and risky)
4. Where are the suppliers and under what conditions do they agree to work. If you can sell from the supplier’s warehouse and without prepayment, then this is chocolate. If the suppliers are only foreign, and there are no official dealers in Russia, this is an ambush, in addition to the warehouse, you will also have to organize imports, and wait for deliveries for 2 months.
The principle is simple - with a large market volume (the same laptops), competition is higher, margins are lower and marketing is more expensive. Accordingly, even to break even, decent turnovers are needed.
In a narrow niche, the margin is higher, marketing is cheaper ... but even if you are a monopolist, you will not earn millions. It’s good if you find a supplier in Russia…

Answer 6

A very broad question.
In short, yes, it does.
The more competitive the niche, the more money and buyers in it. Let's say the market for carbonated sweet water - everyone knows what it is, everyone knows why, everyone knows what they want. To break through there, you need to be able to differentiate from competitors and conduct competent marketing
. The narrower the niche, the easier it is. However, there are fewer buyers and fewer random sales. In general, you also need to invest a lot of work, but of a different nature :)
Each niche is good in its own way, you need to be able to correctly present not just a product, but an offer.
Read books on marketing - it is explained in great detail there.
Or learn from your own experience

Answer 7

It is better not to enter the market without its preliminary research - you will simply lose your starting capital.
You still start selling snow to the Chukchi or selling medicines without a license.
At a minimum, look for suppliers, see the difference between their offer and the market price of the sale - this will be your margin, which you will need to fit into.
Also see who else is selling the same product - if it is in every doorway, then why will they buy it from you?
Well, and so on ...

Answer 8

As the owner of an online store and offline outlets, I can say that an offline outlet brings much more money. But for this, of course, more resources are needed - employees, shop windows, a place in the end.
Once I started with only one online store - now I have a large office and a retail outlet in a shopping center.
I would not advise you to get involved with electronics - competition is great in any region. Chain stores are flooded + the markup is minimal.
I recommend to pay attention to the market of gifts and souvenirs. The margin is usually at least 100% (with rare exceptions) and sometimes more than 200%.
I invite you to take a look at my proposal .
Among my clients all over the country there are many success stories when they started with online trading, stocking goods on the balcony, and now they have their own warehouses and stores.