So, you’re considering launching your first drop shipping store.
Naturally, there are lots of concerns to address (I guess that at least a few of them are covered here), but exactly what troubles you the most is the predicament: what to sell in your shop? We comprehend how essential it is for drop shipping business owners to come up with the ideal idea for their future stores, which is why we have a whole blog area dedicated to the methodology and suggestions for a smart item choice.
Still, there is one problem we haven’t gone over yet, and today, we will talk about it specifically.
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What type of business to choose: a general or a niche store?
When our custom-made store development specialists begin working on a new task, one of the very first concerns they ask the customer is “Exactly what do you want to offer in your store?” Remarkably enough, one of the most typical answers is … “Whatever”.
It means that the customer wants to release a so-called general shop.
Exactly what is a basic store?
As you have actually probably guessed it already, a general store is an online marketplace that is comparable to an offline department store (the only difference is that an online drop shipping store typically doesn’t offer food and beverages).
An extremely vast array of customer products, from socks to light bulbs, can be found in a basic store: these store owners assume that a great deal of items is a winning strategy due to the fact that a passerby site visitor ‘is guaranteed’ to get thinking about something and put an order.
Are these presumptions real?
General store advantages
There are a number of reasons for a business owner to launch a general drop shipping store:
- No research is strictly necessary
Actually, to begin a successful company of any kind, you have to carry out at least a fundamental research to understand the market patterns, the item provides, and the customers’ preferences.
When you begin a general shop, you don’t always see the requirement to discover anything about the market: you simply fill your store with any items that got your attention, and wait for the purchases.
- The product option is substantial
With a basic store, you can add definitely anything to your product offering. Thanks to wise technical solutions, you can fill your general store with the preferred items actually rapidly: in a number of clicks, you can import an unrestricted number of AliExpress goods to your very own store, and let your site visitors take pleasure in a range of various products.
- The circle of prospective purchasers is truly broad
If you sell lots of different items, you can anticipate definitely different people to come to your store and make purchases from you. You are not working with a tiny client section; instead, you are basically dealing with the entire world since drop shipping service has no geographical limits.
Wait.
Does it sound too great to be true?
You have all the right to be suspicious because, frankly speaking, this business strategy is not as appealing as it may seem.
General shop downsides
You may get an impression that a general drop shipping shop is a ‘lazy’, undemanding endeavor. Don’t make yourself deceived by this seeming simpleness– in truth, running such a store in an efficient way is a really difficult thing to do.
- Product-related tasks are overwhelming
If we’re discussing a massive shop with a diverse range of products, it definitely needs a LOT of products (numerous them, most likely), otherwise it will look truly odd to the consumers.
Yes, you can import the desired items from AliExpress in seconds and set costs for them automatically in a few clicks, but can you envision how long will it take you to edit all these product pages? It’s not an option to leave them unedited: in such a case, your site will be filled with non-unique material that is harming for SEO, plus, the shop visitors will rapidly understand that they can find the similar items on AliExpress for much lower costs.
- Competition is way too extreme
Who is your rival when you’re offering whatever at the same time? Most likely, you will have lots of indirect competitors whose item deal is partially much like yours, and a couple of direct competitors (let’s say Amazon and eBay) that are nearly difficult to take on (at least at the starting stage).
What’s about your unique competitive benefit? You will not be able to set very low prices (otherwise, your whole business will have no point), and it will be actually difficult for you to contend with the online retail giants by the variety of items in your shop. How will you stick out, then?
- It’s almost difficult to rank high for the picked keywords
Once again, this is a competition-related concern. If the item variety of an online store does not have a directly defined specifics, it is exceptionally hard for the owner to turn it into a SEO-friendly site. It will just be sensible to enhance this store for really broad keywords like ‘online shopping’ or ‘buy online’, and you can imagine how many reputable eCommerce sites are currently using these keywords.
Merely speaking, with such a generic keyword, your shop won’t be revealed high enough on the online search engine results page, which is why Web users won’t come across it typically enough.
- An appropriate marketing method is actually hard to develop
If you cannot complete by rate or by product variety, and if you cannot make it to the very first page of Google with the power of SEO, the only thing you can do to produce sales is promote your store all over the Web.
Still, with a generic shop, even this task appears to be really difficult.
Where will you publish your ads if you have no idea exactly what platforms and websites your target audience uses? What precisely will you promote if you have numerous products in your store? What kinds of messages will you utilize for each of the marketing channels if you have no idea what’s appropriate and crucial to your buyers?
Essentially, you will either be choosing random guesses, or taking no advertising actions at all, and you cannot expect these procedures to really be moneymaking methods.
- You have no idea what to focus on
As a beginner, you undoubtedly doubt about the most crucial things to do at the beginning of your drop shipping journey, but with a basic store, it’s possible to obtain a lot more confused.
Having no previous experience in this service area, it’s simple to get overwhelmed with the disorganized and segment information within your shop.
If you don’t desire to get disappointed with your service outcomes, don’t go for a general shop unless you have sufficient drop shipping understanding.
Till then, explore niche store
— let’s discuss them in more information. What is a specific niche store? As you can guess it by its name, an online specific niche shop is a store that
offers some narrow series of products. All the items offered in this shop should have some unifying function: it depends on you to choose just what you will utilize for this purpose.
Possibly, you will concentrate on the products’ rate: for example, in this sample product selection , we are noting the items that are merged not only by their visual side (plant pattern), but by their price (lower than $3). Maybe, you will utilize a specific items ‘purpose as the unifying feature: for instance, for this sample item selection, we’ve chosen the products that are created to decrease anxiety and help individuals handle stress.
Or, maybe, you will utilize purchasers’ hobbies and individual interests as the basis for your niche shop: for instance, this sample product choice would be attracting clients interested by astronomy and area exploration.
In other words, you have lots of methods to identify and create an item niche, and your ultimate option heavily depends upon your individual interests and choices. It is constantly a great idea to select the specific niche that you’re enthusiastic about– or, at least, you need to understand a lot about the products, market trends, and consumers’ choices in this service location. This important understanding is the crucial to grab from all the various benefits of a niche drop shipping shop.
Niche shop advantages
So, what makes a specific niche online store the perfect choice for a drop shipping business owner?
- Much easier management
In contrast with a basic shop, a specific niche store is a much less resource-consuming venture. The thing is, you are not building a mega eCommerce empire in this case: you are developing a much smaller business that can be flexibly enhanced and easily run in a long-term point of view.
- Well-defined item variety
Understanding what is trending and popular in this particular niche, you get a dazzling opportunity to only fill your store with required items that will be purchased frequently.
Plus, as a fan of your own specific niche, you know exactly what precise product functions are important to your target market, which is why you can develop unique product descriptions that are both attracting your possible purchasers and winning in terms of SEO.
- Moderate competition
If you are offering everything at the same time, you compete with hundreds, if not thousands of comparable services. However, if your product deal is an extremely particular choice of closely related items, your opportunities of encountering somebody who offers exactly the very same goods are much lower.
In this manner, you get a chance to establish yourself as an unique store offering something that is tough to purchase from other sellers.
Always remember that your profound knowledge of this company location assists you develop a warm and encouraging environment within the store, and convince the visitors of your competence and professional attitude. Naturally, this is exceptional for your reputation, the brand name recognition, and the consumers’ loyalty.
- Easy to understand customers’ profile
As a fan of your own specific niche, you have a basically clear idea about the like-minded people who are likewise enthusiastic about these specific topics and products.
Understanding who you have to reach, you can configure your ads settings in the most accurate way, and deliver your valuable material to the Web users who will be happy to join the neighborhood you’re constructing around your brand name.
- Targeted marketing technique
Understanding the needed information of your possible purchasers’ interests and behavior, you can easily produce extremely appealing promotional messages, and pick the right channels for their distribution.
When you speak your buyers’ language and hang out exactly where they do, you are highly likely to be successful in producing simply the ideal brand image. Really, it may even result in regular repeat purchases!
- Effective SEO
With a directly specified product deal, you have an opportunity to discover and select remarkable long-tail keywords. These keywords typically consist of 3 and more words, and they describe the contents of your website pages precisely.
Most likely, the biggest aspect of these keywords is their power to bring in highly interested people to your store. Undoubtedly, if an individual googles a word combination that resembles some of your target keywords, and clicks on your site address because it gets revealed on the search engine result page, this visitor, more than likely, will buy from you eventually.
- Higher conversion rates
Will each and every shop visitor purchase something from you?
If it is simple to navigate your site and locate the desired products, if the products are chosen thoroughly, if the item pages look tempting and reliable, the opportunities to convert a passerby visitor into a fired up purchaser are quite high. Certainly, it is a lot easier to accomplish this scenario with a specific niche store: as we have actually already figured it out, a product-rich basic shop can be challenging for an owner to run, and troubling for a visitor to browse.
Specific niche store disadvantages
Does a specific niche shop has any drawbacks?
Personally, I think that all the so-called ‘disadvantages’ of niche shops can be explained by the ‘it’s not a bug, it’s a feature’ expression. Still, let’s go through them anyhow!
- You have to conduct a research study
Well, yes, this may seem to be the most considerable drawback of this method: with a niche shop, you really have to understand exactly what you’re offering and whom you’re targeting.
It won’t be an issue if you understand this niche fairly well: in this case, you either already understand the most vital aspects that characterize this service segment, or you have a concept where to hunt for the relevant information.
By the way, we, as the fans of the specific niche technique, desire to make it easier for you to perform a niche research study– this is why we kindly welcome you to utilize our complimentary niche evaluation tool that estimates the potential of any niche at your choice.
- You check one niche at a time
It may appear that contrary to a basic shop, a niche store does not have a ‘backup plan’ to attempt if the selected items do not see much need.
This is not totally real: if you discover that this particular niche does not bring you as much revenue as you wanted, you can slightly change your company direction and fill your shop with the items that are loosely associated with your preliminary choice. Thanks to the nature of drop shipping, it will not cost you anything to do this, and your online credibility will most certainly remain undamaged.
- You limit your own activity
You may think that with a specific niche shop, you put a limit on your own turnover, and lower your potential earnings.
In reality, in numerous aspects, a specific niche shop is more appealing to buyers than a large-scale online shopping platform: for a variety of factors, people are eager to acquire from smaller sized online shops, and typically choose them to retail giants.
If you market your shop in the best method, you can still count on a healthy quantity of inbound orders and juicy earnings.
