How to find a niche market for your online store + 115 niche market ideas
Pot-eh-to, pot-ah-to? Some people pronounce it in its original French pronunciation neesh, while others favor the americanized nitch. Regardless of your pronunciation, what they all have in common is that it’s essential to your online store’s success.
What is a niche?
When we talk about niches, we’re usually referring to a market niche.
A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focused.
Once you find the products to sell online, you need to adapt them to the specific niche. This means making sure that your product suits the interests, the demographic and the economic status of the target group. For example, if your target audience is youth/students, then chances are they don’t have much extra money to spare, what with just getting started in the work force with likely large student debt. For that reason your product should be reasonably priced.
The sales sweet spot will be when you’ve achieved the perfect product-fit for a specific niche. When you’ve got a specific segment that’s very interested in the specific product you’re offering.
Danger zone: If your answer to the question “who would be interested/would buy your product” is “everyone,” then your niche isn’t defined enough. By making your target so broad, you end up targeting no one as a result, and as a result your sales suffer.
Keyword research
A foolproof way of finding a relevant niche is by using the recently popular method of doing keyword research to identify growing trends. This lets you 1) automatically validate your business idea, because you already see that people are interested, 2) know that you’ve got a good chance at receiving organic traffic, since it’s a popular search, and 3) know that you have targeted Adwords options that you can use to drive sales.
Rather than go into a step-by-step explanation of how to implement keyword research, I’ll point you in the direction of Shopify’s guide on how to choose what product to sell. Chapter 5 is all about keyword research.
Keep in mind that by using keyword popularity as a method to define your target audience, you’re looking more at making quick sales. Since you’re based on growing keywords, you’re basing your business on a fad. And as we all know, fads fade and get replaced with new ones. If you’re ok with that, then proceed. If not, you might want to find a niche more grounded in long-term elements.
Value-based and long-term niches
My personal advice would be to focus your brand on something that has some more staying power than matcha green tea. If you focus on something more global, then your brand can stay intact as fads change, and you can change your products as time goes by.
Think about what’s important to you, that’s sellable, and that people would want on their garments.
Not just a topic
It’s important to understand that a niche is not just a topic you decide on. The more specific you get, the better results you’ll have. For example, rather than targeting “dads,” you can target “stay at home dads” or “dad bods.” For example this store has targeted “bad dads.”
The Bad Dad’s Club
Photo courtesy of thebaddadsclub.com
115 Niche Ideas to Inspire Your Next Online Store
We’ve put together 115 topics that you can use to base your niche upon. You might consider combining two topics to create an ultra-specific niche, or building on one topic. For example, you could combine world travelers with coffee lovers to have a very specific target audience.
Animals
- Photo courtesy of caninecaricatures.com
1. Any dog breed
2. Any cat breed
3. Horses
4. Birds
5. Uncommon house pets (otters, hedgehogs, etc.) that people are proud to have
Fantasy & Mythology
6. Unicorns
7. Nerd Culture
8. Elves
9. Greek & Roman mythology
10. Egyptian mythology
Heritage
Photo courtesy of vainags.com
11. Dying languages
12. Your heritage-based designs
13. Flags
14. Patriotism-based designs
15. National symbols
Occupation
16. Any occupation (ex. positive dentist)
17. Teachers
18. Firefighters
19. Medical workers (family members, etc. my daughter is a nurse)
20. Entrepreneur
21. Large corporation employees (ex. Walmart employees, Meijer employees, Facebook employees, McDonald’s employees)
22. Freelancers
23. Developers/ programmers
24. Designers
25. Startup employees
26. Biologists
27. Ornithologists
28. Sciences
29. Artists
Family Roles
Photo courtesy of www.thepoplyfe.com
30. Mom-boss/ mom-preneurs
31. Single dads
32. Aunts/uncles
33. Godparents
34. Grandparents
35. Sibling love
36. Twins
37. Custom family trees
38. Newlyweds
39. Young mothers/parents
40. Expecting parents
Uncommon Skills
41. Left-handed people
42. Underrepresented sports
43. Male dancer
44. Female programmers
Indulgences
Photo courtesy of http://www.shopwhiskeyginger.com/
45. Whiskey
46. Craft brews
47. Wine
48. Coffee
Food
Photo courtesy of www.makelovewithfood.com
49. Any type of cuisine
50. Food trends
51. Vegan/gluten-free/vegetarian
52. Junk food
53. Chocolate
54. Cheese
Geography
Photo courtesy of www.grafomap.com
55. Landmarks
56. Maps (city maps, subway maps, favorite route maps)
57. Airports
58. Architecture
59. Climates (tropical, desert, mountain themes)
60. Up and coming districts/neighborhoods
Literature
61. Famous authors
62. Literary quotes
63. Inspiring quotes
64. Uninspiring quotes
Beliefs
65. Political affiliation
66. Presidential candidate support
67. Hipsters
68. Grassroots movements
Awareness
69. Disability
70. Rare illnesses
71. NGO support
72. Environment
73. Recycling
74. Access to clean water
75. LGBTQ+
76. Civil rights
Fitness
77. Any sport
78. Cyclists
79. Wellness trends
80. Fad fitness classes (spinning, crossfit, barre3)
81. Self-help affirmations
82. Body-positive messaging
83. University Spirit
84. Spirit wear
85. Olympics/World Cups
86. Yoga
87. Golf
88. Whole30
Hobbies
89. Tech preferences (ex. Apple, Android, Linux)
90. Any hobby
91. Computer games
92. Programming/coding/math
93. Sci-fi characters
94. TV/Netflix shows/cult series fan art
95. Hiking
96. Photography
97. Hammocking
98. Rock climbing
99. History
100. Fashion
101. Cars
102. Hairstyles: iconic hair cuts, beard cuts
103. Motorcyclists
104. Dancing (ex. ballroom, ballet, hip hop, etc.)
105. Singing
106. Fishing
107. Camping
108. Aviation
109. Slack line
110. Gardening
111. Skiing
112. Astrology
Travel
T-shirt by Icon Speak
113. Wanderlust
114. Travel quotes
115. Local quirks (ex. Riga Black Balsam)
Share your own niche ideas, and together we can build a huge collection of niche market ideas for online stores!
April 10th, 2019
Hi Julia…awesome article. I am planning on starting a women’s clothing and accessory boutique. Is that too broad of a niche? How could I narrow it – just sell one type of product?
Hi Debra,
It’s important to understand that niche market isn’t a product, but people who will buy your product. In this case, you need to specify what kind of women will shop in your store.
Thanks for the helpful and informative article. I have a passion for inspirational words and heritage/cultural pride. Do you think having store that targets men, women and kids with these types of messages is still too broad?
I think you’re moving in the right direction. But if I were you, I’d try to narrow down the niche even more.
I’m just getting started and wanted to ask if more than one niche is alright?
Hi Sybil,
Try not to spread yourself thin. By targeting many different audiences you might end up targeting no one.
Hola no se ni por donde empezar a crear mi tienda
¡Hola María!
Si vas a empezar a montar tu tienda desde cero, te recomiendo que te mires estos artículos, en los que te damos los pasos más básicos para montar tu negocio 🙂
Cómo encontrar un nicho de mercado en 4 pasos
Cómo crear una tienda virtual en Printful
Cómo crear una tienda online sin ser autónomo en España
Qué plataforma de ecommerce elegir
Espero que estos artículos puedan guiarte en tus primeros pasos.
¡Un saludo!
This was a dynamic article, very impactful and practical. My brand is focusing on middle to upper- middle class consumers. Both men and women that share the passion for creativity and art but also are hardworking indiduals that may be tested buy the “concrete jungle life”. Or love by the mysterious outdoors. They they’ll know that this brand recognizes who they are. And is evidenced in the designs and the marketing. The brand is “IronMonkee”. Was that focused enough as far as a niche? Please give me any advice.
Hi Rick!
Sounds like you have really figured out who you want to sell your products to and what your customers’ passions would be. You’ve narrowed down the price range, age (you didn’t mention children), and a certain appeal that other brands don’t have. Looks like a good niche!
I think I have my niche, but am I too broad with horses and ponies. I paint pastel drawings of different breeds, Exmoor, Welsh etc. I also paint dog breeds, so far I have Springer Spaniels and planning to do more!
Hi Kayle,
As I mentioned before, a niche market isn’t a product, but people who will buy your product. So in your case, who are the people who will buy your drawings? Answering this question should help you define your niche better 🙂
Hi ~ I unfortunately have a great deal of personal experience in an area that has a huge potential audience. I’ve long thought about creating a blog, but it’s a hard conversation and extrodinariy personal and I’m having difficulty to think of products to sell beyond books, courses and public speaking. I’m hoping you might have some ideas where I can best research beyond the usual suspects like Google Trends, SEMRush, Ubersuggest…
I’m a three time violent crime survivor and activist. I’m presently looking at becoming a certified Health Life Coach which I’d add Advocate. There are several potential audiences including crime survivors, their supportive communities and then there are professional Victim Advocates.
I’d appreciate your thoughts. You can learn more by Googling: #49PlusMore