One of the most important aspects of your drop shipping business will always be picking the right niche.
This is where a lot of beginners fall down.
Drop shipping can be effective within any industry.
So you need to really think about what niches are profitable, interest you and don’t have too much competition.
Many drop shippers don’t always think about what niches interest them and that can be a big problem.
If you’re not interested in what you’re doing, how can you expect others to be interested too?
If you already have some ideas of what niche market(s) you want to focus on.
Then you should analyse it from a retailers perspective; consider how likely it is for you to actually be successful within it.
It may seem like an odd statement, but too much passion can actually be a huge detriment to your drop shipping career.
Having passion for what you’re doing is always great, but that doesn’t mean it will translate into sales.
It can blind you to the sharp truths that come with operating a business.
And you can end up holding onto aspects of your business that aren’t doing well.
Just because you like it and want to believe it will work out.
Don’t lose your passion altogether but do keep it at arms length. Don’t fall in love with a niche or product, or you’ll inevitably become ignorant to its pitfalls.
If you have no niches in mind, that’s okay too!
The key is to not let yourself get overwhelmed.
You can easily find low competition and trending niches through search engines like Google to help you start narrowing down your choices.
This will give you a good sense of what you might like to choose from, however a low competition niche market may limit how much you can earn, so be sure you’re not picking anything too obscure.
Take your time and allow yourself to thoroughly think it through.
The more thought you put into your niche, the sturdier your business will be.
You can decide how suitable your drop shipping niche is based on a variety of things such as; the level of competition already out there, the demand for physical products and the long-term forecast of popularity.
Having low competition is great, but if that’s because there’s a low demand for physical products, you’re going to want to rethink your options.
You want to make sure your niche has a good balance within all of these aspects.
Possibly the most important thing before deciding on your niche(s) is to understand what it will influence.
It will determine what products you offer, how much you sell, your marketing strategies, the suppliers you work with and, ultimately, how successful your business will be.
If you don’t take any of this into account, you’re going to fail before you even start.
Make sure you know exactly what you can sell within your niche market and what the likelihood of selling well is.
Research your possible suppliers, ensuring to compare them as you go – this can save you a lot of time and resources in the long run.
Before settling on a drop shipping niche, you need to ensure that it has a large variety of products to choose from.
If you pick a niche based on a singular or small amount of products, you’re setting yourself up for disaster!
As you get further into your research, you’ll find that some niches are considerably more plentiful with products than others.
For example, ‘clothing’ would be better than ‘time management’ because it offers more product variety.
However, this doesn’t mean it’s the perfect drop shipping niche for you; with high variety, often comes a much larger level of competition.
You should look outside the most popular niches, whilst being sure to avoid ones with low product variety.
One last thing to avoid is only following ‘trends’.
They come and go in a matter of months, sometimes weeks, and are rapidly replaced with the latest “big thing”.
Businesses appear left and right to capitalise on them but when the trends die out, so do they.
At the same time, a new trend has the possibility of becoming the next big niche.
Lately, products such as drones, VR gear and fidget spinners have become hugely popular in such a short space of time and the dropshippers in these niches have scored BIG.
There’s always a risk involved in going with the coolest new thing, so it’s usually safer to focus on something that’s been around for a while.
If you want to expand to multiple niches, that would be a good time to consider the latest trends as you won’t be jeopardising your entire business.
A final tip from the Dropship Professionals: utilise your free tools!
Simple things, like looking at banners on buildings, listening to people in public and keeping your eye on social media trends will really help you understand whether a niche is a winner or not.
Techniques like this are easy, completely free and can enable you to find a niche market in industries that you might not have even known about before.
Note them down and check them on “Google Trends” to help you understand whether they’re worth investing in or not.
Now you’re all set to pick your drop shipping niche(s)!
Remember, you can never know too much about your niche market, so keep up the research.
There’s always something new you can learn.
It may sound complicated at times, but don’t let yourself get overwhelmed.
Ignore the jargon and take on Just The Tips.