Need fresh inspiration for your Shop? Or maybe you’re new to Spreadshop? Or opening a second shop? Find your niche audience with these tips.
Do I really need a niche?
The most successful Spreadshops have one thing in common: they all serve a niche audience. Let’s look at why.
Imagine you are looking for a cool gift for your aunt. She is 57 years old and loves her French bulldog. You see the following ad on Facebook or Google: “Our shop has everything!”
Doesn’t sound bad at first, does it? You click on the shop – but you won’t find a design for your aunt among the baby clothes, gamer nerd T-shirts and hundreds of sayings on aprons. Why not? The French bulldog is a niche subject and no shop can cover all niches.
If you try to target all of them, potential customers will be confused by your Shop or won’t find their way to your shop in the first place – and this is reflected in low sales figures.
Back to your aunt and her French bulldog. You’re looking for a gift and come across the Frenchie designs in the Waldogs shop. Any dog lover is sure to find something in this Shop because it’s carved out the “dog lover” niche and explored every corner of it.
If you find your niche, customers from this niche will be more likely to find you.
But how do you find your Shop’s niche?
#1: Use your life experience
Your own taste, preferences, interests and hobbies are ‘niches’ and you’re already an expert in them! Take a look at the Dad’s Life Shop from Austria, which is run by three dads.
“You know the most about the things you spend the most time doing and thinking about—and for us that’s our kids and our roles as fathers. “Dad’s Life” is […] launched as a Facebook page. The community grew incredibly fast and we exchanged a lot with other father. They gave us a lot of input. We gradually implemented these ideas. One of them was a T-shirt shop for fathers and a few weeks later we were busy designing the first baby bodysuits.” – Roman about Dad’s Life
Read the rest of the interview here.
#2 Use your passion and interests
The owner of the Shop Waldogs, where you found the cool design for your aunt, is Sinije from Finland. She loves dogs! Her Shop is now her full-time job because she believes that every dog lover should be able to find products, regardless of the breed of the dog. She has more than succeeded, as you can read in the interview.
Or take Jeff from Revitalize, or Die: This Shop Owner has already helped numerous communities. Revitalize, or Die works with local people on the revitalization of rural areas through sustainable projects and community development. Rebuilding local communities is also the main theme of the designs in his Shop. His merch is aimed at people who share his passion for vibrant rural communities.
#3 Research the market
Before you start a Shop for a niche, you should find out what the market for that target group looks like. Do you have any tough competition your potential customers are already interested in? Your research might show you that your niche market is already more saturated than you suspected.
With the Google Trends Search, you can quickly and easily find out how many people are searching for your niche topic on Google. It also gives you demographic information.
With SEMRUSH, you can find out who your top 10 competitors are. You’ll also find out which keywords have particularly good rankings.
By the way, competition is not a bad thing! If you have competition, it means that you can earn money in your niche. Your competitors are also a good incentive for you.
Find out what your competitive advantage is over your competitors – what makes your product stand out from the crowd? Which problems can you solve better than your competitors? What makes you unique?
Give people a reason to choose you. These can be great designs, a wide range of products, great discounts or something else that attracts your customers.
#4 Solve problems
It’s great when you offer unique products to your niche audience – but you achieve even more when your product somehow solves a problem. Find out what’s bothering you and your target audience and think about whether your Shop can offer a solution.
This problem-solution strategy doesn’t always have to be about a serious problem. Nadine, Shop Owner of Fräulein Heiligenscheiss worked as a virtual assistant for a long time.
Some days she said to herself, “That’s it. I hate people. I hate everything.” She told her friends she wished she had NSFW office mugs to express her deep-seated resentment. But they had to be beautiful office mugs! Thus, her Spreadshop was born. She came up with the idea of combining her frustrating thoughts with pretty flower patterns. At first glance, her cups look benign, but at second glance a provocative slogan reveals itself.
Nadine wasn’t and isn’t the only person who is sometimes frustrated with her office job and looking for a bit of comic relief. Her products featuring thinly veiled swear words are a real success!
It’s a real Spreadshop fairytale: Nadine has found a niche (women who have boring office jobs) with a special need (a fun way to communicate this frustration) and created a unique solution. And nowadays she sells a lot more than just mugs.
If you find the right niche, you’ll enjoy:
- higher visibility
- less competition
- higher margins
- lower marketing costs
- an involved audience
If you are able to find exactly the right target group, your Shop is sure to be a success story and join the top Spreadshops as Gscheade Leibal, Fräulein Heiligenscheiß, Dad’s Life and Waldogs.
So, what are you waiting for? Find your niche now, create designs aimed at your target audience and…
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