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Let’s Get Niche
I love shopping. The rush of entering a store knowing that I could possess something, that I could find some new souvenier to add to my material world. For clothing, I’ll often visit Banana Republic or Ann Taylor Loft (Ann Taylor minus the dry cleaning). Both stores offer clothing lines geared toward the career-oriented 30something, the latter focusing exclusively on women.
To saturate my appetite for plush, Egyptian cotton towels and high thread-count sheets, I’ll go to Bed, Bath and Beyond or Linens ‘N Things. And food! For those staples like milk, eggs or veggies, I’ll go to my local grocery store, just steps from home. But in order to get my fill of gourmet cheeses, exotic condiments or wine, I’ll head to a specialty shop, thank you very much. Goat cheese from the local supermarket holds little appeal for me. Similarly, olives are supposed to come from an olive bar, not from a jar. My point is, for each of these different consumable desires, I frequent a specific merchant.
Offline, shopping went from neighborhood mom and pop shops, to all-encompassing supermarkets, to big box warehouses. As these destinations got larger and broader, a new market for specialty niche boutiques was created. Take for example, Borders and Barnes and Noble, both great stores with a diverse offering meeting multiple demographics.
However, there is still a small, but thriving collection of independent children’s bookstores, mystery bookstores, gay and lesbian bookstores, etc. These shops build a loyal consumer base by specializing in a specific genre. Instead of expanding horizontally, they focus on the vertical. A true devotee, (with a high conversion rate, mind you), learns how to shop efficiently and will go to the shop that meets their immediate needs.
We see this same behavior evolving online as well. Google for example. If you want to research content, Google search. If you want to find a photo, Google image search. News article? Google news. However, if the consumer is looking to buy a used car, likely they won’t go through Google, they’ll go through Cars.com or some other product specific site.
All I’m forecasting is that the Amazons and Overstocks of the online world have tapped into mass demand, but I still believe there are a lot of niches left to explore.
How true. Speaking as an affiliate i like having the major merchants on my site like the Amazons, Overstocks, Dells but also finding that small niche merchant. One of the things i noticed before i went into this full time is that my competition likes to stick to network merchants, all having basically the same merchants. I figured one way to separate myself is to have those same merchants plus plenty they don’t have, give my site visitors a little more choice. There are some great indys out there but most don’t take the time to look. Nothing like finding a good indy.
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