[ShadowDragon]

So I was reading an article the other day in regards to online stores and how , "theoretically" small time business could comepte with the big boys if you niched your business.

For example... you would'nt, by definition, make much money selling books against amazon.... but one could make money selling nothing but books on gardening.

But the quesiton is, just how damn niched should you get before you become way too specific.

Should, by this logic, mean that you should not just sell books on gardening, but specifically all manner of books about bonsai trees? Now we're getting specific.

It's hard to imagine now a days the internet being this 'shop-front' view to the entire global community.

That, when you think about it, is a heck of alot of passer-bys.

So I'm starting a tshirt online store for fantasy dungeon and dragoney type gamers.... should I niche more and say... start a tshirt store that sells all manner of nothing but elvan tshirts? elf knights, elf wizards, and so on...

Or is that niche getting a little to specific, and is there such as thing as being TOO specific on the internet.

Being australian, Ive often marvelled at some of my american friends and their lifestyles... Ive once heard a story about a taxidermist who was open 24 hours a day. Yes, thats right, if you needed your cat stuffed at 3am, they're there to meet your every demand.

So could the same crazy, specific thing be said for the internet?

Id love to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

 

[m4nti]

So I'm starting a tshirt online store for fantasy dungeon and dragoney type gamers.... should I niche more and say... start a tshirt store that sells all manner of nothing but elvan tshirts? elf knights, elf wizards, and so on...

Or is that niche getting a little to specific, and is there such as thing as being TOO specific on the internet.

Well... it's about being as niche as you want to be. Remember: niche is all about letting the customer know that if he wants a t-shirt about a certain something he can find it at your place. So, if you want to cater only for the guy that typed 'elven t-shirt dungeons dragons' on google you can go for elven shirts. on the other hand if you want to cater to the general d&d public you should have all kinds of d&d related shirts.

it all comes down to 'how many elven-themed shirts do you have the ability of coming up with?' ... probable not much. and since doing an 'only d&d' shirt shop sill still lie in a particularly niched market, i'd go with that. i'd do d&d-shirts and stop there without narrowing down the target market.

regarding wether one can be too niched on the internet. it all depends on the niche itself. when you're talking about d&d you've already gone 4 levels deep:

general public > gamers > RPG > Fantasy > D&D

if you should go another level you'd be at the end of the chain (no more levels to narrow down to) which (in my opinion) would be too niched.


.....


unless of course you wanna go the extremist-niche way and do "D&D Elven Warrior T-Shirts for those that can proove they have reached level 50 at least once." lol

 

[T-BOT]

yep, i think so far the Lyrical info on the topic its all making sense.

But how would the user see it ?

In other words, what would the user key in the Google Search Box to find whatever they seek.

So knowing this it would be wise ( i think ) to some how relate your "nitch" to what they type in the SE Serach box.

Also, open 24 hrs is a plus on the web.

As for the big question.
If you take into account the $$$$ you need to sell per day to carry on the business, this may play an important part in your "nitch" related decisions. Of couse it varys from one bus. to another......

just my ... 2c's

 

[Buechee]

I'm try'n to be as niche as I can. I know to compete you have to. And this aint just on the web. You can go to the mall and see this. You walk by the store that sells candels only or greeting cards. Sure they may have a few other items, but their main focuse will be the candels or cards.

 

[Twinge]

I agree with what m4nti said.

How deep you personally want to go will depend on what you want from the business. If you're too deep, you run the risk of having very few interested customers and running out of new designs. If you're too broad, you run the risk of being lost in the masses and having no customers. The balance of where in the spectrum you want to be will be different for everyone.

 

[T-BOT]

I agree with what m4nti said.

How deep you personally want to go will depend on what you want from the business. If you're too deep, you run the risk of having very few interested customers and running out of new designs. If you're too broad, you run the risk of being lost in the masses and having no customers. The balance of where in the spectrum you want to be will be different for everyone.

Also relating to what Bueche pointed out.

The Ultimate "Nitch Market" is being able to sell to a wide spread-out client base. Like age group 0-100 for example. Like some successful retailers manage to do.

 

[Jasonda]

One thing about niche marketing - It's great because you can always get bigger. Starting with a limited line and slowly expanding once you have some feedback from your customers makes a lot more sense than starting with a large number of products and trying to pare it down in the future.

 

[Twinge]

One thing about niche marketing - It's great because you can always get bigger. Starting with a limited line and slowly expanding once you have some feedback from your customers makes a lot more sense than starting with a large number of products and trying to pare it down in the future.

Not necessarily. If you start with wide-ranging products, you could potentially narrow it down based on what your customers are buying and what people like the most.

You could also start with a wide-range in mind (and maybe a few products in each category or whatever) but focus more on some sections (niches) than others; this would be sort of an in-between choice, so to speak.

As always, there is some leeway and no definite right way to go about it =) (What fun would that be anyway?!)

 

[Despotte]

Well I am doing pretty well with a Christian Gnomes Tshirt Site Can't get more Niched than that. I think I have CORNERED the market on Christian Gnomes LOL. (of course I also sell Haggis shirts so that might be part of the draw)