Must-have Tools to Find Your Niche for Print-on-Demand
Selling unique products on a print-on-demand (POD) basis can yield excellent rewards. But the success of your business could depend on finding the right niche – meaning a market sector that’s likely to want what you’re selling – and in the competitive POD market, this can seem challenging, particularly to fledgling entrepreneurs.
In this article, we list three must-have tools to find your niche. Whether you’re a POD beginner or an experienced professional, these tools will help you find new product ideas or refine your current offer.
Key takeaways
To find your niche as a print-on-demand entrepreneur…
Check topics attracting mass interest on Google Trends
Use Google Trends to compare product popularity
Find popular stores at Shopify Spy
Gain insights into popular products using Shopify Spy
Browse top communities and identify potential niches on Reddit
1. Discover your niche with Google Trends
Any print-on-demand businesses should check Google Trends regularly to uncover market opportunities. The free tool helps you determine how popular a topic/product is, and you can use it to identify high-potential niches.
If you’re looking for inspiration, why not search for trending topics that could throw up promising ideas for new designs or products.
Analyzing yearly trends can help you find underserved niches for you to target. For instance, if people are searching for “how to start a business”, this could point to a growing niche of novice entrepreneurs. You could cater to this niche by selling tees or wall art featuring motivational quotes.
2. Explore niches with Shopify Spy
Shopify Spy is one of the must-have tools to find your niche by means of exploring the most popular products offered by top companies. To get started, access shopifyspy.com, go to Stores, then select Niches from the drop-down menu. This brings up a range of niche ideas, sorted by star ratings (five stars meaning highest potential).
You’ll probably see gifts in the five-star category. And if you click on it, you’ll see a list of the top Shopify stores catering to that idea. Browsing the stores that are having the most success here and looking at the products they offer can be a great source of ideas for your POD shop.
Here are some sectors that came up when we looked at the leading stores:
Home Decor
Tote bags
Organic tea
Accessories
To target the popularity of organic tea, you could consider launching a line of custom print products marketed to tea drinkers. Think tees, tote bags, hoodies, pillows, and mugs. The T-shirt below is a good example:
Source: Amazon
3. Build your niche around a community with Reddit
Being part of a strong community makes it much easier to communicate with your target audience. And if you’re looking for community, where better to start than Reddit? Each community (or “subreddit”) at the social news site is dedicated to a certain area of interest.
If you or your brand have an established online presence, you may already have a dedicated community on Reddit. If not, try browsing other communities you see as potential print-on-demand niches. In the right sidebar of the front page, the site shows a list of the leading subreddits, called Today’s Top Growing Communities.
Source: Reddit
Consider a category like r/aww, where users post pictures and videos of everything adorable. Alongside babies, you’ll see that pets make up a big chunk of the content. And, of course, this theme can be a real money-spinner in the POD world, too.
So try focusing on a popular breed like the Welsh corgi, and launching a product line featuring corgi designs. We do, of course, recommend some market research before you launch to judge how much potential your idea has.
Source: Reddit
The largest communities on Reddit tend to be more saturated, having mostly attracted the attention of bigger companies. A safer approach is to target smaller communities – and as your business evolves, you can either scale up within your current communities or shift your focus to new niches.
Summing up
Dedicate some time to identifying a high-potential niche, and you’re sure to reap the rewards down the line. Platforms like Google Trends, Shopify Spy, and Reddit are invaluable aids that will save you time and energy. These must-have tools can help you identify your most suitable audience, select products that resonate with your niche, and unlock new business opportunities. A well-defined niche is your key to satisfying customer expectations and gaining a crucial edge over your competitors.
