In this post I discuss drop shipping sites and also provide a short video where I show how I do my initial research for finding a great niche to market in. A few months back a did post on drop shipping where I explained my own success doing this, if you missed that post you can read it here – My drop shipping success story.
Also if you missed the webinar I recorded a few days ago with guest eCommerce expert Dave Hermansen, then you really should watch that, as Dave did an awesome webinar on eCommerce, here’s the replay link – $173,000 Selling Bird Cages Webinar
I think there’s a lot of potential for eCommerce stores as shopping online is continuing to increase every year. Online shopping provides more convenience for people and often provides better prices too, as online retailers don’t have as many overheads to factor in. Below is a few images that show the growth in eCommerce store sales.
So you can see from these info graphics that online shopping is growing, so now’s the time to get your own store online!
How to Choose a Good Niche Market
One of the most common questions that I get asked is, ‘how do you find great niche markets?‘. So in order to help answer this, I decided to make a short video where I reveal a niche that I found that I believe would work well for eCommerce and drop shipping.
The key things to consider when deciding on a niche are:
1. Are the big shopping sites doing it well?
2. Is there potential for repeat customers?
3. Can the products be found at any local shopping mall easily?
Below is the video example for you:
Setting Up a Store
Another common question that I get asked is ‘how do you get a store online?’ The short answer is that it’s not hard to do these days, and for my store I use WordPress and the WP eCommerce plugin. There are other more complex solutions you can use, but to my surprize WordPress works great. If you know how to use WordPress for information sites then you’ll have no problems getting a store online with WP eCommerce.
Once you have your store up and running, and you have a supplier that will dropship for you, then you work on your traffic generation. The cool thing about eCommerce is that you can do SEO and paid traffic, which is what I do, and it works great. For beginners, starting with SEO is the easiest approach. Then once you’re making sales you can venture out into Facebook ads and Google Adwords to grow your sales.
If you think you’d like to have your very own online store, then I encourage you to first watch the webinar I recorded with Dave Hermansen as he does a great job at explaining everything and also provides an opportunity to join his eCommerce coaching community too.
Here’s the link to the webinar I did with Dave – $173,000 Selling Bird Cages Webinar
Related articles
Another well done article, Matt. Thanks.
One small tip I’d like to share is to try going with a non-obvious small-medium size brand supplier/manufacturer, if that makes sense. And in a niche with only a handful of such suppliers/manufacturers. Demand can be good and steady while competition is usually relatively low. Think out of the big box and along the lines of small business and local markets.
Matt Carter Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 11:58 am
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Nice add Jake!!
Thanks
Matt
Hey Matt,
Loved the webinar and am now researching dropshippers for a new ecom site. I did have a question about the WP plugin you are using. Would you be willing to provide the name of the plugin?
Brian
Matt Carter Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 11:58 am
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Hi Brian
Sure thing, its a free plugin, here it is http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-e-commerce/
You need to buy a shopping cart extension for some payment gateways, and for this I use the GetShopped one here – http://getshopped.org/premium-upgrades/premium-plugin/gold-cart-plugin/
Hope you makes loads with your store
Regards
Matt
DeLynn Jordan Reply:
October 3rd, 2012 at 6:58 am
I need all the advice i can get about affiliates….
Great post,I also was on your webinar with Dave and joined-heaps of information to go through and very helpful..this post added more info for me as I use WordPress for all my sites and the plugin WP-Ecommerce is free and a really neat way to build a eCommerce site.I recommend people to join Dave at Store coach,money well spent.
Thanks again Matt
Matt Carter Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 11:56 am
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Hi John
Glad you enjoyed the webinar, Dave did a great job for sure, and yeah the WordPress plugin is super easy to use.
Good luck with your store.
Matt
Great Video and a good way to find niches,but as for hydoponics that would be a tough niche to crack. Lots of well established sites that cater to the marijuana growing niche. If you think people are growing tomatoes with this stuff then I have a bridge you might be interested in.
Paul Reply:
October 2nd, 2012 at 12:32 pm
Lol, exactly what I was thinking. I live in California where medical marijuana is legal and I see hydroponics stores on every corner and see billboards advertising hydroponic stores. Also if you live outside of California or a MMJ state you would probably just go with an online store that is advertised in High Times.
My girlfriend was so happy with your dropshipping tips. This is great especially for fashion niche. Thanks again Matt.
Matt Carter Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 5:49 pm
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Glad to hear it Berry
Matt
Hi Matt!
You are really awesome – that is why you are my favorite! 🙂
I have been thinking of setting up another ecommerce store and i also watched your webinar with Dave. My first try is not so successful… 🙁
I will first try WP and the free plugin and if i need additional help, i will subscribe to Dave’s Store Coach.
Cheers!
Matt Carter Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 5:49 pm
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Sounds good Zarah.
Dave coaching is very good, I can assure you of that.
Regards
Matt
Hi Matt, Enjoyed the Video, Thanks for sharing
Matt Carter Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 5:48 pm
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You’re welcome Matthew
Regards
Matt
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the Webinar. Just signed up for the training and as a newbie regarding dropshipping I hope it will be a great help. Shopperpress is mentioned on here and considering using this as I already use DirectoryPress.
Thanks – Joe
Matt Carter Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 5:48 pm
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Great stuff Joe
Regards
Matt
Hi Matt,
I liked the webinar on dropshipping I have already started but I am having a problem finding the right shopping cart.
I need one that will allow different sizes and prices of the one product without listing them all separately. I have installed shopperpress which would have been excellent if it allowed sizes.
Do you know of a shopping cart I can use
Regards
Jeff
Matt Carter Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 8:06 pm
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I use sizes with WP Ecommerce myself. I think most good shopping carts will do sizes, as its pretty common.
Regards
Matt
Great post and video. It was a very good webinar and I was definitely interested in signing up but had reservations about the keyword tool being able to find niche’s to target in the UK it appeared to be geared up for the US market and also the directory is mainly US companies, I what to target UK products.
I am doing some research at the moment but having a problem either finding markets with sufficient search volume or products with a big enough profit margin. The most companies appear to be willing to give is 10%.
Still I will keep plugging away I’m sure I will find something.
Hi Matt,
I thought the drop shipping webinar was very good. I am a bit confused about somethng to wrote above. You say that you need the WP e-comerce plug in and you give the link. Than you mention the GetShopped plugin. Do you really NEED both or does the ecommerce do enough? Isn’t the E-commerce plugin cover enough various payment options?
Thanks
Matt Carter Reply:
October 2nd, 2012 at 5:47 am
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Get shopped plugin is for the payment gateway I use
Hi Matt,
Thank you so much for all your useful information. I just am in the process of setting up two of my websites for my own products physical products, and I’m using WP commerce as well.
Just wondering how easy you found it to use to set up for a different physical products?
I for one would love to hear about some of your adventures with the e-commerce store in more detail. A blog post about that would be great Matt.
I have this special requests: Can you set up your videos so that those of us using iPhones and iPads don’t need flash and can watch them on our mobile devices please?
Another tip:
– If you have affiliate sites (especially affiliate store) you can try turn it into an e-commerce store
I’m planning to do that with my affiliate stores for which I have small traffic, sales and most important – analytics data.
Best,
Mitko
Thanks again Matt the video was great and interesting for me, as yet I have not decided on a niche but working on it.
The webinar was interesting and Dave knows his stuff I have looked at Store Coach in the past but did nothing with it at the time, but it’s time now to get out of my comfort zone.
Matt Carter Reply:
October 2nd, 2012 at 5:46 am
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Good stuff Wolfgang
Hi Matt,
I’m struggling with the following. Should I set up a webshop for a single product line in a dedicated niche (for ex. running bikes (for kids)), which would be easier to optimize or a shop with a broader range of products so you it would be easier to trigger customers to buy more overtime.
What is your opinion?
Thanks,
Ewald.
Matt Carter Reply:
October 2nd, 2012 at 5:45 am
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Hi Ewald
I wouldn’t go too narrow and only have one product to sell, best to have a range, I like to have about 20-30 products to sell
Hello Matt
Very informative video.
Thank You
Nice tips Matt, will try the wp ecommerce plugin, sounds pretty straight forward.
I saw the webinar with Dave as well.
What do you think about the free niche finder tool on: http://storecoach.com/keyword-tool/search
Any idea how it calculate the Market Opportunity Score and where it gets the keywords from? Is there a paid version with more results?
Maybe I should ask Dave but I hope you know the answer as well.
Thanks for this Matt. I will look into it and listen to the webinar. It is something that I knew nothing about and was a bit scared of but the way you put it seems like I should take a look.
Linda
Matt,
Thanks for the webinar video and the tips in this post. You gave the eCommerce plugin but If you won’t mind, what WP theme can be used with them that will be easy to optimize for the search engines?
Matt Carter Reply:
October 4th, 2012 at 10:43 am
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I’m not sure as far as themes, as I got my own one made for my store, but you could try woocommerce
Hi Matt,
Would you be considering creating your version of Dropshipping eCommerce course (paid or free) in the near future to the public? I would really like to learn from you on setting up and running a WordPress eCommerce store.
Dave’s StoreCoach is great but it is too expensive for me with the recurring monthly subscription fees. I am from Malaysia and due to the exchange rate, hope you can understand my problem.
Looking forward to your new course soon.
Matt Carter Reply:
October 4th, 2012 at 10:43 am
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Hi,
No I am not going to be doing a course on this sorry.
I think Dave’s price is really cheap for what you get. Compare $47 to a College course….
Great stuff, its easier to rank for specific products like this. I never set up a site selling physical products yet, but will in the near future.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for bringing Dave’s eCommerce webinar video I am blue collar and wanting to get a website going, I have a product manufacture that I know with some niche products and would like to build a store around them. Is Dave’s site a good place to start If you are brand new to the web world?
Thanks again, I always look for your newest email learning a lot.
Bret
Hi Matt,
I am from the UK and wish to set up around 3 to 5 different niche dropshipping sites over the next few months and then really SEO and market them with vigor, but I was wondering if I can only sell to the US by developing partnership with US dropshippers from being here in the UK? I will host my sites through an American based web host. So, even though I am in the UK I want to sell only to American customers. Is this possible? Where do I find dropshipping partners to do this? If I were to pay $300 for membership to a dropshipping directory, can I be sure I can find dropshippers in that directory and then formalize an agreement with them to sell on my behalf, bearing in mind I am in the UK.
I definitely wish to sell to the American market because its so much bigger than the UK and the search volume coming from the US is much greater. However, I am also keen to strt one or two for the UK market using .co.uk domains. Do you know of any dropshipping companies operating the UK?
Thanks
Thanks for the great tips. I always think one can never learn enough in reference to affiliate marketing. I feel that for every one of us it is a learning process day in and day out.