If you have been keeping up with our articles lately, you would know that finding your eCommerce niche is the first step we recommend for your online business. In the following article, we are going to show you How you can use Google trends to find an eCommerce niche.
Google trend is a free tool by Google that you can use to determine whether a topic, product, news, or keyword is trendy or not. Moreover, it is a great tool to graphically represent the trend along with the filters like search type, time period, and the location of the search.
We will understand more about Google trends further in this article and how you can use Google trends to find an eCommerce niche. But let us begin by discussing the benefits of having an eCommerce niche.
Benefits of Niche
Low Competition
Having an eCommerce niche allows you to eliminate the competition from every other online store that isn’t related to your product. When you create a niche-based store, the products in your store are targeted for your niche.
Did you know, people searching for a particular product have a better chance of conversion, plus you get low competition at the same time.
For example, if one searches for “Shoes”, it doesn’t always mean he wants to buy a shoe. He may be just interested in knowing the types of shoes. But if one searches for “White Nike Jordan Air 2020 price”, the chances of conversion are exponentially high.
The narrower the niche is the better it is. But also remember that the niche must have a sustainable volume to keep your business running.
Improves SEO
Google as a search engine prioritizes building customer relationships more than anything. If you can help a viewer with his specific needs, you would have better chances of ranking higher for him.
Moreover, this improves your
Better Customer loyalty
Loyalty comes when there is trust. Hence when you are dealing with a specific eCommerce niche, you eventually gain expertise in it. Not only search engines prefer it, but so does your customer.
When a customer observes that you are fulfilling their specific need, the trust and brand loyalty increases with every conversion that happens.
Lower marketing expenses
Rather than showing your ads to random people, you can be more specific with the people who are interested in your products. Not only will it bring more conversion in the first place, but would also lower your marketing expenses at the same time.
This means that cost of acquisition drops subsequently which reduces the marketing expenses subsequently.
Understanding the Google trend
Now that we are aware of the benefits of having an eCommerce niche, let us pause for a moment and look at what Google Trends have to offer. To start with when you would Open Google Trends, you would have to put in a topic, keyword, etc to observe it’s a trend.
In order to understand each section of Google Trends in a much better way, let us take an example of Online furniture.
Here at the top of the screen, you would see your search term along with the filter options that you can change accordingly. Let us just change the location worldwide to understand, global trend of Online furniture.
Interest Over Time- Below as you can see is the graph representing the interest over time of people searching for “Online furniture”.
Interest by Region– This section helps you compare the trend in different regions. In the following example, Trinidad & Tobago has the most active trend for “Online furniture” followed by Ireland, South Africa, UAE, and Australia.
Related Topics- As the name explains itself, the following section helps you know about the related topics that are catching up with the trend. In the case of online furniture, these are computer desk, B&M store, Homebase, etc.
Related Queries- In addition to the related topics, you can also find the most trending search queries related to your keyword. Here, for the term online furniture, the related queries are furniture design courses online UK, Argos garden furniture, etc.
Rising Vs Topic – Both the related sections allow you to filter out the result based on two factors. Rising and the top topics. Rising topics are the ones that have seen a recent increase in searches, where top topics are the one that is trending right now.
Breakout – If you see a topic or a search query deemed as the “Breakout”, it means there has been a sudden increase in the searches. This means it could be a beginning of a new trend or maybe just a fly by night.
Using Google Trends to Find eCommerce Niche
1. Pick an Industry
To start with, pick an industry that you are interested in and have efficient knowledge or experience about.
It is very important that you are aware of the industry a little more than usual customers as it would be great assistance while you are running your eCommerce store.
Hence pick an industry and look for the rising and top topics with the industry in google trend. Note down the top topics so that you can know your eCommerce niche and move onto the next step.
2. Filter down the location
In order to start a successful eCommerce business, you need to filter out your location. Going for a worldwide approach may sound good, but at the same time rises competition.
If you have a pre-established eCommerce store you can surely go global. But if you are at the first stage then knowing the location would be a great help.
For the most part, sort down the location to your own country. This would help you as you would know more about your customer and their needs.
Moreover, when you sort the location in Google trends, it would give you a state-wise breakdown of the trend which further will help you down to target your audience
3. Compare the topics/queries
Google trends allow you to compare the topics, in this case, your eCommerce niche side-by-side in order to have a clear comparison about what’s trending and how well the niche is performing compared to others.
Hence, compare all the topics or queries that you listed down from your industry and look out for the most trending topics within them.
4. Observe the graph
In addition to comparison, we would also recommend you to do an individual trend search for each topic/niche and observe their interest over time. Most probably look out for the following graph types.
Slow and Steady Growth
These are the topics that have gradually gained a trend over the months of the year. Most importantly, it showcases that the topic or in this condition the popularity of niche has been growing over the years and is a great eCommerce niche to be part of.
Sudden Growth
Other than the steady growth, you may also look out for the topics that have recently shown a sudden growth. These are the topics that have recently got attention either due to marketing or PR which gives you a fresh platform and low competition to start with.
Make sure you use the following eCommerce niche to start with, but also remember not to depend completely on them. These may be one-time trends that might go down soon.
Note to have a good portion of both the following trends as it will help you to get consistent sales as well as the sale during the high trends.
5. Practise trial and error
Let us be clear that Google trends won’t serve you with the topics to start with in the first place. It would just help you know more about the topic and help you understand which is the best fit based on the search pattern of the people over time.
You may find out that there isn’t enough scope for the topics you were interested in. Or you may find out that the people are losing interest with time. Rather than leaving the research at that point, we recommend you find out your next best option.
Google trends in all about trial and error. Ensure you practice it well and master the art to find an eCommerce niche using Google Trends.
Bonus read
As you now know How to Find an eCommerce niche using Google Trends, we are sure you are all set to move on to the next step. Hence, we would recommend you reading one of our amazing blog Top 5 Proven Ideas to start eCommerce Business today 2020.
Author Bio–
Twitter: @chetanmenaria3
Instagram – @pixelphant
Bio: Chetan Menaria is Partnership & Collaboration Manager at PixelPhant an eCommerce & fashion photo editing service provider. PixelPhant edits product images to make them look professional & eCommerce ready. Loves to learn new things every day, read something all the time, never miss the sunset & do Product Designing & Create content.