If you are planning to have a business, one thing you need to accomplish is having your business plan. This plan consists of what your business is all about, the things needed, how you would run it, and your plans.
If you plan to set up a store, you must know what type of store you are running and whether this store will last, considering all the competition and demands of the business world.
One famous option you can choose in setting up a store is the choice between a Niche Store and a General Store. If you wish to learn more about this, you’ve come to the right place. If you’re planning to set up one, then the information below will help you determine which store you should choose.
- The Story behind Niche Store
- General Store: What is it?
- Niche Store Vs. General Store: A Battle Between the Two
The Story behind Niche Store
As the name implies, a niche store is a type of store that has a more focused product. The goal of this store is to set up and share products depending on which theme you are in. The store has narrower options of products that unify precisely what your customers will need. Think of it as a single store with a theme.
Imagine you are walking inside a mall. In malls, there are specific stores that only sell a specific product. It could be a clothing store you found inside a mall that sells products from H&M or Levi’s Jean. It can also be a store that offers shoes from Adidas or Nike. It can also be a store selling A.S. Watson skincare and beauty products.
All in all, the goal of this type of store is to give customers a more specific choice for the products they are looking in.
Gains of Choosing a Niche Store
If you plan to have this kind of business, here are the good things you can expect.
1. It is Easy to Manage
Managing any business is not an easy task. You have to make sure that everything is well and is on point. But what makes a Niche store unique is it’s easier to manage. Since owners have specific products, tracking resources can be more manageable. Looking for resources to fill your store is not complicated since your store has more focus options in its products.
2. Unified Product Option
As a business, you must note the trends in society. Doing this will allow you to know what the customer wants, which will help your business be more enticing.
Since your business is specific, this can be an asset as it will direct your customers to go to your store immediately since the specific things they need are in your store.
3. Smaller competition
This type of store is unusual, and not all are willing to risk setting up a store of this kind. With this, the business competition is lower compared to when you are setting up a general store. With this, you use it to your advantage as you can offer a more specific product that cannot be found easily in general stores.
4. Easy to Market
The success of your business heavily relies on how well you market your products. With Niche stores, marketing your products can be more manageable as your product revolves around one central theme. Other than that, it’s easier to create a marketing strategy if your ideas are unified.
Obstacles when Choosing a Niche Store
1. Heavily Relies on Research
If you are going for a niche store, research is really important. You need to know which product should be your central theme and will it work considering the location.
2. Competition
Any business will have a competition. The problem with niche stores is it is challenging to persuade your customers to try yours, especially if there is a dominant business that that’s been trusted by clients for a long time.
3. Costly and Not Flexible
Since the Niche store is specific, it’s hard to sell other products that are not aligned with your theme. Furthermore, finding the right product for your store is more complicated. You may try product testing to find which products will be successful, but it will be costly as you change products repeatedly.
Also read: Sourcing From China: Good or Bad?
General Store: What is it?
A general store is similar to a department store or any store selling everything at once. Unlike Niche stores, they don’t focus on one product. They have a wide variety of product choices but are limited in the choices of each product. They have everything basic and usual.
A general Store is like a department store with all products from kitchen, home, groceries, electrical materials, clothes, school supplies, and many more. The sore has a wide range of products you can choose from.
A general Store is like a Target or Walmart, where you can find all the basic things you need in one shop.
Pros of having a General Store
1. Product Choice is wide
Since general stores offer many products, customers have many options for the brands and the item themselves.
2. Large Scale Buyer’s Profile
General Stores caters to customers of all ages as products are available for moms, parents, fathers, kids, and workers of all professions.
3. Flexible
You can sell many items as long as you want and quickly change them if the market’s value is low.
4. Easy to Set Up
It’s easy to set up as you just put up many essential products that are needed and can easily be purchased.
Cons of having General Store
1. Challenging to Manage
Since general competition has a broader range, you need to hire more people to focus on each product. You also have to consider all of the products, which will be difficult considering their quantity. The task here may cause a burden.
2. Product is difficult to market
Since there is a wide range of products, it will be challenging to Market each item, resulting in a loss of focus. Marketing each will become time and money-consuming. Furthermore, tracking where you will get the resources is difficult as different brands will be present.
3. Plenty of competition
General stores are common and can be found anywhere. With this, the competition rate is higher and harder. Also, people may visit the store to browse and compare prices.
Niche Store Vs. General Store: A Battle Between the Two
After reading the information between niche and general stores, you’ll see which ideas to consider. If you choose to build a general store since it’s easy, you may do so, but you have to beware of the competition in that industry and the risk of low sales.
On the other hand, building a niche store may be difficult with all the necessary preparations. You need to spend more time, effort, and money to do your research well. What’s good about this is it’s easier to market the products.
Since the goal of creating a business is to earn your own money by being a boss, the best store for beginners is the niche store. It is more recommended for people who are fresher in business.
Other than all the good things mentioned above, building a niche store can help you make your way in the business industry and open more opportunities to add more products. Once your niche store is established, you can slowly integrate other products if you wish to have a general store that sells a broader range of items.
Basically, you can use this niche store as a stepping stone if you wish to expand and do more business.
Anyway, whether you are going to start a niche dropshipping store or a general dropshipping store, you can always trust Nihao Dropshipping to be your reliable supplier!
