EP 14. Niche Store or General Store, Which Is Better? | Etsy Tips for Beginners

WYW 6: In this episode I'm answering the Etsy question "Which is Better, A Niche Store or a General Store?" I break down how I define each type of store, including the two very different ways you can approach a niche store, and the real pros and cons of each. But the real take away is that the answer to which is better matters a lot less than the one move every new seller should make regardless of which direction they choose.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hey there, welcome to the Modern Etsy Seller Podcast. I'm Melissa and I help busy women earn money with Etsy. Thanks for joining me today for today's episode of What You're Wondering, the segment where I answer one specific Etsy question in under five minutes. Let's get to today's question. Which is better, a niche store or a general store? Okay, so I want to start with how I define each of these because it could be slightly different from how others think of it. For me, a general store has multiple products for multiple audiences. You're selling mugs and blankets and phone cases and cutting boards, and your customers are a wide range of people: dog moms and runners and book lovers, no single focus, just a wide net. Now, when I think of a niche store, and that's how I say it by the way, some people say niche, some people say niche. I used to only say niche because niche felt weird to me, but then somewhere along the way I made the switch. So now I'm a niche girl, but we accept all here on the modern Etsy seller. No judgment, regardless of how you say it. Anyway, what I was saying is that when I think of a niche store, I think about it in two different ways. First, you can niche your audience. So for example, you could have a shop that sells products geared towards vegans, or a shop that only sells products geared towards doctors. You would sell different products, so like mugs and tote bags and wall art, all designed for the vegans or the doctors. One audience, multiple products. The second is to niche your product itself. You sell just one thing. So just cutting boards or just blankets or just candles, but you design for all kinds of different people and occasions. So here you have one product and multiple audiences. Two very different interpretations of a niche store, but they all have their pros and cons. So a general store is going to give you flexibility. You can test ideas across different products and audiences. The downside of a general store is that it's a lot to manage, unless you start with just one product. And I want to put that in capital letters and underline it five times. Starting your future general store with just one product is going to offset this downside. A general store is a lot to manage because different products often equal different workflows and different mock-ups and listing photos, different customer questions, and sometimes different suppliers. So when you spread yourself across multiple products in those early days while you're still figuring things out, it slows everything down. Starting with just one product alleviates this issue. Another potential downside to a general store is that when you have multiple products, Etsy's algorithm has a hard time understanding what your shop sells and therefore who to show your listings to. Now, for that downside, you can offset it by building your shop around giftable products. That's a thread that Etsy can follow even across different product types. People search for gifts constantly on Etsy, and that intent is something the algorithm can work with. So if you go the general store route, leaning hard into the gift angle is a smart move. So both types of niche stores, having a niche audience or having a niche product, share some real strengths. Your focus is clear, your messaging is consistent. You know exactly what you're building. And if you ever want to take your business beyond Etsy, like into your own website or your own brand or even just a different platform, a niche store gives you a much cleaner path than a general store does to do that. The niche audience store has the added benefit of building a really loyal following over time. When someone finds a shop that feels like it was made for them, they come back. But a niche audience store can start to feel limiting. And if you want to expand beyond that audience, it's going to be harder to do. The niche product store allows you to get really good at one thing. Your workflow becomes muscle memory, and getting new products created and listings live in your shop can happen fast, allowing you to build your inventory quicker than with a general or niche audience store. The trade-off here is that you're more dependent on that product staying strong. If your print provider makes a change, or the price goes up and your margins get too tight, or that category gets more competitive, you will feel it across your whole shop. Okay, so what do I actually recommend? Well, I guide new sellers who have no idea what type of store they want to start toward a niche product store. So one product type, then eventually grow into a general store. Ideally, a gift-filled general store by adding new products over time. Start with just one product is the real recommendation here. And it is one of my mantras. This is not the first time I've said it on this podcast, and it won't be the last because starting with just one product has so many benefits for people just starting out on Etsy. But notice I said for sellers who have no idea what type of store they want. If you're a nurse and you know you want a store geared towards nurses, that is fine. You can absolutely have success. But you are still going to start with just one product. But where I would encourage the future general store owner to create 100 plus listings of that one product before adding a second product, I would tell the niche nurse store owner to create 25 to 30-ish nurse themed designs on that first product before they add their second. So starting with one product either way, just not spending as long with that product when you want to build a store for a niche audience. So which is better? It's going to depend on your vision and you don't have to decide that to start your shop. Regardless, the starting move is the same. One product, learn it, then grow. That's the move. Now, if you have a question you'd like me to answer on a future episode of What You're Wondering, I would love to hear it. Head to melissacarroll.co forward slash question or click the link in the show notes to submit it. I'll see you next time.