When it comes to dropshipping one of the most difficult decisions for a dropshipping beginner to make is what type of store they should make: one-product store, a general store, or a niche store. The truth is that all of these stores work and what works for one person may not work for the other person. There are people making thousands of dollars every day from each type of store.
In today's article, we will discuss the pros and cons of all the 3 types of stores so that we can help you make a decision about what type of dropshipping store you want to start.
One Product Store
A one-product store is a store that offers just one single product to its customers and the whole store is built around that product.
Pros of one product store:
- Since there is only one product, it is very cost and time-effective to order the product from the supplier to check if the supplier is trustworthy and reliable, You can also see if the product quality is up to mark by doing so.
- Since there is only one product, you need to spend less time on product photography, descriptions, etc. You can spend this valuable time focusing on marketing and other result-driven tasks.
- The other benefit is that you can use a domain that is related to your product. This gives you much more authority as compared to general stores. This helps your visitors to trust you more which then leads to higher conversion rates. For example, if your product is a camera lens-shaped coffee mug, then you can use the domain lensmug.com for your store.
- It is very easy to find the target audience for a single product store as you can clearly define who might be interested in your product.
Cons of one product store:
- There is a huge risk in building a store around a single product. Sometimes, the product you select might not be appealing enough for the customers of the product might already be saturated in the market. With the whole store built around that single product, everything will go to waste if it doesn't get good sales.
- Product sourcing is another big problem in one product store. If the product starts getting good sales and your supplier goes out of stock for that product, it is very challenging at times to find another reliable and affordable supplier for the exact same product. Sometimes, you might need to shut down or pause your store temporarily because of this even though it is making good profits.
- Compared to other types of stores, there is very less probability of return customers in single-product stores. This means your profitability decreases and you need to have very good customer acquisition costs since you cannot earn the money from the same customer by selling them products in the future.
General Store
A general store is a store that offers multiple products from multiple niches to its customers. Think of a general store as your area's local supermarket. A general store offers a wide range of products.
Pros of general store:
- General stores are more beginner-friendly. Unlike a one-product store, you don't put all your eggs in one basket. It is much less risky as you can add hundreds of products from different niches into your store. It is a lot easier to run in the long term as you can always add new products if your old products get saturated.
- Since you offer products from multiple niches, your target audience is huge. You can target almost anyone.
- You can test multiple products at the same time. This means you have a higher chance of finding a winning product.
Cons of general store:
- It is difficult to market a general store as compared to a niche store or a one product store.
- Starting a general store makes you a jack of trades, master of none. When a customer visits your store, they notice that you offer almost all types of products and don't really specialize in any.
- Your visitors might even get confused by seeing all the available products in your store. This will lead to a declined conversion rate for your store.
- When you open a general store, you get into competition with large e-commerce giants like Amazon and eBay.
- It becomes very hard to search engine optimize your store since you don't have any specific keywords to focus on.
Niche Store
A niche store is a store which only offers products related to a specific niche to its customers. For example, a store that sells products related to outdoor camping.
Pros of niche store:
- You can target an audience that is really passionate about your niche. This means they will automatically be attracted to your products, interact with your store, and even make purchases.
- You can select a niche in which you are passionate about yourself.
- Your store will also be able to use the power of word of mouth since your target audience is like-minded people who love to interact with the community. This will also help to build a loyal customer base.
- Getting repeat customers is much easier for niche stores.
Cons of niche store:
- You might need to test multiple niches before finding the right niche that suits you.
- You will need to start a new store for every niche you want to test. This can be a very time and cost consuming process.
Conclusion
Well, the battle between the different types of dropshipping stores is never-ending. But just as we said at the beginning of this article, there is no thumb rule as to what type of a store works and what doesn't. There are people making huge amounts of money from each type of store and what works for someone might not work for someone else.
Keeping this in mind, it is best to try for yourself and see which type of store suits you best. We hope we were able to help you give an overview of each type of store through this article.
Please visit our dropshipping blog to find more such articles about dropshipping.