There are 3 main store types most people opt for with dropshipping. General, One-product and niche stores. Niche stores are essential the middle ground between general and one-product stores.
For this reason, niche stores are almost like the best of both worlds, with most of the advantages of other store types and fewer of the disadvantages. For a full comparison of these 3 store types, check out my article
In other words, creating a niche dropshipping store is a great idea option.
What is a Niche Dropshipping Store?
A niche store is a store that sells a selection of related products. The niche may be the same type of product, for example, watches, or the same type of interest, camping. It is often targeting a specific audience who has a strong passion or problem related to the niche.
Niche stores are probably the most common type of dropshipping store on the internet. This is the same as the real world. When you go to a shopping mall, you’ll come across a couple of major general stores that sell everything and the rest will sell products from the same category. I have an article on some of the best general dropshipping store examples.
What are the Best Niches for Dropshipping?
This is an obvious and annoying answer, the best niches are the ones that make you the most money, we all know this. When I did a Google search for what other websites thought were the best niches for dropshipping, most listed a bunch of broad niches that are worth millions.
For example, I saw niches such as fashion, furniture, office equipment, gaming, health products and fitness. Well, thanks for the useful information. We all know these niches are profitable but you’ll be up against the biggest and best dropshipping websites in the world and to succeed you’ll need time, money, thousands of products and a team of employees. It’s not realistic if you’re just starting out. So what really constitutes a good dropshipping niche?
The ideal dropshipping niche should have a hungry audience of people who have a strong motivating factor to purchase the products. The niche should be large enough that you have enough of an audience to make it profitable as well as minimal competition to make it viable.
You are not going to find a profitable niche without competition so don’t be disheartened if you find multiple websites in your niche. The key is to find the right balance of audience interest and competition.
Using keyword tools such as keysearch and Google trends can give you a good idea of the audience size by providing you with monthly searches and current trends.
How Far Down Should you Niche your Store?
Niches can be as broad or as specific as you like. The broader the niche the more products you can sell and the larger the audience you can target. The advantage of narrowing your niche is you gain more authority, credibility and make it easier to rank in Google for relevant search terms.
How much you niche down will depend on how big you want to make your store, the products you plan to sell and who you are selling to.
For example, if you plan on creating a camping store, there are many categories each with multiple subcategories and it would become a store of thousands of products. You may want to niche right down to tents and shelters, portable fridges, or sleeping gear.
The country you plan to dropship to is another thing to consider, you want to make sure your audience is large enough for you to be profitable. If your store is only targeting a smaller country in population such as Australia, you can afford to have a broader niche but if you’re targeting the US market you may want to niche down further.
Examples of Niche Dropshipping Stores
1. Pet PAWtrol
Pet Pawtrol has been around since mid-2019 and focuses on selling various pet products. It has a cute logo but apart from that isn’t really branded. Things to take note of:
- Powered by Shopify and using the booster theme.
- They use LOOX reviews on their product pages which is the best Shopify review app in my opinion.
- They have 74 products in their store.
- They appear to be dropshipping from AliExpress exclusively.
2. Articture
This store is focused on unique furniture and home decor products. If you want to use a niche dropshipping store for inspiration for your own store, this is the one. They have created a dropshipping store that doesn’t feel like a dropshipping store and feels more like a high-end furniture store. Noteworthy features:
- Powered by Shopify and using the Prestige theme.
- Beautiful custom images and videos.
- They charge a premium price for their products because of how well they have branded and themed their store.
- 395 products with an average price of $191
Their product descriptions are only average but their success lies in their professional looking images and videos which do all the selling for them. You won’t get images like this from AliExpress, you either have to take them yourself or use a site such as Animoto.
3. Indestructible Shoes
This niche store focuses on tough rugged shoes and accessories. This is another great store to use as an example of how to run your own niche dropshipping store. They have found a niche within a niche and found a very specific problem people face with their shoes and built an incredibly successful store around it. It’s branded really well and does not feel like a dropshipping store, it feels like a high-end brand of shoes.
- Averaging around a million visits a month.
- 73% of their visitors are from the US.
- They appear to be dropshipping straight from AliExpress.
- Powered by Shopify and using a custom theme.
- They have been around since 2018 and have 122 products.
- Their reviews are made using LOOX app reviews.
They have their own custom images which really showcase their products in a professional way and have a variety of lifestyle images proving the toughness of their shoes.
4. Final.co
This niche store is focused on selling products such as straws, cutlery and wipes as well as some other accessories. Their focus is the final time you’ll need to purchase these products as they are designed for long-term use. They have really pushed the environmentally friendly angle with their products being sustainable and made using recycled materials.
The whole site is branded really well, giving the customer a great shopping experience. The images are unique and flow with the rest of the site and their product names are funny and catchy. Things to take note of:
- They’ve nailed the branding.
- Powered by Shopify and using a custom theme.
- 38 products with an average price of $32.50
- Unique product names making price checking difficult.
- Their final straw is their best selling product.
5. Pawsome Couture
This dropshipping store sells dog and cat related products. This includes beds, collars, jewelry and clothing which may be print on demand. They’ve branded their store in a way that feels very high-end and professional which allows them to charge a premium price for many of their products. This can be tough to do with a pet store but they’ve pulled it off which is why they’ve been around since 2015.
Check out a few noteworthy things about their store:
- Powered by Shopify and using a custom theme.
- Currently receiving 137k monthly searches.
- Stock 270 products at an average price of $43.
- They have their logo on many of their products.
6. Insta Buddha
Great niche with a passionate audience and not overly saturated. This store sells a broad range of products in the spirituality, health and well-being niche. They sell crystals, incense, home decor, blankets, jewelry, clothing, accessories and more.
Their entire store has a great feel and a cohesive theme that matches the niche. They use professional looking images and videos as well as persuasive product descriptions to do the selling for them. This store is doing a lot right and I think they’ll continue to be successful for some time. Noteworthy things:
- Using Shopify with the booster theme.
- Most of their products are being dropshipped from AliExpress.
- They use LOOX app for their reviews.
- Been around since 2016.
- 608 products with an average price of $63.
7. Cutesy Class
The cutesy class is a very specific niche store focusing on clothing related to schooling and teaching. It appears to be a print on demand dropshipping store. It’s a very small and simple store but appears to be working for them as they have been around since 2017.
This store is a great example for a complete beginner. They have found a specific niche with a large enough audience and built a store around it that most newbies could do reasonably easily.
- They are powered by Shopify and use the simple theme.
- They are using Printful to create and ship their products.
- 63 products with an average price of $27.
8. Store for the Dogs
First of all, ugly store name and ugly website, but who cares if you’re making money. They have been around since 2017 so they’re obviously making money. They stock a wide range of dog related products and don’t appear to be exclusively dropshipping from AliExpress. They have courses and dog training services too.
They seem to use printful for some of their products and selling some dog treats which I assume are sourced domestically. This is a good example that you don’t have to exclusively dropship from a single source.
- Powered by Shopify and using the district theme.
- 621 products with an average product price of $35.
- Best sellers are dog treats which they don’t dropship from AliExpress.
9. Unicorn Lovers
I love hearing about unique niches such as this as it seems like someone who is thinking outside the box. Although unicorns have remained reasonably popular for several years now, they also go through trends which means a store like this can expect fluctuations in profits.
This store appears to exclusive dropship from China with a wide range of unicorn related products. Their store is themed to match the unicorn niche with its color scheme.
- Powered by Shopify and using the booster theme.
- 426 products with an average price of $26
- This store has been around since 2017
- Their best selling product is their flash drives.
10. The Plushie Depot
Most dropshipping stores either sell products that solve a problem or have a very passionate audience of buyers, this store does neither and is still killing it.
They’ve found their niche and gone all in to try and dominate this space. They are selling over 2,000 different plush toys of all kinds. A great product to sell in many ways as it’s simple, no breakage, no usage queries and little returns. It all makes for fewer potential issues which can arise.
- Powered by Shopify and using a free theme called dawn.
- Appear to be dropshipping directly from China
- Some apps they are using include Geolocation and Automizely
11. Warmly
Now, this is the type of store you want to learn from. The goal is to create a store that doesn’t feel like a typical dropshipping store, and they’ve done that, it feels more like a luxury store. Their niche is home decor and furniture products and they’ve nailed the branding and the theme throughout.
One interesting thing about this store is they are not doing Facebook advertising and all their social traffic is coming from Pinterest. This is a great option as their product images are amazing and this type of niche generally shows more interest by women and they are much larger users of Pinterest.
- Powered by Shopify and using a custom theme.
- Currently receiving 103k monthly visits.
- Only 34% of their traffic is coming from the US and the rest is spread out worldwide.
- They’ve been around since 2018.
- They have 414 products with an average price of $422.
12. Universal Light
This store launched in September 2020 and its niche is unique children’s lamps and night projectors. The store only has 18 products but they’ve branded it great and are a great example for beginners who want to create a niche store without having hundreds of products.
Products such as these lamps are generally great items to dropship. Most households own a lamp but selling a unique version that most shops don’t sell means they really stand out with Facebook ads and convert well.
- Using Shopify and a custom theme.
- 18 products with an average price of $72
- Using Ryviu reviews, Klaviyo, Shogun landing page and Reconvert Upsells.
- Great custom images and videos.
13. Notebook Therapy
Notebook Therapy has been around since 2017 and is having a lot of success. Their niche is quirky stationery products with notebooks, tote bags, journals, pens and pencil cases.
Their products don’t look like the typical trending and impulse buy products which helps make separate it from other dropshipping stores. This store has been branded really well and has its logo on many of its products.
- Currently as 345k monthly visits.
- 77% of their social traffic is from Facebook.
- Using Shopify with a custom theme.
- 264 products with an average price of $16
- Using LOOX Klaviyo and Shogun landing page apps.
14. Fast and Favorite
Fast and Favorite is a dropshipping store selling phone cases and other phone related accessories. Phone accessories are a profitable yet competitive niche. They’ve been around since 2017 so they are clearly doing something right.
Their website is branded well with a simple, sleek and professional look. The margins are generally high with phone cases as many are around $2 shipped and online stores are charging $20 to $30 each.
- Using Shopify with Brooklyn a free theme.
- Using Klaviyo, LOOX Reviews and Automatic Discounts and Gifts apps.
- Stocking 647 Products
- They have Facebook, Pinterest and Youtube accounts for free traffic
15. Delta Hiking
Delta Hiking is a reasonably new dropshipping store been around since December 2020. The store is focused on hiking gear and accessories.
Personally, I don’t really understand what this website is trying to do. They have an amazing looking website, a paid theme and a professional logo, yet they’ve only got a few regular products using the AliExpress images. Hopefully by the time your reading this they’ve added some more products with custom products.
- Powered by Shopify and using Prestige theme.
- Currently only stock 8 products.
- Some apps they’re using: Sticky add to cart, Reconvert Upsells and LOOX reviews.
- Great website just requiring more unique products and custom content.
16. The Mens Toolkit
The men’s toolkit is a dropshipping store whose niche is men’s health and fitness related products. The black-themed store is deliberately aimed at the male audience.
Many of the products are problem solving items which is generally a high converting and safe option for dropshipping. When dealing with problem solving products it’s important to prove to the consumer that the product does what you say it does. They’ve only used the images and videos that came from AliExpress and I was confused about what some of the products actually do.
- Powered by Shopify and using the Streamline theme.
- Product Reviews, Prive Pop-ups and Parcel Panel apps.
- 117 products with an average price of $176
- They have Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages.
Summary
As you can tell, niche dropshipping stores can vary so much. How they’re themed, their layout, their branding and how many products each stock. This means for anyone looking to start a dropshipping store, there’s no exact blueprint as to what will work. As long as your audience resonates with your store, you can be creative and create how you want.
If you want to see the most profitable Shopify stores in the world, check my article to see what is possible.
It is however important to look at a variety of niche stores so you can see what works and what doesn’t. There’s nothing wrong with stealing ideas and aspects of other stores and piecing them together to create your unique store.
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