Chapter 4: Latest Ecommerce Business Ideas

Thinking about launching an eCommerce business, but don’t know where to start?

Well, an ecommerce business idea would be helpful.

So, while some of us are lucky enough to have online store ideas find us, others of us –– well, we have to search.

Top Ecommerce Business Ideas

According to some of the industry’s most trusted and successful entrepreneurs, marketers and researchers, following product categories represent business opportunities with huge growth potential.

Dive on in and learn more about their favorite eCommerce business ideas to adopt this year.

1. Niche fashion communities build fast and sell well.
2. Online digital health services are on the rise.
3. Sell Industrial b2b products for high margins with little competition.
4. Identify super niche products (think gluten-free).
5. Planners have a massive following.
6. Target tech savvy retirees (who shop online).
7. Appeal to people’s ideologies.
8. The education industry is getting big investor bucks.
9. Do things Amazon can’t.
10. Sell something cool.

1.) Niche fashion communities build fast and sell well.

Niche fashion sites are a huge ecommerce opportunity.

Niche fashion communities serve those audiences with hard-to-find or hard-to-fit needs.

Those communities can also serve upcoming mindsets and trends –– like minimalism or the Great Return of Bell Bottoms (emphasis my own).

Clothing, clothing, clothing.

There is an endless demand for clothing products of all types!

Nearly 40% of the affiliates and influencers in our ecommerce affiliate network have this checked off as a category of interest for them.

Find a niche apparel product and sell it.

There are plenty of influencers out there who would love to help you promote it, and plenty of folks who are waiting to buy it.

2.) Digital health services are on the rise.

Digital health services here means a couple things:

1. The ecommerce capabilities for patients and others affected to buy items previously only sold in office
2. Products that help people prevent health issues, including more education around health in general

Digital services like online personal trainer sessions and digital classes are on the rise and are worth noting!

Digital health has been emerging for a long time and most products are not being sold online due to the regulations.

There are a lot of eCommerce business opportunities for health-care companies to evolve in the online space and increase their revenues.

An idea can be building a product that helps digital health products become more readily available for those in need.

It may be a smaller niche than Amazon that just focuses on health care products but it would make it easier for providers and patients to get things at their convenience.

3.) Go Industrial for high margins with little competition.

Launching in B2B or the industrial eCommerce industries is hard.

It has a high barrier to entry –– but then again, the margins you make from it are also much higher.

And, you typically spend less on marketing to boot!

Best yet –– few other B2B brands have figured out how to sell something online well and at scale.

That means that if you have any eCommerce chops at all, this market is ripe for you.

As B2B buyers become younger and younger, more opportunities are opening up for B2B brands to sell their products online and turn eCommerce into a viable online business for their brand.

In many cases, B2B brands think of themselves as regional businesses, but with technology today, there’s opportunities to reach new marketers with a simple website, shipping processes and understanding of how their customers are using Google to find solutions like theirs.

4.) Think micro-niche such as gluten free or nurses who CrossFit.

Trying to come up with unique eCommerce business ideas for your store?

The more niche you can get –– the better.

Why?

Because with Facebook’s targeting power, you can spend less to perfectly serve a unique audience no one else is touching.

For instance, WholeMe sells healthy, gluten-free snacks –– which as our expert below and yours truly can attest to –– do not exist enough in the wild!

They are serving a very badly needed market, and one ripe to buy!

5.) Planners have a massive following.

This advice comes from Suzy Moore, the founder and former owner of So Suzy Stamps –– an online stamping community she grew to valuation within 3 short years.

If she says something has community power, you better believe it does.

Planner supplies.

They have an almost cult-like following that is INSANE!

Instagram followers are in the 100K range.

There are planners, bullet journals, accessories, stickers, traveler’s notebooks, pens, stickers, washi tape, bookmarks and so much more.

Most of the suppliers reside on Etsy and it’s rare to find one single location that offers EVERYTHING.

This is such a creative endeavor that it would be fabulous to have a company or site that could utilize these budding entrepreneurs and carry their items.

Think outside of the box and get creative with your ideas!

6). Retirees have become tech-savvy (and shop online).

More people than ever are reaching retiree age, and continuing to live long, healthy and happy lives past their retirement date.

And with that trend comes a boom in older generation technology and products.

There’s a massive underserved niche in the older generation.

Many of the people who retire now have grown accustomed to using computers at work.

This means we have an older generation who knows how to use computers and feel comfortable shopping online.

5-6 years ago this consumer group would not be targeted online, but rather through traditional marketing channels such as TV and radio.

Now and in the next 5-10 years this group will grow and increasingly shop online.

For instance, yarn, which often appeals to the older consumer segment, can now target potential customers online as well.

7.) Appeal to people’s ideologies.

No, this doesn’t mean go crazy and appeal to people’s crazier sides.

Instead, it means to use the communities people are already forming around you to sell them things that help them identify.

There’s huge opportunity to develop products espousing a particular soapbox stance in a very aggressive (and hopefully humorous) manner.

Lots of eCommerce sites cater to offensive humor, but very few play to particular ideologies or soapbox topics exclusively.

8.) The education industry is getting big investor bucks.

It’s true –– online education is booming as brands old and new alike turn to eCommerce as the next channel of growth.

The education niche seems fairly underserved by eCommerce.

One great example is the company Wonderbly which recently secured an $8.5 million round from investors.

Ecommerce entrepreneurs with a background in education publishing, and personalized content creation will have a significant advantage here.

9.) Do what Amazon can’t.

We’ve talked about this a bit so far in this article, but needing customizations or specifications on products isn’t a bad thing.

In fact, it is those things that a mass site like Amazon can’t do well.

And where smaller, more knowledgeable brands like yours can really blossom.

An underserved market is custom-built items, mostly because there is an expense involved in adding a product to the site and then taking it down.

With custom-built items, you can have a higher margin to allow for more work.

It could be a car, furniture, jewelry or something that gives people one-of-a-kind goods.

Start an eCommerce business with unique items and figure out a way to work with designers or other providers to create an online business outlet that is really known for high-quality one-of-a-kind pieces.

Plus, you have to have an easy process for people to submit their ideas for their items and get them made.

10.) Cool product Ducers (here’s why).

And in the end –– no Ducer what you sell –– selling it better than your competition is going to depend on how you build a community and relate to your audience.

You need them to think you are cool.

That you know what you are talking about.

That your products should be trusted over all others.

The key nowadays is to stop focusing so much on demographics and niches and instead focus on psychographics within a niche.

For example, someone buying a high-end leather bag might fall into a couple of categories:

1. I buy high-end leather bags to feel elite.
2. I buy high-end leather bags because I want quality that will last.

The more you hone in on just 1 or 2 of these, the more you’ll connect with that group of people, and you’ll become the “go to” for that psychographic.

With our coding agency, Reliable PSD, that’s essentially what we did.

We came into an insanely over-saturated market, but we were the only ones to speak to a specific psychographic within that market, making us the instant obvious choice to people within it.

It doesn’t Ducer how crowded anything is.

If you come in and you’re cooler than the other kids on the playground, people will want to hang with you.

Final Thoughts:

Identifying an online store idea with growth potential is an important part of starting a successful eCommerce business.

What you sell Ducers.

How you land on what you sell does too.

Whether you come by your eCommerce idea through passion or by luck, be sure you focus on product quality and customer service above all else.