In the next five years, there will be over 325 million e-commerce customers in the United States. The current U.S. population is around 335 million, so we’re talking over 95% of the country shopping online. There’s just one problem: the 24 million other e-commerce businesses out there. To claim your piece of the pie, you need to learn how to find Shopify stores in your niche.
How Do You Find Other Shopify Stores in Your Niche?
E-commerce has changed who your competitors are. Businesses halfway around the globe may be marketing to the same audience you are. It’s time to level the playing field.
Step One: Know Your Niche
To find your closest competitors, first, you need a good idea of what makes your business unique. The tighter your focus, the more precise your niche and the less overall competition you have.
Women’s clothing? Everyone and their brother would be your competition. But women’s jeans with unique prints or hand-embroidered designs? You still have competition, but much, much less.
Step 2: Go to Google
A fast and easy way to see your competition is to use Google search with a few keyword modifiers. Here’s what to do:
- Type in a keyword that uniquely describes your business or products (e.g., hand-embroidered women’s jeans).
- Add the limiter “site:shopify.com” or the phrase “powered by Shopify” to the end of your keyword.
- To filter certain words from your search results, use a hyphen (e.g. -Etsy).
This method can quickly show you other stores that are selling similar products. Of course, they may not all be Shopify stores.
Step 3: Check Social Media
Many Shopify business owners are active on social media, making Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook great places to run a competitor search. Search for keywords like before, but add a hashtag, like #embroideredjeans or #uniquejeans.
Step 4: Bring in the Big Guns
If you need more precision, it’s time to get technical. Tools like BuiltWith show you a complete list of Shopify stores, and you can search by keyword. Note that BuiltWith may have a cost associated with it, so be prepared for potential expenses. There’s also a free Chrome browser extension for checking out the details of any website you visit.
Why Look for Other Shopify Stores in Your Niche?
Knowledge is power, and the more you know about the competition, the better your position. Learning how to find other Shopify stores in your niche can help your business in several ways:
- Learning: Browse other Shopify businesses in your niche to see how they’re solving problems with wholesale pricing or dropshipping.
- Startup research: Before you invest capital based on a cool business idea, see how much competition you really have.
- Competitor analysis: Run competing Shopify businesses through an SEO tool like Moz to get an idea of what keywords or content give them the best success.
- Inspiration: Discover the potential of different Shopify themes for real websites.
- Pricing: See if your pricing is average, too low, or too high for your target customers.
Tools like BuiltWith can even show you which specific Shopify apps your competitors are using. Great apps make customizing your site so much easier.
Learn From Other Shopify Stores and Embrace Your Niche
Understanding how to find Shopify stores in your niche isn’t about copying but about improving your business. Discover some of the most popular Shopify apps for different niches right away.