During the pandemic, sales of some products online increased by as much as 600%. This applies, for example, to webcams, hair clippers, water filters, and air purifiers. To succeed during a crisis, you need to monitor trends from just a few days ago and act instantly. Right now, new niches are suddenly emerging. Whoever fills them first will earn well. This is also the perfect time to start manufacturing and selling electronics in Poland. Domestic goods can replace Chinese ones. In every case, you need to check product availability from manufacturers and the pace of sales. You should use online tools every day to research competitors' websites and trends. People who plan to open an e-commerce store only after the recession should analyze data collected after the previous crisis.
Trade in Crisis
Crisis Opportunities in E-commerce
Overall, e-commerce benefited from the coronavirus. However, not all industries shot up rapidly. Interest in laptops and desktop computers increased significantly when consumers discovered they did not have equipment for remote work. However, it must be said clearly that this is only a temporary trend. This market has already essentially been missed. You should also forget about goods whose sales fell sharply. These include, among others, items bought as gifts, watches, handbags, or swimsuits.
As is often the case in the economy, in every crisis some people earn and others lose. It depends on the entrepreneur which group they end up in. If they bring the right product to market very quickly, they have a chance to make money fast. Currently, such a product could be, for example, a webcam from a new brand, a precise non-contact medical thermometer, a dietary supplement for immune support, or good software for remote work or for monitoring employees.
It is no secret that until now many electronic devices came from China. Now importing them from there can be a problem. That is why this is the perfect time to start production and sales in Poland. A webcam alone can generate substantial profits for a domestic company that can produce it very quickly on site.
You need to check demand for a specific group of goods. To earn during a crisis, you need to monitor trends from a few weeks ago, or even a few days ago. On rapid fluctuations, such as during a pandemic, it is possible to earn well, but you have to act instantly. If you spend a week thinking about an investment, you can irrevocably miss an excellent opportunity. New niches are appearing very quickly now. Whoever fills them first will gain the most.
Considering the slight drop in fuel prices and the sharp increase in the number of parcels sent by online stores, domestic courier services for businesses have become slightly cheaper. It is worth taking advantage of this now. Storage prices have not changed significantly so far, because the real estate market is still holding up. However, one should not expect costs to fall in the longer term. It will rather be the opposite due to inflation.
Tricky Markets
Traps of Apparent Opportunities
It is best to enter a market characterized by a steadily growing trend. It should be unsaturated with stores. For example, right now it is worth opening an e-commerce store with organic goods. These markets are gaining now, and quite strongly. Aggressive media coverage of the pandemic created demand for this type of product. However, soon it may be too late for such a business.
The online supermarket market has long been occupied and quite strongly divided. However, during the pandemic it turned out that this type of e-commerce store is unable to serve all customers. They were simply not prepared for the current volume of orders. It may therefore seem that starting such a business is now a good idea, but nothing could be further from the truth.
The crisis surprised not only e-supermarkets, but also manufacturers and wholesalers. Many product ingredients, production machines, and parts for technical devices were imported from China. Due to their shortages, it is now difficult to stock various products. Therefore, it is better not to start such a business. It is also worth knowing that online supermarkets are incredibly expensive projects, highly complicated in technical, logistical, organizational, legal, and sanitary terms, especially at the present time.
According to many studies and reports by well-known auditing firms, the future lies in stores with niche items. However, some of them have a very small customer group. This applies, for example, to the sale of parts for one specific limited car series. In such a market, it is usually not possible to earn much, so you have to be careful not to overdo it with narrowing the offer. Nevertheless, niche products can be promoted at low cost. If an e-commerce store is optimized well, it will remain visible in search engines for a long time. Such a business does not have much competition. It is worth taking this into account.
Eyes All Around Your Head
Quick Tests Before Investing
Crisis as an Opportunity for a Niche – How to Seize It Quickly
Regardless of how quickly an entrepreneur wants to launch sales, they should research the market. Now, when time matters and trends change from day to day, the most important thing is checking product availability from suppliers. Market saturation also matters. You need to know whether there is room for another e-commerce store with this or another offer.
Even when acting in haste, you need to estimate how many transactions per day selected products generate in the best-promoted store in the industry. You should know approximately what the second-level contribution margin is, including the costs of advertising and sales activities. And you need to be able to calculate how many transactions per day must be made for the chosen product in order to achieve profit.
You should know how to use basic online tools for researching competitors' store websites and trends. Nowadays, you need to use them every day to monitor changes in the market. The aforementioned Google Trends works excellently for this, as do SimilarWeb and Ahrefs. Keyword planners can also be mentioned. Auction portals also contain a lot of data.
After choosing the product category and specific manufacturers, it is worth checking the ability to find a customer and the cost of such an operation, the possibility of selling at a profit, and the potential to generate enough traffic on the website. In the current situation, it is best to buy 2-3 units of the product and try to sell them in one day. If that does not work for two days, the business remains in question. In the case of success and high demand, you can raise the price slightly and check whether the product still sells quickly.
Plans for Later
Strategy After the Pandemic
Looking to the future and planning to launch a new store after the pandemic ends, it is worth observing collapsing niches. After the crisis, someone will have to fill them, and it will not necessarily be the same players. Before the pandemic, there were several strong trends. For example, the electric scooter sold very well from March 2018. Now consumers prefer to buy other devices in a similar price range, such as air purifiers. But after the recession, markets will rebound. And what was fashionable earlier may regain popularity.
While preparing for the period that will follow the pandemic, you need to analyze a huge number of variables. If no one is preparing a lasting, global change of the socio-political system, the duration of the crisis will be crucial. If everything starts returning to normal in June or July, this year's trends will be similar to last year's, and those in two years will be close to those before the pandemic. But if the economic downturn lasts longer, it is worth modeling on data recorded after the previous crisis, which took place in 2008.
It is worth checking demand for product groups in 2009-2010 and how quickly interest in them grew. All of this can be checked precisely in paid services that collect and archive data from the beginning of the Internet. Google Trends will also provide the necessary information. You should find out which phrases were most frequently entered into search engines and what exactly buyers were looking for when the previous period of this type ended.
After the current crisis ends, with a ready plan for developing an e-commerce store, it will be necessary to research the market. Historical data will certainly not be enough to get a business going. It will be necessary to check current demand for a specific product category. This will make it possible to determine whether suppliers or manufacturers can be diversified, and whether unique products can be offered.
The author of the publication is Sergiusz Diundyk, an expert in new technologies and process automation in the e-commerce and IT industries.
Summary
The pandemic changed the face of e-commerce, creating new niches – from webcams to air purifiers, whose sales increased by as much as 600%. The key is reacting instantly to trends, but also avoiding missed markets, such as equipment for remote work. The author advises testing products in small batches and monitoring competitors daily with tools such as Google Trends or Ahrefs.
After the crisis, it is worth returning to the analysis of data from 2009–2010, as it may indicate which categories will regain popularity. This is the time for local production that can replace Chinese goods, and for niche stores with growth potential.
